Has anyone tried this way of adding kalk?

how big is your top off container? and how often do you need to replenish it?

 

I'm assuming you have a sump. If you don't have white powder sitting on the bottom of the sump where your ATO drops in, then you're not pumping too fast.

 

I have a 20 gallon home made container (stole "borrowed" the design online) Sealed cube with a 6" screw cap for a fill. Stand pipe in the middle of the tank that I feed an airline tube in and begin a siphon that goes to a Kent Marine float - thus ATO via siphon, I do not trust direct hook up to RO/DI - flood potential and all that.

I fill it every week to week and a half. This is a 180 DT with glass tops, 55 gallon sump open top with fans moving fresh air and a large surface area on a refugium.

 

yes i have a sump.... gotta have a sump / refug in the sump i put an extra sock to catch any sentiment that gets out of the ato water , my ato/kalk water goes into the extra sock in the sump. now that you say that im thinking the fact it has to filter threw the sock that might slow it down also to hit the tanks water ?????

 

i have a 5 gallon and have to fill it every 2-3 days ... not much room left under my tank

 

Possibly. If your tank is maintaining Ca and Alk, you're fine. This issue would be the least of my worries. I would just make sure there's no way on God's green earth that your powerhead can fall of the side of the container and fall into the slurry.

 

My evap changes with the seasons and if we have the house open or closed up.

I drilled my floor and placed all my equipment in the basement

 

yes this was a concern to me also, thats why i added the sock. to keep any slurry out of the tank. i dont think it could get threw 100 micron sock. i hope my theory is right.
my power head is sitting in a shallow bowl at the bottom of the ato container . i dont trust suction cups. but now that you mention it i did just free up a magnetic powerhead holder and could stick it to the powerhead to the side. that might be safer.

 

i bought the kalk from bulk reef supply gallon container. should last a long time for 10.00. than when i was at the fish store yesterday i seen a kalk thats called ... kalk +2 it has the magnesium and strontium in it. sounds like a better idea since the cal and mag work together.

 

thanks to everyones imput i think i will make a few changes.

1 mix before i add it to top off
2 two cover it with bubble wrap ( great idea!) i see that as being very easy to deal with
3 change time setting on auto topoff and adjust the flow a bit slower
4 hook pump to side with magnetic holder

not giving up the sock though. thats my safety net