How much to dose?

[Nabob89]

once i start adding kalk to my tank, i will be using the DIY top-off system (bottle filled with RO/DI water and kalk......put in tubing and create a syphon with a piece of plastic on the end....im blanking on the name right now).....this seems simple enough, but how do I know how many drips per second to do.....so i dont add too much kalk or freshwater.......should I just get the water level at a certain point, then experiment to see how many drips/second keep the level at that same point? Will this be adding too much kalk to the tank? (ill be keeping mostly softies.....the tank is 55 gallons) thanks
Matt

 

[bertoni]

You'll need to experiment with the drip. I'd watch the tank very closely at first, maybe after 15 minutes, half an hour, an hour, and shut down the drip if the pH climbs too high. Perhaps start with 1 tsp per gallon of lime.

After that process is done, you'll need to tune the amount that you drip, and the strength, which involves a lot of alkalinity testing. Vinegar can be added to tame the pH swings a bit.

This article goes into details:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php