dumb question that needs answering

[Anonymous]

i am getting too lazy and cheap to keep up with a reef tank properly so i may try that method of topoff which utilizes the inverted 5 gal bottle.

now the question is, would i be totally retarded to think i might do so with kalkwasser in the mix?
would there be considerable migration between saltwater and kalk mix?

i will of course only use premixed kalk.

 

[Anonymous]

if there will be any direct contact between the tank sw and the kalk enriched fw, i'd say very bad idea

 

[Anonymous]

What Vitz said. Even if you make the kalkwasser separately and be sure there is no precipitation that stuff would still be too caustic.

Ya know for a few bucks you can make a ghetto cheapo kalk drip/topoff using airline hose, airline controllers, silicone for a seal and a plastic bottle.

 

[Anonymous]

What Vitz said. Even if you make the kalkwasser separately and be sure there is no precipitation that stuff would still be too caustic.

Ya know for a few bucks you can make a ghetto cheapo kalk drip/topoff using airline hose, airline controllers, silicone for a seal and a plastic bottle.

yeah...
i have done the drip thing.. it works fine but takes constant monitoring.
the monitoring is what i want to eliminate.
if i could have done this jug thing i could just have a weekend job making a couple containers of kalk and then been set for about four days at a time.

i guess i will consider other alternatives.

thanks guys.

 

[Elegance coral]

These are pics of my ATO system that I use full strength Kalk in. I have gone through many different designs of this. I had one 5gl water bottle crack and one implode. This one works just fine. There is a 3/16 of an inch hole that the kalk is dispensed through. Salt water is heavier than kalk. There will not be much mixing of the fluids through a small hole. I haven't had any problems with this design. It works great for me and I have it on a tank full of Elegance corals. I believe that this design is safer and much less work than drip systems that clog all the time and you can never match your evaporation rate. Pumps and float switches malfunction all the time causing major problems. With this design the only thing that can go wrong is a leak. This is made of schedule 40 PVC. This stuff doesn't leak. I say go for it.

 

[Anonymous]

it's hard to tell from the pics so i will ask, is your kalk tank open to the sump water?

i see a valve there and am wondering if you are dripping the kalk solution as opposed to letting it top itself off.

 

[Elegance coral]

No it doesn't drip. The valve is there so that I can full the container in place. I just close the valve and open the top. After filling and closing the top I open the valve back up. The bottom of the pipe is at the water line. As water evaporates it releases a few drops of kalk to replace it. I fill the container every Saturday and clean it out every other Saturday. The 1/2 inch pipe extends about 4 inches up inside the 6 inch pipe so that it doesn't pick up the white crud on the bottom of the container.

 

[Anonymous]

afaik, having kalk in direct contact with sw continually in an aquarium is inviting bad juju