It think we've had the Kalk in the ATO discussion before. I tried it for a bit last year. I'm not and don't think I will ever be a fan of it. To many variables. Weather changes with heat and humidity that not only vary every day, but thoughout a day. The larger the surface area of your entire system the larger the changes in evaporation rates due to weather and hvac use. This will create alk and ph swings, and at times those swings can be extreme.
IMHO the ATO is just that, a top off, and your better dosing a known amount of alk & cal to the system through a variety of methods. 2-part, carx or just dosing fully saturated kalk water at a fixed rate and let the ato make up the difference in water volume as needed. Once you know your consumption it's easy to use a calculator to figure out the daily dose amount. Then you just check it occasionally to make adjustments to demand. If saturated kalk can't keep up then go to 2-part only to keep it simple the way you like it. Using both can be done but it's more complicated which means more work on your part and more chances for error.
It's hard enough to track down issues when the system is stable. Your adding instability which makes it even harder to identify something that is a major problem because you can never rule out alk/ph swings as the cause.
I'd like to think I've gotten very close to just being able to look at my coral and know if something's not right. It's taken time to learn and figure this all out but I've got my system pretty much set and forget on the dosing end of things. I just need to make sure my jugs are filled. The last 6 months have been great, even through the 4 to 5 weeks of neglect during the remodel. The worst that happened was a cyano bloom. Two weeks of better husbandry and it's all cleared up.
Over the long haul which of your systems has been the most successful and trouble free, the Office Nano or the Cube at home?
