Alkalinity in ATO....?

[Trio91]

guys, so i do not have dosing pump (although i should by now) and i am tired of dosing manually. would i be able to dose alkalinity into my ATO? this is a method i use with kalkwasswer and it works fine, but the issue is that i am burning though ato pumps as the stuff is corrosive. i have a btl of brightwells alkalinity and want to start using this instead. as per the instructions and a quick test on my hanna checker, i was going to dose 1ml into my ATO (2gal)

is this safe? will the fresh water "kill" the potency of the supplement?

 

[redfishbluefish]

I don't see any issue in dosing this way....short of variation from amount of water lost to evaporation. You still will need to manually dose an equal amount of calc with that. I'm also scratching my head on 1 ml of alk in two gallons of ATO water....seems extremely dilute. How much water do you loose per day and what were you manually dosing before?

 

[Trio91]

I don't see any issue in dosing this way....short of variation from amount of water lost to evaporation. You still will need to manually dose an equal amount of calc with that. I'm also scratching my head on 1 ml of alk in two gallons of ATO water....seems extremely dilute. How much water do you loose per day and what were you manually dosing before?

see'ing your response made me re-read the instructions on the btl. it says:

for minor adjustments, add 5ml (not 1ml ---that was my mistake as apparently i cant read english) per 30gal of water. 5ml will raise the alkalinity by 3.1 dkh and that if Alk is below 7 dkh, to add the maximum of 5ML per 10gal of water
*my Alk is at 6.5 on the hanna checker, i am usually between 7-8 when using the kalkwasser (i am going to add something today)
*i usually fill up during the cooler days the ATO once per week, so roughly about a 1/2 pint per day (give or take)
*with Kalkwasser, i am dosing 1Tbs per gal of water, so 2TB for the ATO reservoir (personally i love kalk, but the stuff just kills my pumps)

 

[art13]

it will fluctuate as your evap rate does, so it won't be as consistent as some would like, depends on what your keeping. Also, 1ml over the course of a few days? if so water changes i would think would be enough for you.

 

[Trio91]

ive always kept a mixed reed, not SPS dominant but a few pieces here n there. so with that, i have always wanted to keep the peeps happy by dosing kalk, i've been using it for years and i have never used any other kind of supplement so i wanted to throw it out there

 

[redfishbluefish]

So if I understand your numbers, you wish to dose 5 mls of Brightwells Alk per day. If you loose a pint of water per day, you will want 5 mls of alk in that volume. Since you have a 2 gallon reservoir, and there are 8 pints in a gallon, you will need 5 x 16 = 80 mls of this alk product in 2 gallons of ATO water. It's important you know your evaporation number with some degree of accuracy. Otherwise your alk will quickly go up or down.

 

[art13]

I use Kalk but through a doser as i like to keep dosing steady, i use that to give a boost to ph and supplement it with calk and alk on separate dosers to maintain. Automating two part could be fairly cheap for you with a jebao doser, or two brs dosers and two timers.

 

[Trio91]

So if I understand your numbers, you wish to dose 5 mls of Brightwells Alk per day. If you loose a pint of water per day, you will want 5 mls of alk in that volume. Since you have a 2 gallon reservoir, and there are 8 pints in a gallon, you will need 5 x 16 = 80 mls of this alk product in 2 gallons of ATO water. It's important you know your evaporation number with some degree of accuracy. Otherwise your alk will quickly go up or down.

sounds like that will be almost a 1/3 of the btl (250ml size) going into that ATO....Paul, like you mentioned, i honestly do not know exactly how much water evaporates out of tank on a daily basis as i do know that the rate is not consistent. it seems like something that i can "muck up" and do more harm than good IMO. do you think i should just scrap it and stick with Kalk?

 

[Trio91]

I use Kalk but through a doser as i like to keep dosing steady, i use that to give a boost to ph and supplement it with calk and alk on separate dosers to maintain. Automating two part could be fairly cheap for you with a jebao doser, or two brs dosers and two timers.

a doser is something on my to own list....just haven't had the spare cash to get one

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'd stick with Kalk and use a Tom's Aqualifter and have a rebuild kit on hand to do the very simple rebuild when the pump craps out.

BRS carries this rebuild for $4.99


HERE is my experience with rebuilding this pump....post #358.


And I'd use two part if and when the Kalk could not keep up with demand.

 

[Trio91]

I'd stick with Kalk and use a Tom's Aqualifter and have a rebuild kit on hand to do the very simple rebuild when the pump craps out.

BRS carries this rebuild for $4.99


HERE is my experience with rebuilding this pump....post #358.


And I'd use two part if and when the Kalk could not keep up with demand.

thank you sir....as always u r the best

 

[redfishbluefish]

thank you sir....as always u r the best

Please, tell my wife that!

 

[dastrader]

I use the Aqualifter with Kalk mixed in with my RODI reservoir. I have it on a timer (something like 1 min on every 45 min on my old reef keeper 2 controller). I adjust it up or down every couple of days depending on my evaporation rate. I really need to put a float switch in and just set the timer slightly more aggressive and let the float switch turn it off if I start to overfill slowly over time.