Kalk in Top Off

[Canadian]

I've dripped Kalk into my sump on previous tanks, but I'm just wondering if it's possible to add kalk to my top off reservoir and have that pumped up into the false wall/sump area of my tank when the MJ1200 dumps about a liter of water when the float switch trips?

Here's a pic of my tank just in case this isn't clear. It's not as if the kalk water would be dumped straight into the display but I'm anticipating that a quick dump of kalk water will spike the pH too much. What do you think?

http://canreef.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=2223&stc=1&d=1199324397

[KrazyKuch]

Kalk when mixed with water should be kept in an air tight container, cause the longer the mixture is exposed to air the less effective it will become

[Canadian]

My reservoir can run pretty much air tight so that's not a big problem. But I'm not so sure about dumping that much kalk in with every top off as opposed to dripping it in (which isn't an option at the moment).

[fkshiu]

I run kalk off of my Tunze Osmolator using a Phosban reactor. The pump in the resevoir pumps into the reactor where the supersaturated kalk solution is, then out to the sump. Works great.

[untamed]

You need to slow down that evaporative replacement system. I think you are saying that you have a MJ1200 triggered by a float switch..and that the float switch doesn't trigger until the tank is about 1 litre low...then it dumps in 1 litre really quickly.

What I would recommend is that you pick up some irrigation drippers and put 2 or 3 or 4 of them onto the output of the MJ1200. The float switch will trigger the pump, but it will then take the pump a relatively LONG time to pump in the replacement water because it is pushing that water through the drippers.

This solves a few issues for you.
1) it prevents Kalk from going in too fast (your original concern)
2) If ever anything goes wrong with the evap replacement system, nothing can go wrong very quickly. (ask yourself how much time you would have to react if the float switch stuck ON in your present situation)

I have some concerns about doing what you are thinking, though.
1) Kalk will tend to clog up your drippers (if you take my advice on the drippers)
2) Kalk will be really hard on your MJ1200.
3) You lose control over how much Kalk you are adding because it is now linked 100% to evaporation. Somedays it will be more, somedays it will be less. On a small system your Ca/Alk levels will be erratic.

[Canadian]

Thanks untamed.

I grabbed an Aqua Lifter this weekend to replace my MJ 1200 as the ATO pump. I also grabbed some kalk. I'm going to try running the kalk in my ATO as this is going to be an SPS dominated tank. I'll run the ATO on a timer to only turn on at night. I'm anticipating that in pretty short order the kalk will eventually be insufficient. I'll then run a Liter Meter III with 2-part to make up the difference. If I run into any difficulties due to instability caused by variability in evaporation rate then I'll stop putting kalk in the top off water and rely solely on the 2-part.

[PoonTang]

I do it in my system. 5 gallon bucket with a Maxi 400 and a small valve.
No float switch. Using an automatic timer with 6 settings of 5 minutes each throughout the night. I adjust the valve setting to get the correct amout of top off per day, generally 1 gal. I tune the amount of Kalk/Vinegar in the bucket to match the demand of the corals.

[Skimmerking]

I have my top off connected to my ro/di unit, then I ahve a 20 gal tub that is set to a drip every second, thur a john guess tap. it works great for me my Alk is sit's at 8-9 DKH and the cal is at 420-450