Whats the best place to have calcium and KH drip into the sump?

[bestfishes]

Ive been having some issues with finding a high flow location to place the dos tubing that adds calcium and carbonates based on the Trident water testing. I placed it in the rear of my sump, but given time a hard block of calcium builds up requiring a complete removal and clean out of the sump. I then tried to put it with the skimmer and ATO optical sensor and it clouded them up so badly the ATO stopped working and the skimmer pump clogged in two weeks. I decided to route dripping over the filter sock as my guess is it will trap some of the calcium and prevent it coating the parts of equipment elsewhere in the sump. I leave a rock in my sock to weight it down, and the calcium naturally wants to cling to it. Not sure if someone has worked this out or its just an occupational hazard not possible to avoid.

Whats the best place to place the drip tubes to avoid this mess? Is the sock a good place? In the display? Underwater/above water, does it make a difference? Would like your POV.

 

[blaxsun]

I have mine in the return pump chamber, but it sounds like the filter sock is maybe the best spot for you.

 

[Garf]

Ive been having some issues with finding a high flow location to place the dos tubing that adds calcium and carbonates based on the Trident water testing. I placed it in the rear of my sump, but given time a hard block of calcium builds up requiring a complete removal and clean out of the sump. I then tried to put it with the skimmer and ATO optical sensor and it clouded them up so badly the ATO stopped working and the skimmer pump clogged in two weeks. I decided to route dripping over the filter sock as my guess is it will trap some of the calcium and prevent it coating the parts of equipment elsewhere in the sump. I leave a rock in my sock to weight it down, and the calcium naturally wants to cling to it. Not sure if someone has worked this out or its just an occupational hazard not possible to avoid.

Whats the best place to place the drip tubes to avoid this mess? Is the sock a good place? In the display? Underwater/above water, does it make a difference? Would like your POV.

Are you dosing both at the same time, or staggering? I wouldn’t put dosing tubes underwater. The Display may be a good spot for you as I expect you have some good flow up there.You could always add a little pump facing up, directly under the drip lines in the sump however.

 

[Gtinnel]

I have mine where the drains enter my sump. I had issues with not having enough flow for my dosing, so I just added a small, cheap powerhead to my sump.

 

[bestfishes]

The DOS pump may or may not dose both chemicals at the same time, im not sure. At most its a ML at a time. Usually a few drops. I had mine in the drain area and that was the worst as access to that space is limited to a small cut out and I destroyed my hand trying to use a screwdriver to break up the brick size mass that built up in a year. Its crazy to think an extra pump is needed but I may be headed that way. The flow in the return and drain area is about as high as it gets next to just in front of my powerheads.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Dosing both at the same time near each other is an issue, and overall its the alk part that is the main driver of local precipitation.

If you cannot move it to a higher flow area, switching to a lower pH mix will reduce the problem.

 

[bestfishes]

Thanks Randy. Ill try to seperate the two and see what happens

 

[bestfishes]

So I seperated the two and I found it was the KH that is clumping into chunks. With the CA in one chamber of the sump, and the KH in the sock, the sock crusts up with chunks of KH in just a few days. Im using Red Sea. What do others recommend as far as a lower PH mix for KH? I prefer pre mixed in large gallon containers.

 

[joe-ejs]

So I seperated the two and I found it was the KH that is clumping into chunks. With the CA in one chamber of the sump, and the KH in the sock, the sock crusts up with chunks of KH in just a few days. Im using Red Sea. What do others recommend as far as a lower PH mix for KH? I prefer pre mixed in large gallon containers.

I dose both into the return chamber of my sump. One thing to consider to avoid calcium deposits on your pump or other things is to split the dose up to multiple times throughout the day. Less dose at one time = minimal problems with equipment, etc.

 

[fishyjoes]

I only dose kalk, and I have it go into my display near a wave maker.
Maybe you could add a small pump into whatever section of your sump to make that area high flow to avoid clumping?

 

[bestfishes]

Im limited to how the dosing happens as I am using a DOS and trident combo. It seems to dose both chems at the same time. To mitigate this, I've seperated the drip lines to two different areas of the sump and added a power head to the ALK side and that seems to be much better with no clumps building up. It still clogs my pumps every couple weeks requiring a vinegar soak to clear. But now with the dosage climbing to 325ml of KH per day and 100 of CA, Im really struggling to understand whats going on. Are my hard corals really consuming this much and does it ever level off? Using one part mixes is now getting very expensive. Has anyone used one of the two part mixes like:
ESV B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System, 2-part Calcium and Alkalinity Maintenance Kit for Salt Water Coral Reef Aquarium, 2-Gallon
or

Two Little Fishies ATLCB4B C-Balance, 1 Gallon

instead of the one part solutions? Is this easier to keeping the levels balanced? The cost is way less so considering this as something to try.

