Dosing kalkwasser with a calcium reactor

A Ca Reactor and Kalk go hand in hand with each other. Kalk is a balanced ALk and Calcium additive with a Ph of about 12 and will help keep your Ph more stable especially if you use a ca reactor. If your Ph drops more at night it would be more beneficial to run your auto top off only at night with kalk water to steady the Ph and keep it from falling as much when the lights are out. I always recommend never using a top container with enough volume that if or better yet when something does go wrong and it is all dosed to an aquarium at one time (it's not if equipment will fail but when) it will not be enough to drop the salinity to leathal levels for the aquariums inhabitants.
Another added benefit to using both is that you may be able to dial back your CA reactor a bit since you will be adding ca and alk by 2 methods. This may also reduce the amount of co2 that you are releasing into the aquarium through the reactor effluent and help with Ph.

 

Very informative (and accurate) answer Jamie!!/DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/w00t.gif

 

I run my Kalk Reactor right through the sump not the ATO, the feed pump is hooked to my PH controller that way I can set the on and off points and it keeps my PH very stable.

Only down side to this is to check your Ph probe regularly for calibration, or if you have the capacity run two PH probes in case one goes out of cal.

By doing it this way you don't have to try and keep track of your evaporation, and doses, as evaporation can change from day to day and season to season.

 

First, how does the corals & tank look?

A smart person once told me not to chase PH. 7.8 is not horrible.

That being said. You can drip your ATO through the Kalk at night when you ph falls & it will help. Keep an eye on your parameters as it could affect them as well.

 

Not a good idea, what is your mag level at? Running saltwater through the kalk reactor will precipitate the magnesium out of your water, the 3rd most important element in the water.

 

No issues at all!! You can cause calcium carbonate to precipitate out with an ATO just as easy! Its all in watching your parameters, and not adding to much kalk at one time.
As far as mag goes as long as you perform regular water changes the mag is not an issue as it is not absorbed by anything to any extent!
I've been running it like this since Macna and have had no issues, except my PH probe went out of cal once.
I still need to add a Cal reactor as my cal is still not high enough 380-400.

 

If it's working for you I guess thats great, but it goes against everything you read and the advice from some of the best known minds in the hobby.  pH isn't something that you should be that concerned with if your ca and alk are were they should be.

 

Avastmarine.com has some nice kalk reactors at a great price that's where I bought mine from

 

I use the Two Little Fishies KW 300 reactor. Works good and it's inexpensive.