Bubba's SPS Journey

[bubbaque]

Kalk reactor or kalk in your ato?

I never knew you had a thread, just use to us posting on rentons haha. Nice stuff you’ve got here my friend. Even nicer job on the photos. Teach me your ways.

I am glad to see Renton posting regular updates.

I dose saturated kalk from its own 32 gallon brute garbage can connected to a BRS 50 ml doser that runs on a timer. I stir the kalk once and put the lid on it and don't touch it until it needs refilled. I have it run for 1 minute, every 7 minutes. I think it's dosing 9000 mls a day.

Why kalk and calcium reactor?

For the last year I was running only the calcium reactor. I have always had low ph with 7.65 as a low to a high of 7.95. Corals would grow but I always wondered if I was missing out on possible growth. One day I decided to really try to raise ph and see if made any difference. I hooked up the kalk doser and started co2 scrubbing. My ph now is 7.98 as the low to 8.27 as the high. In my mind I feel it made a huge difference in growth, as some corals that didn't really grow, started to grow.

 

[tigé21v]

I am glad to see Renton posting regular updates.

I dose saturated kalk from its own 32 gallon brute garbage can connected to a BRS 50 ml doser that runs on a timer. I stir the kalk once and put the lid on it and don't touch it until it needs refilled. I have it run for 1 minute, every 7 minutes. I think it's dosing 9000 mls a day.

;Jawdrop
Did you have to back off on your calcium reactor? That amount of saturated kalk being dosed in a 320 gallon system is contributing close to 1 dkh a day!
https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/KalkContribution.php
I appreciate you taking the time to share the absolutely enviable acro collection you've amassed. Your photos are top-notch.
And THANK YOU for all the daylight photos!!!

 

[Fishfinder]

I am glad to see Renton posting regular updates.

I dose saturated kalk from its own 32 gallon brute garbage can connected to a BRS 50 ml doser that runs on a timer. I stir the kalk once and put the lid on it and don't touch it until it needs refilled. I have it run for 1 minute, every 7 minutes. I think it's dosing 9000 mls a day.
For the last year I was running only the calcium reactor. I have always had low ph with 7.65 as a low to a high of 7.95. Corals would grow but I always wondered if I was missing out on possible growth. One day I decided to really try to raise ph and see if made any difference. I hooked up the kalk doser and started co2 scrubbing. My ph now is 7.98 as the low to 8.27 as the high. In my mind I feel it made a huge difference in growth, as some corals that didn't really grow, started to grow.

Stop!!! I've always wondered if my ph is my limiting growth factor. I'm at 7.65 at night and 7.90 during the day. You stop putting ideas in my head. I literally just asked you what might be my issue.

 

[lolgranny]

Stop!!! I've always wondered if my ph is my limiting growth factor. I'm at 7.65 at night and 7.90 during the day. You stop putting ideas in my head. I literally just asked you what might be my issue.

A little kalk in the ato would help you out with that.

 

[bubbaque]

;Jawdrop
Did you have to back off on your calcium reactor? That amount of saturated kalk being dosed in a 320 gallon system is contributing close to 1 dkh a day!
https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/KalkContribution.php
I appreciate you taking the time to share the absolutely enviable acro collection you've amassed. Your photos are top-notch.
And THANK YOU for all the daylight photos!!!

I originally did have to back off the co2 in the calcium reactor. I was running my calcium reactor at 6.4 ph and I had to raise it to 6.7 for about a week. It seemed like almost overnight my alk just started to drop. Now my calcium reactor is almost back to what it was, at a ph of 6.5, while I still dose kalk.

Stop!!! I've always wondered if my ph is my limiting growth factor. I'm at 7.65 at night and 7.90 during the day. You stop putting ideas in my head. I literally just asked you what might be my issue.

I use to read so much about ph. My bud, @FarmerTy shared this article once that showed one type of sps was able to regulate its own internal ph, so I felt better about having low ph.

When I decided to raise ph, I wanted to do it the most stable way possible. I knew putting it in a my ATO would not keep it stable, as evaporation varies all the time. I set it up in its own container on a timer so it's dosed the same amount each day. I also added a co2 scrubber with two canisters, so when the first canister runs out I have time to swap it before my ph starts to dip.

It's always best not to chase ph as you normally do more harm than good. I think if you can do it in a way where it stays stable it's worth a try to see how your tank reacts.

