to kalk or not to kalk that is the question

Howdy yall. Ill give a little background on my tank first. Its a 240 that im aiming for a mix of lps and sps. I use kent reef salt for now. It has 70g sump, 20g fuge mainly just for pods, 20g ato tank. I run carbon and gfo 24/7 in a brs dual reactor, 5 ai super blues. As for perams s.g 1.026-27, nitate 0, phos .25 (waiting for delivery) ca 440, alk im aiming for 8-9, mag (waiting on delivery). Now that being said, I change 5 gallons every other day and 10 on sunday to keep trace elements up. I have to dose buffer every other day because alk will drop down to 7. I am trying to find the best and cheapest way of keeping my levels stable. I have a fairly small critter stock for the size of my tank so wasnt sure why i would be going through so much buffer. (xenia,torch,frogspawn,hammer,braching bubble,watermelon brain,recordeas,trumpets,zoas,elegance coral, and some mushrooms) The liquids are pretty expensive for me due to the size of my tank. I wasnt sure if kalk in a homemade drip system or cal, alk, and mag dosing individually. I hope i didnt lose anyone with this essay.

 

Oh ya i forgot i mix my water with di water that reads 0 tds and top off with di. Currently toping off with saltwater. S.g dropped to 1.024.

 

I just add kalk to my ATO and that works just fine for me. You can place up to 2 teaspoons of kalk per gallon of water. I would start off with 1/2 or 1 teaspoon per gallon and go from there.

One final thing to remember is that kalk maintains the elements for you; therefore, make sure you get your alkalinity up to where it needs to be first and then use the kalk to maintain it.

 

I thought you had to drip kalk beacuse if you add it in your ato tank it will raise the ph and/or cause percipitation of calcium. when you say add 2 teaspoons per gallon is that per gallon of tank volume or ato tank volume

 

Cheapest long term for that tank? A reactor.