Top off water and kalkwasser
- Thread starter xrayman
- Start date
barracuda
Active Member
U can do it this way.
First of all check and set your PH and ALK to the proper levels.
Check how much water evaporates during a day (24 hours). If evaporation rate is less than 0.1% - 0.2% of total tank volume then adding kalk is not too effective. If evaporation rate is ok then you OK to drip Kalk. Some people drip Kalk only at night time when light are off, some constantly dripping. I drip 24/7. This maintains Ca, PH, and salinity levels.
First of all check and set your PH and ALK to the proper levels.
Check how much water evaporates during a day (24 hours). If evaporation rate is less than 0.1% - 0.2% of total tank volume then adding kalk is not too effective. If evaporation rate is ok then you OK to drip Kalk. Some people drip Kalk only at night time when light are off, some constantly dripping. I drip 24/7. This maintains Ca, PH, and salinity levels.
barracuda
Active Member
If you have corals in your tank, yes u may use kalkwasser. Kalkwasser will boost coralline algae grows also. I know people that use calcium reactor and top-off with kalkwasser. There are a lot of advantages on using kalkwasser as well as some disadvantages. One of them is it takes some time to mix, let it stand, control drip rate. I figured my weekly evaporation rate, bought cannister wich will hold all water which will evaporate within a week. So i prepare the mix ones a week, let it stand for at least 4 hours, open the main valve, adjust the drip rate. That's it. Let me know if you wanna see pix of it.
reefur.
Member
I use a float valve in my sump. Whenever there is evaporation (all the time pretty much) the float valve automatically tops off. I mix about 3 tsp. of Kalkwasser per gallon of RO. Its real easy. Im thinking of hooking up my RO machine to my top off jug (30 gal) with a float valve so that my RO tops off my TOPOFF and that tops of my tank. ;-)
reefur.
Member
Originally posted by jamesurq
Discussed this with a few people and nobody found a reason why it wouldn't work... If you can come up with one, let me know...
At any rate, this is my plan.
you could just use float valves. Whenever there is evaporation they compensate by adding Ro or whatever you want. your LFS might have em or would know where to get em.
reefur.
Member
http://www.***************.com/kentrodi/fvkitkent.jpg
The black thing is a float valve. You have to drill a hole in your sump ands insert the float valve, large part inside. Put the valve where your desired water level is, therefore when the water level falls the valve opens up, but if the water is at a good level it stays shut. You connect your RO jug to the other end of the valve and start the siphon and VOILA. I dont know the exact brand of the one I have but if you want I can go look.
The black thing is a float valve. You have to drill a hole in your sump ands insert the float valve, large part inside. Put the valve where your desired water level is, therefore when the water level falls the valve opens up, but if the water is at a good level it stays shut. You connect your RO jug to the other end of the valve and start the siphon and VOILA. I dont know the exact brand of the one I have but if you want I can go look.
reefur.
Member
To be honest I dunno what to tell you about that man. Im just heeding the advise given to me by my buddy who owns the best LFS around. He does tanks for all the local resteraunts and Ron Rice (Owner of Hawaiin Tropic) and is by far the best around. His tanks are amazing. He has a tank in his shop that has been virtually untouched for nearly 5 years, besdies auto top off with Kalk and it is soo beautiful, its a 250. Some of the most rapidly growing and beautiful corals I have ever seen. Sorry I cant offer more indepth help.