Kalk Dosing - maintaining questions

[jpc763]

I have a air pump based DIY kalk doser that I want to use to keep my tank running at a good ALK & Ca level.

Current Levels

dKh - 9
Ca - 420
Mg - 1200

My tank is a 125 with a 75g sump. Using the water volume calculator I come up with 150g.

My airpump will dose 8 ounces per 5 minutes of saturated limewater.

A couple of quesitons...

1) Is this enough on a daily basis?
2) Is this too quick to add 8oz of Limewater?
3) Can I ad Mg to the Limewater so I keep that up to about 1400? If so, how much?

I tried the calculator, but unless I am doing something wrong, I cannot figure how to "maintain".

Thanks

[bertoni]

The best way to dose kalk is to drip it into a high-flow, high-volume area. For that size tank, it's unlikely that 8 oz of kalk will meet the daily demand. Most often, kalk is used as autotopoff for all evaporation, and even then, sometimes it is not enough. Only experimentation can tell you what will work for your system.

This article goes into details:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm

[jpc763]

The best way to dose kalk is to drip it into a high-flow, high-volume area. For that size tank, it's unlikely that 8 oz of kalk will meet the daily demand. Most often, kalk is used as autotopoff for all evaporation, and even then, sometimes it is not enough. Only experimentation can tell you what will work for your system.

This article goes into details:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm
I have read that article, but thanks for pointing it out as it did remind me that I cannot add Mag in the Kalk mix.

I really don't want to use my ATO as my Kalk doser. I was wondering if I could use a drip method to dose it.

I guess I can start with slow dripping 1g of kalk in a 24 hour period and see if that is sufficient.

Thanks

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Dripping is fine. Trial and error will show you if that amount is useful for you. :)