Putting Kalk in the ATO?

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Rogue951

What's this Kalk and vinegar business? never heard of that. Although I understand the vinegar would help the kalk dissolve.

Along with allowing more Kalk to dissolve vinegar also lowers the pH a bit without precipitating. Albeit, all that crap that doesn't dissolve is impurities in the Kalk that have precipitated out. Using vinegar allows some of those impurities to be dissolved. Kalk is pretty cool stuff, I haven't dosed it in years, but I'm going to start up again.

[makana]

I dosed kalk in my ato for quite a while. I have the JBJ ATO with an aqualifter pump. I set my resevior at a hight that allows it to drip once per second. That way it can't swing particularly fast. Obviously won't work if your evaporation is higher than that. But even you should still be able to find a speed that works for you but isn't too fast.

I have had the float valve stick but its not really an issue. At the speed the pump runs at it times out after 20 minutes which is before it can over dose the tank. Of course then the ATO is dead until I get home and discover it but at least there is no tragedy.

Kalk does build up in the water line and pump but that just requires a bit of maintenance to keep things clean. The pump is cheap enough as it is but when mine quit it only needed to be flushed out.

[Son Of Skyline]

I also use a JBJ ato which automatically stops running after a few minutes if the float valve gets stuck. This prevents kalk disaster. I do get varying evap rates throughout the seasons but I find that I don't get any KH changes using a lower concentration of kalk. My ca reactor is doing most of the work anyways and the kalk is just keeping my levels rock solid.

I just dump the kalk in and forget about it.

I have been useing Kalk in my ato water for about 1.5 years I have a JBJ ato conected to one of those table top pond pumps it does not clog the aqua lifter I had at first would clog up after a few months and had to be taken apart and cleaned. I have been running this pump for over 1 year now with no troubles. I was useing 1 heeped table soop for 5gallons added my mag and supliments also to the ATO works fine. My sps grow slow but have a nice thick skeliton. I am fine with this method and will continue.

Bill

[Reverend]

i basically take a cup of vinegar, put 4 tsp of kalk powder in the vinegar, still it up, and then mix it with 4 gallons of ro/di water.

one day i'll make a kalk stirrer using one of those single rotisserie bbq things from canadian tire. for now, i just stir it a bit after i pour the vinegar+kalk mix, wait a bit then plug into the ato setup. kalk reactors are pretty expensive for what they are.

i use this in combo with a 2 part reefdoser. if i had a 3 pump doser, would probably be safer than the float switch + pump method but it would also eventually put a strain on the dosing pump and tubes. for now, the aqualifter just needs cleaning.

[StirCrazy]

I used kalk in the make up water only for as long as it took me to build a kalk reactor. you cannot get a high enough concentration in top off water to make it worth it in a high growth sps system.

I had a gravity top off of 110 gal resivoir in the garage that fed my calk reactor and then went into the tank via a float valve.. no pumps. well I used one pump on my kalk reactor on a timer that would cirulate the kalk in the reactor for 1 min every hour.

Steve

[Myka]

I just picked up a third Drew's Doser from BRS. I'm going to use it for Kalk...should get that setup today. I have a tub of RowaKalk to use up.