3 part dosing vs. kalk dosing

Yeah...dissolve kalk powder in vinegar, then add to top off water. Essentially this (dissolving before adding to water) is done to cause more calcium to be available. I read up on this a while back and I think there was a good thread about it on here. did this for a while on one tank but I got too busy and went back to 2-part dosing until I could reconfigure the sump and system...

 

Your tanks requirements for calcium and alkalinity are also a factor in the type of dosing you choose. Either one is a great option.
With kalk it is normally added to the fresh water top off. Your kind of at the mercy of your tanks evaporation rate to determine how much kalk water will be added to the system. Like mentioned you can add some vinegar to the mix which allows more of the kalk to dissolve in the water, but still you can be limited.
Kalk is definitely a cheap and easy solution. And if it can keep the parameters where they need to be in your system then its a great option. Moderately sized mixed reefs, LPS tanks, would probably do the best with the kalk method. Once you start getting lots of calcium hungry sps and clams, you're probably going to fall short just dosing kalk.

2 part can handle any sized system, any load. You just dose what you need to maintain parameters. Automating the dosing is the way to go though. Apex and dosing pumps FTW. It takes a week or so of fine tuning, but setup and dialing in is not difficult at all, then just some maintenance checking and adjusting as the system changes and grows.

I wouldn't say one of them is better than the other in any way. Like everything in reefing there's 100 ways to do things and what works for one person may not work for another. You can do one, the other, or both. Experiment with what works best in your system and keep us updated on the results.

I started out dosing 2 part, and it worked very good. Wanting to try something different and cheaper I then went kalk and that alone could not keep up with demand. Now I run kalk with a calcium reactor. Rock solid and I'm very happy with the setup.