Dosing Kalk using a Litermeter

[King Jason]

My Litermeter right now runs 24/7 and doses about a 1.5 gallons a day. I want to start dripping Kalk. I would like to add it to my topoff but am worried about the increase in pH if I dose 24/7. Right now my pH is running about 8.2-8.3 during the day and 8.0-8.1 at night (even with reverse lighting).

I have a total volume of water of about 220 gallons.

I will be dosing around 1.5 gallons of water a day mixed with Kalk.

Will the pH rise too much?

 

[Osama]

Your pH will rise. I have my system controlled by a Neptune controller that shuts off my litermeter which dosed the kalk when the pH rises to 8.4. This in effect shuts off dosing for about 6 hrs during the day. The controller gets the litermeter dosing as the pH drops to 8.3. after the lights are out the ph is between 8.1-8.3 & during the day 8.2 to 8.4....

 

[ChrisRD]

You could try making your top-off a weak kalkwasser - no need to go full strength (saturated). You could also try using white distilled vinegar in your top-off (in addition to the kalk) to keep the pH down.

 

[King Jason]

You could try making your top-off a weak kalkwasser - no need to go full strength (saturated). You could also try using white distilled vinegar in your top-off (in addition to the kalk) to keep the pH down.

That's a good idea. I will first try to go with a less saturated dose, then if that is a problem I'll try using distilled vinegar.

I'm in MACO's Calcium reactor class so this is just a temporary solution to get the calcium levels up in my tank.

 

[ChrisRD]

I'm in MACO's Calcium reactor class so this is just a temporary solution to get the calcium levels up in my tank.

Once you've got your Ca reactor up and running you could actually do both. Dosing the kalk will help keep your pH up.

Then you'll be bragging to us about your Ca/Alk levels... :wink:

I'm running a kalk reactor right now, but I'm going to build a Ca reactor and run them both eventually.

 

[Jeff Hood]

I think it should be fine. Your pH will rise but I doubt that much because you would only be dosing 1.5 gallons over a 24 hour period rather than just over night. Your other option is to just dose your 1.5 gallons over night and put your litermeter on a timer.

Your 220 volume with only 1.5 gallons per day is low. I have 800 gallons of total water volume and I dose 10 gallons of kalk per day through my liter meter to keep up with evap. and my pH runs right at 8.3 when charged. I do run a calcium reactor and my pH when the kalk is not running is 8.13 to 8.15.

Good luck.

Jeff

 

[King Jason]

I'm in MACO's Calcium reactor class so this is just a temporary solution to get the calcium levels up in my tank.

Once you've got your Ca reactor up and running you could actually do both. Dosing the kalk will help keep your pH up.

Then you'll be bragging to us about your Ca/Alk levels... :wink:

 

[golfish]

I use both a Calcium reactor and a Kalk reactor. I have 1200 watt's of MH's over a 150 gal tank so I have plenty of evap. For me I just can't add enough kalk. My PH never gets above 8.2.

If you don't have one, get a kalk reactor. If your handy with DIY then buld one, if not talk to Andy.

 

[Paul A. Ifkovits]

You will be fine and your PH will not change too drastically. I dose almost 3 gallons of saturated kalk/day and see little affect to the ph. As an FYI, the litermeter dose's in 99 on/off cycles. The length of each "on" cycle is driven by the manual adjustment on the unit. Which means if you are adding 1.5 gallons/day, each on cycle adds 3.8 Tbs. I cannot imagine that causing any negative PH swings.

Paul
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Television discussion

 

[King Jason]

My first test was dosing 1 TSP Kalk per gallon of top-off water. It didn't change my pH at all. My next test will be to dose 1.5 TSP per gallon of top-off water and see if I can raise my pH a little.