Kalk drip innitiated...

[RoachBug]

Well I made my nifty homemade kalk dripper today. Attempted to track down Pickling Lime but was unable to, I guess pickling isn't quite in season yet. I guess finding pickling lime in April is the equivenant of finding a parka in the store in mid July. Anyhow after breaking down and picking up some Kent Kalkawasswer and a couple gallon jugs of RO water, some tubing, and a air valve shut-off, I am off and running....err dripping. As a added bonus, I even got to break out the electric drill to make the holes in the lid!!

Hopefully the kalk drip will aid in growing some decent coraline algea, at least that is the game plan. I assume there are a few of you that use this same method. Any idea as to a time length I can look forward to waiting before I may start to see some coraline growth. The assorted rocks in the aquarium are all seeded now, unfortunately in the past 1.5 years the coraline has either bleached, receeded, or just plain not spread.

Here's to keeping my fingers crossed.. I want pink/purple/red/green coraline ALL OVER!! Hehe!

Roach:strooper:

 

[selgado]

Here's a shot of my coralline on Mrs. Wages drip:

As far as time, who knows. I would be pulling a number out of a hat. Every tank is different.

EDIT: I get my Mrs. Wages at a local department store called Anderson's. The usually stock a ton of it.

 

[bigdaddyadam]

weird, I have never seen coralline grow like that before, it looks like a head of cabbage

 

[zaireguy]

walmart super centers also carry it

 

[weimers75]

I was thinking of starting a kalk drip. I'm currently using a two part additive. I know NOTHING about a kalk drip, any help would be great...just be sure to be specific

 

[Briney Dave]

I have done the drip to boost the pH in my bryso algae wars (that wage on)

anyway it took me about 30-40 hours to drip my five gallon bucket to the bottom.

 

[jenghes]

Dosing Kalk is easy. I just mix a gallon of RO or distilled water with 2 tbsp (saturated) kalk. Let sit for a while (hour or so to let it settle.

In the top of the gallon lid, I made a hole to fit airline tubing in and put a plastic valve on the end. Then just use this to drip.

 

[Briney Dave]

sorry missed the help request, use r/o water (no salt added) oxygenated and warmed helps too

mix the solution according to the label,

use a drip acclamation set-up with a valve to control the speed of the drip

start the siphon wide open then shut it down to a drip or two per second at once.

drip into the sump near where the pump will pick it up to spread it through the main tank.

monitor pH carefull especially in smaller tanks (under 150)

I use calcium hydroxide to raise my pH but any drip application solution will need to work about the same way

I took about 30 days to bump my pH from 8.1 to 8.6
again in an effort to kill my brysophsis algae

the drip also works well to boost calcium or for adding other goodies as needed

 

[jenghes]

It is also good for killing dino's. First hand experience here

This was great advice from the Fish Doc's

 

[Dubbin1]

I drip kalk the same way as Jen but I let it set for a several hours before I start the drip. You should let a crust form on the surface before dripping. My dripping days are going to be over next month though when Ron, Bill and I head down to the kalk reactor class that GEO is putting on.

 

[jenghes]

I agree Dubbin, I should have said one hour minimum.

How big would this reactor be? Does it sit in the sump? I am not sure if I'd have room for it in the sump. Darn corner tanks Hard to fit anything under there.

 

[Briney Dave]

I follow suit with the amount of time sitting and the nasty looking crust/film

I found that the dip must not touch the water otherwise it precipicates and plugs the line

 

[selgado]

There's a guy on Michigan Reefers selling a 44 pound bag of calcium hydroxide for $20. If you can't find the thread, pm me for the link. It's in the selling forum. He's located in Monroe, MI.

 

[Spuds725]

for a home made two part here is a recipe I just found--

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php#15

Also was recently linked to this nifty calculator-- for alkalinity make sure you select your desired units..

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

 

[weshu87]

Kalk driping has worked great for me, I also purchase Mrs. wages at andersons.

 

[jetaero]

I use kent kalkwasser solution myself... It works great!

But as long as you're using Ca(OH)2... you're safe

 

[zimmy1979]

I am dripping kalk from kent aquadose on a stand. It is working great even though I have to fill the small 5 gallon jug every other day because of my evaporation. It is also really good for keeping my PH between 8.1 (night) and 8.3(day) in check. I still have to dose 2-part because my kalk for some reason doesn't want to keep my alk in check (I go from 7dkh down to 6dkk in a day if I don't dose 2part) and I don't have that many SPS frags (6 or so) in my 60G.

 

[hllywd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7155427#post7155427 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dubbin1
I drip kalk the same way as Jen but I let it set for a several hours before I start the drip. You should let a crust form on the surface before dripping. My dripping days are going to be over next month though when Ron, Bill and I head down to the kalk reactor class that GEO is putting on.

Dang I sure wish I could go to that...

 

[zaireguy]

if you use a auto topoff just add your kalk to that and no worries easy as pie

 

[hllywd]

Maybe I'll copy the reactor, how is it controlled?