Dosing Kalkwasser

BradB · May 24, 2024

My Neptune DOS failed again. I am trying to get a hold of their support, but the best my tank ever looked was when I added kalkwasser everyday by hand. I don't have time to do that now. 270 galloon mixed reef.

Any recommendation on trying to automate this? My understanding is I want a large reservoir with a magnetic stir and a dosing pump or auto-topoff. Right now, I have a 90 gallon tub for my autotopoff which I also use to mix saltwater for water changes. If I could somehow stir it, it would work, but I'd probably want something else for water changes.
Or I could buy a 20L magnetic stirir and some sort of dosing pump. This seems a better use of space, but more expensive.

I am going on vacation in about a month, so not optimal to make big changes, but it seems Neptune always has something break when I am getting ready to leave.

Garf · May 24, 2024

BradB said:
My Neptune DOS failed again. I am trying to get a hold of their support, but the best my tank ever looked was when I added kalkwasser everyday by hand. I don't have time to do that now. 270 galloon mixed reef.

Any recommendation on trying to automate this? My understanding is I want a large reservoir with a magnetic stir and a dosing pump or auto-topoff. Right now, I have a 90 gallon tub for my autotopoff which I also use to mix saltwater for water changes. If I could somehow stir it, it would work, but I'd probably want something else for water changes.
Or I could buy a 20L magnetic stirir and some sort of dosing pump. This seems a better use of space, but more expensive.

I am going on vacation in about a month, so not optimal to make big changes, but it seems Neptune always has something break when I am getting ready to leave.

Why do you want to stir it? Does saturated kalk keep up with alkalinity demand?

BradB · May 24, 2024

If I mix 90 gallons of water and kalkwasser and connect it to my ATO for 2 weeks, I am going to get almost pure fresh water after a few days. You don't need to stir constantly, but I think once every 24 hours is necessary.

If I am able to replace 50% of my Calcium/Alk with kalkwasser, I think that will help my tank tremendously. I will probably need to dose 2 part, either manually or automatically.