Kalkwasser or 2 part dosing?

I recently moved from dosing to kalk and love it. I think you mentioned an ATO. You may want to check into adding a stirrer onto the ATO. I got an Avast k1 stirrer. I hooked the stirrer in line with my Tunze ATO. The ATO pumps the RO into the stirrer and the stirrer adds the clear kalk solution from the top into the sump.

I have 2 backups in case the Tunze fails. The PH controller monitors tank PH and will shut down the Tunze pump in a runaway situation. If that fails I only keep 2 gallons of RO in the top off container. I have a 180 DT, so even with 2 gallons of kalk dump in at once the ph should still not spike to high before action could be taken.

 

Another thing to add to Slassco's post, using a small dosing pump for the ATO with kalk might foul up the pump pretty quick. I run a MJ400 as the pump to pump the water. The larger diameter tubing gives you less of a chance of clogging from the "cementing" effect that kalk might give. And if the pump fails, I don't feel bad throwing it out and buying another cheap MJ400.

 

Thanks for all your help guys. Today I received the BRS 2 part system that I ordered Saturday. It's all mixed and about ready to go. I'm still finding the Ca and alk trading places. Today Ca:420, alk 10.2. Yesterday Ca:435, alk 8.0. I think the first thing I need to fix is mag which is 1290. Hopefully I can get some stability. Actually I'm ok with todays numbers, I just know that tomorrow they will be off again. Short term I'll try out the 2 part and decide whether to stick with it (with doser and controller), our use kalk, or both. What I'm looking for is dependability long term. I don't feel comfortable even leaving town for the weekend right now.

 

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

this is a pretty good article that I read when I first got my feet wet about a year and change ago with my tank. hope it helps your case. It describes nicely how cal and alk work hand in hand.