kalk reactor question

[spazz]

im doing some research on kalk reactors, and everyone is running ro water into there reactors to top off there tanks. right now im dosing kalk in my top off water at a ph of 12. i make up about 30 gallons of top off water to last a month. i have tested the water to make sure it stays at a high ph.
the tank ph stays at 8.3 during the day but falls during the nite. i know most of my evaporation is during the day when the fans are going and the lights are on. and at night i never hear the top off pump kick in.
so what im wondering is if i ran the tank water through a kalk reactor, just like i run the water through the ca reactor, and quit dosing kalk in my top off water. would this keep my ph, alk and cal right? im running a korllin ca reactor right now, and want to get a kalk reactor soon. but if i have to hook hook it up to top off the tank, im no better off than i am right now.
i know there are some members out there that are good with ca and kalk reactor setups.

[spazz]

here is my water parameters as of 2:30 am on sun morn.
salinity (refractometer) 1.026
ph (milwaukee ph mon) 7.9 tested for accuracy tonight
amon. 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
cal 530 using salfert test kit
kh/dkh 6.1 2.17meq/l using salfert test kit.
im dosing kalk and have a buffer block in my sump to try and keep my ph/alk up. please give me some recomendations to get my alk/ph/ca ajusted right. i like where my ca is but i feel its affecting my alk/ph levels. would turning down my ca reactor help bring up my alk levels? the ph monitor is running the reactor and im driping about 40dpm with a bubble rate of 12-14bpm.
i drip the efluent into my refuge to try and get all of the un used co2 out before it reaches the tank. my ph monitor is in the refuge too. would that make a difference?

[spazz]

anybody????

[mnreefgeek]

refresh my memory. Is your top off via power head of Kent style float switch?

[Lars]

Forward - I am no great reef expert, or chemestry expert. Get a second opinion on everything I say haha. Feel free to correct me anyone.

I had a great link that explained the relationship between CA and ALK very well. I can't find it though. At any rate, you can raise or lower CA or ALK independantly, or together. There are products and devices that will do whatever you want. You just need to figure out how to raise ALK without raising CA. When I read the article, I had the opposite problem. I wanted to raise CA without raising ALK. The article suggested Turbo Calcium for that.

If I remember correctly, a CA reactor raises both CA and ALK, hitting a "balance" depending on how you have it dialed in. That is great if you are starting from a good balance already, but adding one without fixing "problem" values first will not fix them. If you try to fix a low ALK issue with a CA reactor alone, you will push your CA too high and probably cause precip. Using a Kalk reactor will help stabalize PH, meaning more (or less) CA in solution. The Kalk reactor is basucally for people who don't want the trouble of mixing it themselves, and they do work better. If you are comfortable doing it yourself, then go for it. Your PH sounds ok based on what you reported.

Hope that helps, I'll keep trying to find that article.

Lars.

[Lars]

This isn't the link I was thinking of, but it may be useful:

http://www.kademani.com/reefchem.htm

[redlion4]

From Randy Holmes-Farley, moderator & chemist on the Reef Central Chemistry Forum. Possibly the only article one would ever need to keep Ca and Alk in check: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

Here is a link to his list of other articles, many of which are very useful: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=102605 (note that you may have to be 'signed in' to the reef central forum to see this one....I can't remember).

I like his most recent article too. "Reef Aquarium Water Parameters" - http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

[spazz]

Originally posted by mnreefgeek
refresh my memory. Is your top off via power head of Kent style float switch?

i use a little giant (got it dirt cheep so i used it) to pump lime water up from the basement. its hooked to a top off switch.

[spazz]

thanks for the links guys i think that will help me solve this problem.