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Best way to drip Kalk?

C

chrowski

Hey all,
Right now I am dripping Kalk manually at night by creating a new syphon every night to drip my Kalk. However I am going away on vacation in August for 14 days and I want to make my tank as self-maintaining as possible before then. Are there any suggestions as to how to dose kalk nightly without it unit having to be refilled daily?

Thanks in advance,
--tom
 
C

chrowski

No, I have no automated controller yet, I was thinking of investing in a Aqua Medic SP 3000 Dosing Pump however it says it drips .8gallons an hour...That is WAY more then I need considering I dose currently a half gallon of kalk/water be night over about 3 or 4 hours. So basically I'm wondering if it could be tweaked down or is this dosing pump constant @ .8GPH

Thanks
--tom
 
S

sinkingbeach

If you moved up to the Aqua Medic Reefdoser, ($100 more, PA group buy this month will save you 15% ;D ) you can program it for on and off times ;)
 
C

Carlo

The one thing you'd have to watch if using an Aqua Medic Reefdoser for this type of application is their nasty habit of creating a siphon in the tubes and continuing to deliver water/solution when turned off.

They weren't really created to be run where there is pressure on the line like a submerged 2 foot airline tube. The cheap aqualifter pump doesn't seem to have this problem.

A LitreMeter on the other hand would work wonderfully in this application but it's in it's own class of dosing pumps and pretty expensive to boot.

Carlo
 
C

chrowski

If I got the MUCH cheaper aqualifter pump, it's rated at 3GPH, but I'm wondering if this can be turned down to say somewhere between .125gph or .3gph without overheating the pump by making it push flow against resistance in the airline tubing.
 
C

Carlo

I do this on my kalk and dosing pumps with the airline control valve. They've been running for a couple of years with no problems.

You just want to make sure you "strangle/block" the output of the pump and not the input.

Carlo
 
M

mott768

I have been using the sp3000 for over a year with no issues, I have it connected to a float switch on a timer, 1/2 hour after the light turn off the timer kicks on starts the pump drips until the float switch reaches the set point and turns on and off during the night until 1/2 before my actinics turn on. it was the easiest way to top off/kalk drip I could come up with. and all for under $150.
 
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