Kalk Mixing and addition to tank

[seminolecpa]

I am tired of my ph being chronically low and have decided that the best course of action is to start dosing kalkwasser.

Now I have an old school method I used to use a long time ago but since it has been a while I wanted to see if there were any better methods (aside from buying or building a reactor) that people use.

My old method was to take a 2 gallon container with a valve and mix the kalk with RODI water. Agitate it vigorusly and then let it sit over night. From there I would essentially then essentially siphon off a majority of the clear water from the top and add this water to my top off water or add to the sump with a slow drip (repeat as necesary). Clearly this is very time consuming but still may be the best method. any thoughts?

Btw I have read this thread already

http://www.bareefers.org/discussion/index.php?topic=2451.0

Forgot to add. I am assuming adding vinegar is a bad idea as it reduces the effect of the rasing of the ph. Is this correct?

 

[Raddogz]

I believe it depends on how much vinegar you are adding. Hopefully Norm will chime in.

Adding a little vinegar will free up some of the calcium in the kalk solution/concoction.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Randy H. Farley describes his method here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1290590

I do a low buck mini version of his setup using an Aqualifter on a digital timer. Some people don't like running kalk through their Aqualifters, but I've not found specific examples of the pumps failing in that application. And I've even seen reports of Aqualifters running this way without problems for over 2 years.

Peristaltic pump would be the nice setup, but then you have to keep up with the tubing maintenance because they can dry out and crack over time with all the kalk and roller action on them.

I figure Aqualifters are cheap, and easily swapped for cleaning and/or diaphragm replacements.

I've got mine configured with a siphon break so that pump failure can't siphon all my kalk into the sump. If I was paranoid about the timer failing ON, I'd use some kind of sump level detection to kill the pump.

I'm adding 250 ml vinegar per 4 gallons of kalk water to get more calcium into solution. I'll check my pH and let you know what it reads, but it's supposed to be ok at that rate. Judging by how the algae's gone away, I think the pH is still up there.

 

[wakskat]

I just mix a bunch of kalk with about 5 gallons rodi. The crud settles to the bottom and then i dose with the dual float switch from floatswitches.net and an aqualifter.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=2805.msg29618#msg29618 date=1199997449]I'm adding 250 ml vinegar per 4 gallons of kalk water to get more calcium into solution. I'll check my pH and let you know what it reads, but it's supposed to be ok at that rate. Judging by how the algae's gone away, I think the pH is still up there.
[/quote]
Ok, pH at 8.4 with the vinegar/kalk combination.

I was seeing 8.5 when using kalk without vinegar.

 

[badbread]

Bryan, I'm thinking of doing the same with my chronicly low PH tank as well.

How has it been working for you so far? If I do it, I was thinking of just storing it in a jug and having my RK2 dose with an aqualifter a few times a day.