Kalk !!!

[roadkingbill]

Well crap last nite some how my auto top off (its a Tunze) with a Tunze Calcium Dispencer ran too long and saturated my tank with kalk . What happens is if the Tunze pump runs for over a minute it sturs up the kalk at bottom of the dispencer till it flows out of the top line to the tank. Now if it runs for 30 45 secs all is well as I just get saturated water.

So anyway the tank is cloudy with a film of kalk dust on the glass and on the reef. Did a 10 g water change and cleaned the glass and blew the rocks coral with a baster. Lost at least two pieces, they disentigrated. Everything else looks ok now.

I have Avast K1 stirrer but was having issues getting it to disperse kalk correctly.

What is best way to add kalk ? I thought auto top off was but lol.

Starting to think that calcium with co2 might be best in the long run.

[bertoni]

I went with a MasterFlex dosing pump, and turned the pumping rate down so that even if the ATO failed, it'd take a while for any problems to happen. I also used dual float switches to control the water level.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

[welcome]

I use a slow pump on a float switch to dose limewater. :)

Have you measured the pH of the tank? If it is still above 8.6 you'll want to bring it down.

[DogueDeBordeaux]

[QUOTE=roadkingbill
I have Avast K1 stirrer but was having issues getting it to disperse kalk correctly.

QUOTE]

what are the issues with the avast stirrer? I plan to get the K2 stirrer.

[roadkingbill]

THe K1 stirrer is great as a kit, my issues are the Tunze ATO pump seems to be too strong. When it turns on the top off water it shoots down into the kalk and sturs it up. Second issue the flow of kalk will surge out of the unit, ato water is continuing to flow into the unit. It drops about 2 inches of water then fills back up, then surges again.

Its hard to explain but easy to see in person lol.

[xCry0x]

I have a mag 1.5 feeding my ATO - I just put some junk 1" tubing under the pump to keep it elevated off the bottom of the reservoir so it doesn't suck up the residue. I remember BRS had a video at one point for building an ATO reservoir where the pump basically had an acrylic shelf to sit up on.