1-2 tablespoons per gallon, or if you want it to be fully saturated, just dump a bunch in. The water will only "hold" so much, what's left over will settle to the bottom and can be reused for your next mix.
Just give it a quick stir with anything available (I use my arm/hand) until it's cloudy. Then let it settle. It will seperate into 2 parts - a clear water like liquid on top, a cloudy residue on bottom (that's the left over lime that didn't dissolve + a few other minor things). This could take a few hours.
Only use the clear stuff from the top, try to avoid dripping in the sediments on the bottom. won't necessarily hurt your tank, but something to avoid.
How much to drip? Depends entirely upon your evaporation rate. Most people match their kalk drip to the rate of evaporation, that is if you evaporate 2 gallons a day, drip 2 gallons a day. You obviously don't want to exceed your evaporation rate.
Some drip 24/7, others, like myself, drip at night to gain the benefits of the PH rise.
This procedure may or may not be sufficient to maintain your calcium and alk - it all depends upon the demand of your tank, and how much you are able to drip in each night. On the flip side, if you have low demand and high evaporation, it could slowly push your levels up. Be especially cognizant of a PH spike if that's your situation.
Play with it awhile and test the results. The only real damage you can do in the short-run would result from overdosing and the resultant PH rise and possible precipitation event. As long as you don't let the PH get out of whack, you shouldn't have any problems.
I use pickiling lime, others swear to use nothing but the fancy german kalk in their tanks. I've seen no negative effects in my tank after a year of usage.
Good luck.
Also, examiner, thanks for the succinct instructions, I've printed them out and taped them to my bottle of pickling lime.
