Dosing Kalk Question

[carmexx]

I have recently started dosing kalkwasser. I mix in a gallon container and pour into my top off reservoir. It's not an auto doser but uses a float to add topoff. I am getting a surface film in the tank b/c I don't have alot of surface agitation. I get the "disco ball effect" from my LED's if i do.

Is there any recommendation for minimizing the film? Maybe use a felt pad or sock around my return pump? It is a RR rimless tank and I do use a filter sock in the sump.

 

[PSU4ME]

I'm not sure if the Kalk and the surface film are that connected. As long as your only putting the clear Kalk liquid into the tank you should be good.

Pointing a power head up to the surface to gently disrupt it would be the first place I'd start

 

[carmexx]

My reservoir did almost empty the other night. Do you think some of the settled kalk got sucked into the tank through my top off and that is what the film is from?

 

[PSU4ME]

A very good possibility. I always suspend my pump about 2" off the bottom so that never happens. I used the tunze.

I'd run some surface agitation or use the paper towel method or gently push it into the overflow and fix the reservoir issue...... See if it happens again. In my ato, the top always formed a "cake layer"

 

[DaveK]

Tp get any large benifit out of dosing kalk, you should not simply add it to the ATO water. It should be dosed by using a Kalk reactor, otherwise known as a Nilsen Reactor. Here is one example (offsite) - http://www.marinedepot.com/Reef_Oct..._Reactors-Reef_Octopus-CV21070-FICRKR-vi.html

Note that a kalk reactor is a sealed unit, and that a power head is used internally to recirculate the water inside the reactor. The kalk stays in the lower part of the reactor, and your ato water goes in through a tube to the bottom of the reactor and the clear kalk water comes out the top of the reactor.

This is done to keep oxygen away from the kalk and slows down the process where it can precipitate out. If you don't use a sealed reactor The kalk comes out of solution and doesn't much foir your system.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

The film and kalk are likely not related in any way. In all the systems I've kept that haven't had a surface skimmer or overflow, there has been a film on the surface. And I've only dosed kalk in one of them.

I'd also reconsider the decision to not agitate the surface of the water with a powerhead. The gas exchange is so important to the health of your tank (and most people like the shimmer, or "disco ball" effect).

 

[DaveK]

The film and kalk are likely not related in any way. In all the systems I've kept that haven't had a surface skimmer or overflow, there has been a film on the surface. And I've only dosed kalk in one of them.

I'd also reconsider the decision to not agitate the surface of the water with a powerhead. The gas exchange is so important to the health of your tank (and most people like the shimmer, or "disco ball" effect).

Even though it's white, a film on the surface, especially when the surface is not agitated, is usually a bacteria film. You do want to remove it one way or another.