another kalk OD

[davejnz]

Came home the other day from work to a milky tank.Seems the rag that i had stuffed on the top of my HOT overflow to help silence it managed to slip down into the drain.It clogged,my kalk auto-top-off compensated by dumping 3 gallons of limewater into my system(not to mention,all the water on the rug).Lets see,that would make it the 3rd time i've had this happen.You think i'd of learned by now.I know my PH must have been thru the roof(never tested) but after things were clear enough to view the corals,to my surprise they all had polyps extended and seem unaffected.The only negative is all the calc that precipitated had left a white dust over everything.So i added some salt to get my salinity back up and all seems normal.I knew calcium precipitated but was surprised today when i tested my alk and it was only 7dKH.I normally keep it at 9.I swear,every time i start to get a growth spurt out of my acro's,I have to go ruin it with a stupid mistake.Another lesson learned,I guess.

[dakar]

Here is my solution to avoiding the OD's.... I use a 2.5 gallon water jug container for limewater, with an airline as the feed, an IV type roller clamp, and goof around with the drip rate until i get close to my evaporation rate and leave it be. Takes a few days to get it right but it's pretty much bulletproof can't OD that way, just have to make sure the airline doesn't get clogged up (over 4 months now and no clogging yet)

Glad to hear nothing was harmed short of your patience.

MY biggest problem is my skimmer like to go nuts about once every 60-90 days, and just starts pumping water out of the collection cup, wake up to the tank level low, and 15-20 gallons of water on the floor in the basement, some areas are quite well salt encrusted now

[Reptoreef]

My doser works off of a gravity feed drip to float valve regulated evaporated top-off. Basically, my ro unit dumps into a 5 gl bucket that I add the pure lime to(float valve regulated). From there via gravity feed, the mixed limewater is added to the sump and there is not really any chance of OD... if so, there is also a ca reactor that will kick on at a ph of 8.3 and with increased co2 the ph never reaches above 8.4 or below 8.1. If you don't have the roome for a gravity feed behind your system, I imagine a sealed kalk reactor would work if using a closed loop to stir the kalk and still dump into sump with top off for evaporationJust a basic stop in the in flow of the ro top-off. IMO, I wouldn't run a ca without the kalk reactor... they totally compliment one another and will allow only a very minimum flux from an extremely stable PH, Ca, and Alk in the system(IMO, the most critical for stability).

[davejnz]

repto,mines like yous.I gravity feed kalk from 5 gal bucket to float valve in sump.But when something goes wrong(snail clogged,rag fell in drain,etc..)and sump water level drops the gravity fed kalk tries to compensate.

[Reptoreef]

Now I see... try a nylon screen w/plastic popsicle cage type cover over the overflow area... this should help from things getting clogged ofr falling in.

[dakar]

Cound try that plastic mesh stuff that is used for crafts and stuff... dang I wish could remember what it's called. We've been using it on the overflow boxes to stop critters from making it through the egg crate.

looks like this....

[davejnz]

thanks for the tips,hopefully after my new tank is running,I wont have to dael with these HOB overflows.