 

[Jamie814]

But now with the dosage climbing to 325ml of KH per day and 100 of CA, Im really struggling to understand whats going on.

Sounds like you are having extreme precipitation. Once it starts it can be hard to stop as the precip crystals attract to each other and just make it worse. If it is killing your pumps this is the issue. Best thing is to stop ALL dosing and let parameters settle. The more you dose the more issues you are causing. Just do water changes to get things to settle down. @Randy Holmes-Farley can confirm this.

Another question, where is your trident pulling it's sample from? Near your dos lines in the sump? This can skew the test results as well if it happens to pull a sample at or around the same time it doses alk or ca.

 

[dangles]

I use kalk but I bought a cheap $30 “sacrificial” pump off Amazon to put right below where it’s dosed into the sump to keep the water turbulent.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Im limited to how the dosing happens as I am using a DOS and trident combo. It seems to dose both chems at the same time. To mitigate this, I've seperated the drip lines to two different areas of the sump and added a power head to the ALK side and that seems to be much better with no clumps building up. It still clogs my pumps every couple weeks requiring a vinegar soak to clear. But now with the dosage climbing to 325ml of KH per day and 100 of CA, Im really struggling to understand whats going on. Are my hard corals really consuming this much and does it ever level off? Using one part mixes is now getting very expensive. Has anyone used one of the two part mixes like:
ESV B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System, 2-part Calcium and Alkalinity Maintenance Kit for Salt Water Coral Reef Aquarium, 2-Gallon
or

Two Little Fishies ATLCB4B C-Balance, 1 Gallon

instead of the one part solutions? Is this easier to keeping the levels balanced? The cost is way less so considering this as something to try.

The ESV product is a fine choice, and I expect C-Balance is as well, but do not know as much about it.

 

[bestfishes]

Best thing is to stop ALL dosing and let parameters settle. The more you dose the more issues you are causing. Just do water changes to get things to settle down. @Randy Holmes-Farley can confirm this.

Best thing is to stop ALL dosing and let parameters settle. The more you dose the more issues you are causing. Just do water changes to get things to settle down. @Randy Holmes-Farley can confirm this.

Can you elaborate more on what you mean? Stop dosing and let it drop until when? I am not comfortable risking the work I have put in to let things bottom out.

 

[Jamie814]

Best thing is to stop ALL dosing and let parameters settle. The more you dose the more issues you are causing. Just do water changes to get things to settle down. @Randy Holmes-Farley can confirm this.

Can you elaborate more on what you mean? Stop dosing and let it drop until when? I am not comfortable risking the work I have put in to let things bottom out.

There are many threads on here about this here a couple,

Alkalinity Precipitation?

Hello. I have researched some info on the topic but hoping to be pointed in the right direction. What are possible causes or things I can check / verify to find why my Alk started precipitating out? I recently had a Alk drop and I cant recover no matter how much I dose. I have about 100 gallons...

www.reef2reef.com

2 part precipitation problem solved.

So I have been having a problem with dosing 2 part and having it precipitate. No matter how much I dosed I could not keep my alk and cal stable, day by day it depleted no matter how much I dosed. I even tried switching from soda ash to sodium bicarbonate. My sand bed was even turning into a...

www.reef2reef.com

Quotes from Randy Holmes-Farley,

"I usually recommend waiting a few days (3?) before restarting dosing.. "

"The ways to reduce precipitation are to stop dosing for a while to let the fresh CaCO3 surfaces get clogged with other ions.

Then when you restart after a few days, keep alk at 7 dKH, keep pH low (dose bicarbonate for alk, stop any CO2 scrubbing), keep magnesium, organics and phosphate high, keep calcium normal to low."

If your sump is not too hard to clean remove all equipment clean everything with vinegar to remove any precip and set back up.

 

[bestfishes]

Thanks. Ill start an automatic 31 g water change today and leave my chem dosing off until sunday AM and see what happens. My levels are high enought at the moment that I should be able to keep them within a safe range with this approach.

 

[Jamie814]

If your pH reading is correct it is running on the high side which will cause precipitation to happen more easily. When you start dosing back up be sure to use a low ph alk solution like bicarbonate .

 

[bestfishes]

I have a pretty high flow rate, high o2, run 5 radions on my 125g tank at 60% power, I think that is why my PH remains high.

 

[Jamie814]

high o2, run 5 radions on my 125g tank

Ph is dependent on the Co2 in the air around the tank. o2 has no affect on pH. Photosynthesis within the aquarium during the lighting period causes uptake of Co2 which drives Ph up.