 

[Fishfinder]

But just confirming there was a noticeable difference?

I may just try to eliminate my nightly dip into 7.6ph

 

[happyhourhero]

Kalk is the tears of the Gods. Best supplement you can add imo.

 

[Highgrade]

how are you
I saw that you have several dan frags (tck), and I plan to travel to NY, how about dan corals?
Is it worth a pack of acros?

On the other hand, are you in Miami or Orlando? I travel to Miami I think in a month and I would like a pack

Dan's packs are always nice and worth the price.

 

[bubbaque]

But just confirming there was a noticeable difference?

I may just try to eliminate my nightly dip into 7.6ph

Yes I noticed a difference in growth and I believe it was due to ph, as I've done nothing else differently and growth is exploding after raising ph.

Kalk is the tears of the Gods. Best supplement you can add imo.

I am going to share this old thread. Many have probably seen his video about how to tune a calcium reactor. He had some of the best growth with before and after pics. He used a calcium reactor along side kalk. He referred to kalk as "coral crack", lol

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/toxics-savvy-185g.125571/page-36

 

[FMF0331]

beautiful stuff you got in there

 

[Fishfinder]

9000 ml a day? That's over 2 gal. Are you evaporating that much daily?

 

[bubbaque]

9000 ml a day? That's over 2 gal. Are you evaporating that much daily?

Yes, I have roughly 290 gallons of actual water and it evaporates a lot. The 9000 mls is 90% of my top off but my ato still kicks on.

 

[Fishfinder]

Dang that killin the evaporation! Is there any issues not stirring the kalk? Will it settle or become unsaturated?

 

[bubbaque]

Dang that killin the evaporation! Is there any issues not stirring the kalk? Will it settle or become unsaturated?

You are not suppose to stir the kalk after the first time you put it in and want it to settle. The water becomes saturated and the stuff that settles on the bottom is impurities and kalk, if it reached that max potency. You also don't add water to it like a reactor, until it's used up and you need more. The kalk will form this crust on the top that "seals" it and doesn't allow co2 to penetrate. If you stir it, you reduce its potency. A kalk reactor is different as every time you run water through it, it lows the potency, so you want to stir the kalk to increase the potency.

 

[bubbaque]

TSA Princess Peach

 

[ashr]

I am dosing Alk and Calc right now but I still PH dips through the nights. I wounder if I should also add some Kalk to my doser and dose it through the nights.. a few ml every hour as I have a small Reefer 170. If I wanted to do this, how much kalk is a good amount to add? I guess I could google it though.. haha

Here is my PH the lower one is an older probe so not as accurate.

 

[bubbaque]

I am dosing Alk and Calc right now but I still PH dips through the nights. I wounder if I should also add some Kalk to my doser and dose it through the nights.. a few ml every hour as I have a small Reefer 170. If I wanted to do this, how much kalk is a good amount to add? I guess I could google it though.. haha

Here is my PH the lower one is an older probe so not as accurate.

I am probably not the best person to ask. When I started dosing kalk I looked up how many teaspoons needed to make it full saturation and mixed it up. I started with about 50% of what I’m dosing now and tested daily to make sure I wasn’t shooting up alk.

You would get a much better answer in the chemistry forum.

 

[KJoFan]

Yes, I have roughly 290 gallons of actual water and it evaporates a lot. The 9000 mls is 90% of my top off but my ato still kicks on.

Did you determine how much your system evaporates per day before starting the kalk? If so, how did you really measure how much and doesn't it vary throughout the year?

I always wonder how people calculate exactly how much evaporates from their systems so precisely..

 

[NY_Caveman]

Did you determine how much your system evaporates per day before starting the kalk? If so, how did you really measure how much and doesn't it vary throughout the year?

I always wonder how people calculate exactly how much evaporates from their systems so precisely..

I have an ATO with a labeled 5 gallon jug. Easy to tell daily (35 gallons in the system).

 

[bubbaque]

Did you determine how much your system evaporates per day before starting the kalk? If so, how did you really measure how much and doesn't it vary throughout the year?

I always wonder how people calculate exactly how much evaporates from their systems so precisely..

I had an idea how much I evaporated as I know how long my ato container last. I did check for the first day or two to make sure I wasn't flooding my sump.

I am sure evaporation changes throughout the year but I don't dose kalk through my ato, so no matter what I dose the same amount of kalk each day. My ato still turns on, so even is evaporation slows I won't flood anything.