Top off water
- Thread starter Prince916
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Nothing.
Unless you are doing regular testing and know you are having a problem with a specific thing like calcium or alkalinity I would not add anything at all. Depending on the size of your system, its stocking level and its calcium demand, normal water changes with a good salt mix should supply any thing you need as far as supplements or additives.
Its too easy to get a system out of whack by adding unneeded treatments and supplements. Never add anything you cannot and do not test for on a regular basis.
Unless you are doing regular testing and know you are having a problem with a specific thing like calcium or alkalinity I would not add anything at all. Depending on the size of your system, its stocking level and its calcium demand, normal water changes with a good salt mix should supply any thing you need as far as supplements or additives.
Its too easy to get a system out of whack by adding unneeded treatments and supplements. Never add anything you cannot and do not test for on a regular basis.
^^ I agree ^^
Even if additional Calcium/Alkalinity supplementation is necessary, I do not believe in pairing the supplementation with A.T.O. as the two have nothing to do with each other and should be approached in seperate means IMO. Some people do dose Kalk with ATO with success, so to each his own.
BUT, as AZ pointed out, if it's not necessary, or you're not sure if it is, do not do it.
Even if additional Calcium/Alkalinity supplementation is necessary, I do not believe in pairing the supplementation with A.T.O. as the two have nothing to do with each other and should be approached in seperate means IMO. Some people do dose Kalk with ATO with success, so to each his own.
BUT, as AZ pointed out, if it's not necessary, or you're not sure if it is, do not do it.
slipondajimmy
Active Member
I do not put a thing in my topoff water
Kalk and Limewater are the same thing. I don't use anything in my top off, just RO/DI.
i feed my top off with kalk though my ATO/kalk reactor. my sps have growen at a faster rate with then with out it. doing it this way you should still monitor you alk/cal level closely.
acronautical
acronautical
My 150 stony coral reef simply refused to "set-in" until I began to regulary dose a 4/5 strength kalkwasser solution for all of my top off. This, in conjunction with a duel-chamber calcium reactor. I tried and tried to keep the system more basic, but I had several alk and/or ph swings that cost me numerous sps. Obviously, though, every system is different.
xrayrider
Active Member
Calcium reactors swing the PH mor acidic, and kalk swings it more towards the basic side. The two together offset each other, and are a marriage made in heaven. I choose not to use Kalk with my calcium reactor, due to the potential for disaster with a kalk overdose. My PH stays a little low ( usually 7.9 - 8) but it is stable. I have found no bad side effects, having it a little low, as long as it stays stable. I use to put baking soda in my top off water, to dose alkalinity, and dosed calcium chloride water seperately in my sump, with an aqualifter, and a valve to control the drip rate. This worked very well also.
Kalk
I ATO my kalk in , i've been debating a kalk mixer ... Reason i use it is to offset my Calcium reactor which tends to lower more than i feel comfortable with. Since I've been using it ... my photo cycle starts at 8.1 and ends at 8.4 compared to 7.9 - 8.15 . This is using a pinpoint and a second reference on my RKE. But using a stirer/ mixer just scares me for the fact one electric device holding the lively hood of my tank. On side note, if you tend to dose via ATO ... make sure the maxium amount you can top off does not raise ph to a disaterous level. I'm currently using two float switches with a failover which triggers a aqualifter like many others.
I ATO my kalk in , i've been debating a kalk mixer ... Reason i use it is to offset my Calcium reactor which tends to lower more than i feel comfortable with. Since I've been using it ... my photo cycle starts at 8.1 and ends at 8.4 compared to 7.9 - 8.15 . This is using a pinpoint and a second reference on my RKE. But using a stirer/ mixer just scares me for the fact one electric device holding the lively hood of my tank. On side note, if you tend to dose via ATO ... make sure the maxium amount you can top off does not raise ph to a disaterous level. I'm currently using two float switches with a failover which triggers a aqualifter like many others.
Personally I would use a Kalk Reactor which utilizes a mixing pump, or use a still reservoir (1-2 tsp per gallon).
Kalk is a great way to get around dosing Ca & Alk daily if your tank doesn't have a crazy high Ca & Alk demand... not to mention the little pH boost benefit. However, as with anything... it carries risks, so if you decide to use Kalkwasser/Calcium Hydroxide/limewater (whatever you want to call it), you will need to make sure there are safeguards in place to prevent accidental overdoses.
Kalk is a great way to get around dosing Ca & Alk daily if your tank doesn't have a crazy high Ca & Alk demand... not to mention the little pH boost benefit. However, as with anything... it carries risks, so if you decide to use Kalkwasser/Calcium Hydroxide/limewater (whatever you want to call it), you will need to make sure there are safeguards in place to prevent accidental overdoses.
cloakerpoked
Well-Known Member
Like what I did a month and a half ago. Mine ran on a timer that I'd change as needed to keep my level stable (I had a 30 gallon sump, 200 gallon system that lost 2 gallons per day, so I could play around with the level some) and got great growth out of everything. That is, until the timer got bumped and I put 8 gallons of kalk into the system, raising my pH to close to 10.
Even with that though, I'm back dosing kalk through the same reactor as my ATO, but this time I have the 2 float switches, and run them on a timer, so that even if somehow both switches failed, the reactor would only run for an hour during the evening...after all, my system doesn't evaporate so much water that the dosing pump needs to add 1 gallon every hour to keep my return from sucking air, just need it to run long enough to top off the tank once every day or so. Figure that using the timer in this way is just an additional failsafe, and won't in any way effect the stability of my tank. I also don't want to add kalk during the photoperiod since the pH naturally rises. I want it at 4AM when none of my lights have been on for quite a few hours and the pH is lower.
On a somewhat unrelated note, there are people who believe that kalkwasser has added benefits such as increasing protein skimmer efficiency. A HUGE +1 about not adding anything you don't test for...that's just irresponsible unless you're putting 2 drops of iodine in a month or something...there's too much that can go wrong to hope that you're not overdosing your tank with anything. :squigglemouth:
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