kalk question

I was wondering what the benefits of running the Two Little Fishies KW Reactor 300 against mixing kalk straight into the ATO container?

From what I can see and understand you add the kalk to the reactor, then push the water from the ATO through the reactor then into the sump. I can see one benefit would be it keeps the ATO container clean.

I currently have the JBJ ATO controlled by an Apex controller, and the pump I use is an Aqua Lifter, can I just add the reactor to the chain, or would the Aqua Lifter not be strong enough to do the job?

 

No, reactors are not useful for kalk and detrimental in some ways really. They do not deliver a consistent amount of kalk. The TLF IMO is the worst designed reactor out there, as it forces water through the kalk mixing it up as it's dosed. This is exactly what you don't want to do, as it is pretty certain to bring in particulates, into the tank. These turn into calcium carbonate, and can act as seed crystals for precipitation. This is the cause of most kalk disasters IME. Also, the slurry can bring in impurities. You never want to dose undissolved kalk.

Premixed will last a long time. I mix up 20g at a time. I have a brute trashcan, covered with a hole for an airline tube, hooked up to a Aqualift pump pluged into a Reef Fanatic ATO. I have measuring cup, marked with a line for the correct amount. I dump it in, mix for a few seconds (you don't want to mix kalk for too long). It takes all of 30 seconds, can't make it any simpler with a reactor... (also, note: with a reactor you can't mix in less if you don't need the full amount).

The aqualift has an RO/DI type ball valve to control the flow rate that I adjust to a drip rate. You want the hose above the tank and you want to let kalk drip slowly to react with the CO2 in the air before reaching the tank. Also, the drip rate is important as kalk and ATOs in general, can crash your tank when the switch fails. So, you want to adjust the drip rate, with the ball valve to be slow as it will then take much longer to crash your tank when something fails. For this reason though, you don't want to use a JBJ ATO. It shuts off after a few minutes. You want to drip kalk almost continuously. Also, the JBJ is designed to save the pump, you can't use the second switch as an emergency, high level shutoff. The aqualift can't burn out so no need to save it....

 

m2434, thanks for taking the time for such a detailed answer. OK, so forget the TLF idea. I am looking to get the Genesis RENEW water change system, and I was thinking of also getting the STORM ATO to work along side it.

So based on that, another question, how does an ATO work with drip feeding? I mean say I lose 1 gallon a day to evaporation, would a drip feed compensate for that amount? If not how do you counter the loss to evaporation?

 

I'm not familiar with the genesis or storm. As to drips, there are approx 20 drops per ml and 3785ml per gallon. I drip about 2-3 drops per second, sort of a fast drip, I do so, just in case it starts to clog a bit and slow down (BTW with the ball valve, if it does clog, jut open and close the ball valve a few times, it breaks the crud free pretty easily), but even if we slow down to 1 drop per second, that gives:

60 seconds per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 24 hours per day = 86400 drops / 3785 ml per gallon = 22.82 / 20 drops per ml =1.14 gallons per day. 2 drops per second, double that, 3 triple etc... just adjust the rate to a bit more than what you need.

 

i dose kalk from my ATO water. i have a jbj ato , i use a very small slow pump. i have set my apex to shut the power off to the ato if my ph raises to 8.45 . the apex acts as the fail safe for the ato.
i have never had a problem dosing kalk this way, have been doing it for months now.no clouding of water. i was dosing kalk this way before the apex, that made me a bit nervous, since like m2434 says the thought of a sensor sticking was always in my head. i feel with the apex its much much safer. but when this ato goes bad i will look into the ato units that can sense high and low water. which will give another fail safe to the system. can have enough back ups.

 

Whether or not dosing fast is an issue depends on a lot of factors. The most important being the amount of CO2 in the water and the turnover rate through the dosing area (i.e. sump probably). Some people can get away with it, if they have high turnover and lots of CO2 in their system, but it's safer to dose slowly.

Randy Holmes-Farley discusses the issues in more details in a 2005 Reefkeeping article "What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime"
Unfortunately, the link seems to be broken right now, so, I can't post it. Hopefully Reefkeeping is working on the issue.

 

As a surrogate for Randy's article, here is an overview. The key is if you have enough CO2 to react with you get bicarbonate (desirable). If you don't have enough you get carbonate (bad). I don't recommend the vinegar though, as it is a form of carbon dosing and adds a lot of complications. I do so, but that's because I want to dose a carbon source anyways.

KALKWASSER - IN DEPTH by Articles from Reefscape.net

 

i do have my kalk dripping/running in a high flow area in my sump. i have heard of many running their kalk this way without a problem, i did look into this before i started to do it. since kalk is really not something to just dive into without researching first.
its working well for me this way.

i have thought of getting a kalk reactor and almost did . but my thoughts are what you said m2434 . how stable can that mix be? since its added all at once to the reactor, i often wondered if the kalk mix would be a higher dose to start than slowly dwindle to almost nothing by the time you change the kalk in the reactor.

i need kalk to keep my ph stable, before kalk it was a constant issue. ph was always low. and alk always high ( even when i didn't dose for it) . kalk has resolved both issues. and takes care of calcium also