Do you add kalk/lime water to your top-off?

[CoralMonkey]

For those of you with SPS dominated tanks, do you use limewater to replenish the evaporated water with you Auto Top Off? Or do you just top-off with plain ro/di water?

[CoralMonkey]

50/50 so far. Is the number one reason to keep PH up? Followed by helping maintain calcium?

[Lps157]

I do but only at night. Keeps the ph a stable 8.1 - 8.3.

[toothman]

For me it seems that my kh is always lower than ca, so I just add 4 cups of baking soda to the garbage can of water attached to ato fill switch.

[cato]

Hmmm interesting numbers so far. I find it hard to believe only 28 of us do 1 or the other. Would be nice to see some more numbers on this. Thanks guys. :)

[Rockpile]

don't put kalk in the top off but drip 24/7 via separate container

[Znut Reefer]

I use to dose kalk with a kalk reactor. It got to be such a pain to get the buildup off my pumps and tunze. So haven't dosed kalk in over a yr. I don't see any difference.

[joshrules123456]

every 2 days I mix 2 gallons of rodi and 4 teaspoons of kalk and drip a gallon a day, it close to keeps up with my calcium (not many sps, but some sorta hyper coraline algae, no precipitation), but I have to add two teaspoons kent super buffer every day still.

[Kenfuzed]

50/50, I have half my ATO going through a kalk reactor and half directly to the sump. Splitting them keeps my ph stable while not blasting the tank in larger doses. I'm topping off 4 gallons per day and 100% through the reactor was too much. I used to add the kalk directly to my top-off container but it became a mess.

[CoralMonkey]

50/50, I have half my ATO going through a kalk reactor and half directly to the sump. Splitting them keeps my ph stable while not blasting the tank in larger doses. I'm topping off 4 gallons per day and 100% through the reactor was too much. I used to add the kalk directly to my top-off container but it became a mess.

4-gallons of evaporation per day on a 180-gal, wow. Are you running lots of fans?

[mpoletti]

No kalk here. PH is 8.2-8.4. I have heard of too many horror stories about established systems crashing because of kalk mishaps. No thank you; one less disater waiting to happed :)

[gasman059]

No kalk here. PH is 8.2-8.4. I have heard of too many horror stories about established systems crashing because of kalk mishaps. No thank you; one less disater waiting to happed :)

I agree 100 % no kalk here either just a plain old calcium reactor.

Perfect storm= poweroutage increase sump level skimmer overflows and viola! the tank is filled with 20 gallons of r/o kalk. Nope been there done that.

Even with a float swicht there's the chance of mishaps.

[chadfarmer]

i do just until i run out I am using up my can of it, instead of throwing it away

[poolkeeper1]

don't put kalk in the top off but drip 24/7 via separate container

+1

Bill:beer:

[CoralMonkey]

I didn't realize kalk mixed into ro/di top-off was so common. My PH is steady between 7.85-8.1, I'd prefer for it to be a little higher, but I think I am going to continue not adding kalk to my rodi water. From reading here it sounds like there are too many negatives.... messy, ruins pumps, accidental mishaps crashing tanks etc. I have 2-part dosing pumps, so I don't rely on kalk to maintain calcium.

[stevedola]

use a kalk reactor and litermeter to deliver inconjunction with a ATO for evap. dont think i can have a kalk mishap unless my LM goes haywire.

i like the higher PH and helps maintain alk/calc to a point.

[SDguy]

I don't use it. Used to...too much trouble clogging things.

[alten78]

ro/di ATO, drip kalk at night. it is a pain when things clog up