Is this a safe kalkwasser dosing schedule?

[EzReefs]

Hello everyone,

I just recently moved all of my inhabitants from a 29 gallon to a 75 gallon. I am dosing kalkwasser with an aqualifter on a timer. This will also be my auto top off. I am losing a little less than a gallon per day due to evaporation.

Here is my dosing schedule:

2am to 3am - 600mL
7am to 8am - 600mL
12pm to 1pm - 600mL
5pm to 6pm - 600mL
10pm to 11pm - 600mL

3000mL per day or roughly 0.79 gallons per day. Is this safe or will the pH change too rapidly?

[mcgyvr]

Never a good idea to top off based on time..
Evaporation rates change with humidity,etc...

[bertoni]

I agree that evaporation can be variable. I've always dosed Kalkwasser as ATO, but my tanks ' evaporation rates were all quite stable, and they needed so much calcium and alkalinity that Kalk couldn't keep up, anyway.

If you want to dose based on time, you would need to be sure that the evaporation rate always is significantly larger than the Kalk dosing rate, to give some margin for safety. Have you checked the evaporation rate for a while now?

[EzReefs]

I have not checked the evaporation for a long period of time. Just for about a week because that's how long the tank has been running after the upgrade from the 29g (all levels are remaining stable so far, and no cycle has occurred). I plan to monitor the sump level closely and watch for any changes in evaporation rate. I will change the added top off amount accordingly. So far, I have set the amount of water added by the pump to be less than the evaporation rate. Then I just add a small amount of ro water to make up the difference each day. I assume this is what you meant, bertoni. I am careful to avoid overflows.

I am about to place an order for 10 or so acro frags on top of the five sps frags I already have. Do you think the kalk water will be able to keep up to that coral load?

[bif24701]

I add Kalk from a 32 Brute via BRS 50ml pump. It is activated by the APEX to run for 4min every 1/2 hour.


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[mcgyvr]

I am about to place an order for 10 or so acro frags on top of the five sps frags I already have. Do you think the kalk water will be able to keep up to that coral load?

Try it.. test often... adjust as needed until its all known good... simple as that..

[djbon]

It is always a good practice to add kalkwasser based on your calcium/kh usage. Without knowing the depletion rate, you are adding these 2 elements blindly and might end up with issue.

[bertoni]

As long as the SG remains stable and the pH is below 8.6, I suspect that the tank will be fine. I'd be cautious with the water level and evaporation monitoring, and I might check the pH at the end of one of the dosing periods a few times.

[tmz]

IME, it's simpler to dose kalk independent of top off systems at a fixed amount appoximating daily top off needs evenly dosed over a 24 hour period