Cloudy water from Kalk???

[Snelly40]

hey guys, am i mixing too much kalk with my RO water?
when my ATO pumps a little water into the sump it is making the tank a little cloudy. Not too bad, but it is noticable for a good five minutes afterwards, is that normal?

 

[rmlevasseur]

I've always understood that you should wait until the kalk mix is clear before you add it to the tank.

 

[cuttie100]

looks like your adding your kalk to soon....you need to let it settle for about 1-2 hours. Siphon the undesolved kalk from the bottom of your container and use the clear portion. Never mix and add to the tank right away.

 

[framerguy]

Do you have the kalk in your top off resevoir? Can you describe in a little more detail how you are dosing? I have a Kalk reactor/stirer that has calcium hydroxide mixing in it all the time and a small pump pushes water from the resevoir into the reactor where it forces out some calcium saturated water for the top off. It is usually clear unless the top off unit goes for a particularly long time, then it can get into the unmixed portion. Is that what's happening?

 

[Witfull]

or return pump is to low in resivour.

 

[Snelly40]

thans guys, well i had to take out my ato b/c i cant fit the container down there anymore with my new sump. i am trying to figure out a solution,
as far as it being cloudy i think i just added some too soon

 

[Octoman]

I built a spot to put my ATO container next to the tank. It also functions as a kitty seat and has a shelf in the top for keeping fish supplies...

 

[Snelly40]

thats a good idea, thanks octo!

 

[klm2500hd]

Slow down the top off rate. Mine goes through a reactor hooked up to a pressurized tank on the r/o system. If I add too much at once the tank gets cloudy.

 

[cbrownfish]

Kalk/Limewater/Calcium Hydroxide does not fully dissolve in water.....there will always be sediment at the bottom of the mixing container. You should only add the clear liquid to your tank, so having your top off pump right on the bottom of the container is a mistake. Mixing a fresh batch and immediately adding it to the tank is not advised either. Mount the pump an inch or two off the bottom and don't use the milky stuff at the bottom of the container..

 

[coleBB]

do you guys think that you should remove the sediment from the bottom everytime you refill...or just keep diluting and re dosing for top off??im using gravity to float for ato.

 

[Octoman]

I mix my Kalk in a seperate container and then siphon it into my ATO container (24 hours later so it has time to settle and mix adequately). That leaves most of the sediment on the bottom of the mixing jug. I also rinse my ATO container out between batches of top-off water. The sediment can contain impurities so I would rather keep it out of the tank if I can.

 

[cuttie100]

Yep Octoman is right....That is the same method I take when mixing my kalk.