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alk dosing (2 Viewers)

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decimal

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for those dosing kalk, what do you use and how do you run?

I was dosing ATI Pro 2 part, the alk part of the 2 was raising alkalinity but because it was sodium bicarbonate based (at least that's my guess) it had little effect on PH. I switched to calcium hydroxide and that has had a more noticeable impact on PH as well as alk. During all this "dialing in" had several algae events and shut down dosing all together for a while. Now I am dosing Mrs. Wages pickling lime in small amounts 48 times in 24 hours. I am considering switching to Kalk +2 (brightwell) and dosing only at night after lights go out. I was wondering if anyone is using the kalk +2 and how everyone else that's dosing kalk goes about it.
 

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Ms wages pickling lime. It’s in a Nielsen reactor made by well dang I can’t think of the name at the moment. ATO feeds it.

Others drip or dose via peristaltic pump
 
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I pondered just hooking it up to the ATO. I was concerned about equipment and evap rates changing and causing swings. The dosing pump seemed a pretty good solution. Clearly I’m overthinking it haha.
 
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I dosed it last time with my GHL because it was super precise.

This time I may buy a larger Kalk reactor. Not really sure how they work, but I want to dose it as potent as I can get it.
 
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decimal

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so out of curiosity, when dialing in dosing rates, do you just pick your goal alk (something that matches a new batch of SW for instance) and measure adjust, measure adjust until you find the sweet spot that neither raises or drops alk @ full saturation?

hope that makes sense.

my new sw is coming in @ 7.67 :oops:
 
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so out of curiosity, when dialing in dosing rates, do you just pick your goal alk (something that matches a new batch of SW for instance) and measure adjust, measure adjust until you find the sweet spot that neither raises or drops alk @ full saturation?

hope that makes sense.

my new sw is coming in @ 7.67 :oops:
IMO the best way to dose Kalk is fully saturated because it’s a weak solution. Most people aren’t dosing to control ALK unless you have a new tank with softies. People (including myself) are after that high pH bump Kalk provides especially if you’re running a reactor.

This may help you a bit. This is what I figured up the last time I was dosing it and what I will follow this time around. Just double check my math. :)


Kalk Max dose: 2 tsp per 1/G

Kalk starting dose: 1 tsp per 5/G

No more than 0.2 > in pH when dosed


(1.58/G to 6000mL = 3 tsp Kalk)
[ignore this above- this was for my personal use in my dosing reservoir]

1/G (3.785L) of saturated Kalkwasser solution (2tsp/G) will raise 150L (40 Gal) tank water by 24/mg/L (or ppm). Simplified: This solution will raise 100/L (26.4/G) by 36mg/L.



1 dKH of Alkalinity is equal to about 6.4-7.1 mg/L of Calcium. So this solution should raise 26.4/G of tank water between 5.04-5.60 dKH.


Divide those total values by 3.785L and further divide that by 1000mL/L or (0.264 Gallons) then you can see how much each mL of saturated solution will raise the dKH. Each mL of saturated solution should raise Alkalinity in 100/L or (26.4 G) of tank water by somewhere between 0.001331 to 0.001479 dKH.
 
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decimal

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Thats exactly the kind of info I was hoping for. Thanks. Here I was just dosing blindly, taking a reading and adjusting ml dosed in a 24hr period followed by another readiing.
 
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