Switching from two part to kalkwasser

[oldschoolcoupe]

I have a 28g Nano Cube with just a couple SPS and a few LPS, rest is softies. I am switching over kalk in the top off water in the near future. Decided to do this simply because it will be one less thing to do, I really slack off in the summer months. Currently I just use a jug and top off once a day about 4-6oz, less often in the summer. I wanted to see what everyone thought about how to top off and dose kalk. I was thinking either a DIY ATO with two float switches and a relay or a single programmable dosing pump (Icecap?). My thought was a little bit at a time throughout the day with the dosing pump would be better to prevent ph spikes. The DIY ATO would be cheaper to make but I'm not sure how much it would be putting in the tank at once. There is a column in the rear section that is small (3"x3") that goes down with evaporation. If I put the float switches in that column, I don't think all that much would be added at once. Interested in what you all have to say. Thanks everyone and have a great Christmas.

[CoralBeauties]

I would think if you are building a diy auto top off you could set up your 2 switches pretty close so that it wouldnt add alot of water at once to keep the level you are shooting for without changing things too much.  I am setting up a kalk reactor now and will try using it with my ato also.  I will have my ato attached to my ro/di tank and when my ato calls for water it will add it from my ro/di pressure tank into the kalk reactor.
Jeff

[joelbegt]

You could always get the dosing pump to do 3/4 of the top off and you take care of the rest.  If you go the ato route I would test it with not fully saturated kalk until you feel things out a bit.  Keep in mind if you suck kalk thru the doser you may get plugged tubes over time.  Do you run a controller with a ph probe?

[oldschoolcoupe]

I don't run any kind of controller. I'm strongly looking at aquahub ATO kit. It's reasonably priced with a backup float in case of the first one failing.