adding pickling lime

[gusmanda]

How do you add pickling lime? I am currently mixing it in a bucket and was going to add it to replace evaporated water, however I am unsure as to whether I should add the whole bucket or just the top part and throw away the rest. Any thoughts on this?

 

[mbbuna]

you need to drip it in very slowly. 1 or 2 drops a sec.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This article has details on how to use it:

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm

 

[gusmanda]

Oh oh, 1 or 2 drops per second, looks like I'll be next to the tank for a while!!! Will the bottom of the container finish full of muck? Easy to clean?

 

[mbbuna]

you only want to add the clear water. mix it a day in advance(or at least untill the water is clear after mixing)

something like will help, and you can make one of your own very easily

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_dosing_pumps_top_off_kent_marine_aquadose.asp?CartId=

 

[gusmanda]

just read the article, much clearer now.Think I might have mixed too much, given that my tank is only 55g.

 

[jeffbrig]

You can add it a lot faster than 1 or 2 drips a second, unless you have a nano/pico tank. My system holds ~300g of water, and I mix/dose kalk a full gallon at a time. I add it to the highest flow area of the sump, and overall pH tank rises about 1/10th. A single dose can be appropriate if the amount is carefully chosen. I would strongly advise having a pH monitor running if you choose to play around with this.

From Randy's article above

4. Delivering a small amount of limewater all at once. Adding 1.25% of the aquariumââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s volume (1.25 gallons of limewater per 100 gallons of aquarium water) as saturated limewater all at once raises the pH by 0.6 to 0.7 pH units. Such an increase is clearly too large. Adding a smaller portion all at once can, however, be acceptable. Adding, for example, 0.25% of the aquarium volume (0.25 gallons or 1 L of limewater per 100 gallons of aquarium water) will raise the pH by only 0.1 to 0.2 pH units. Unless the pH is high (>8.4) before the addition, that amount is likely acceptable. The other concern with all-at-once dosing is that the local pH in the area of the addition will rise considerably higher than the values above. So dosing must be done far from living organisms, and in high flow areas that will facilitate fast mixture. In some aquaria, such restrictions make all-at-once dosing of limewater prohibitively risky to living organisms.

 

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6960972#post6960972 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jeffbrig
You can add it a lot faster than 1 or 2 drips a second, unless you have a nano/pico tank. My system holds ~300g of water, and I mix/dose kalk a full gallon at a time. I add it to the highest flow area of the sump, and overall pH tank rises about 1/10th. A single dose can be appropriate if the amount is carefully chosen. I would strongly advise having a pH monitor running if you choose to play around with this.

From Randy's article above

just trying to be SAFE with my advise. better that this first time Kalk user slowly finds his/her own drip rate, then nuke the whole tank on the first shot

 

[fish_taste_good]

I use a kent doser and I modified a 2 gallon pitcher with some hose to drain the middle part of the mix out.

I have been doing this for years and the doser I use is all the way open. It goes directly into the return flow in my sump. My mixture has always been cloudy.

I make it at night and dose it at night the following day.

 

[fish_taste_good]

also - here is a thread about dosing it that I started and Randy helped alot in that thread

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=609265