water evaporation

i have a 40 gallon open top tank and have about a 3/4 of a gallon evaporation rate. is that normal? my lfs told me to set up a kalk mix drip at that rate. i currently use b-ionic a-b for calcium. would the drip work better? or is it too much to replace at 3/4 of a gallon a day.

 

What is your tank temp?

 

do you have an open top? that is what i have in my 65 Gallon (+20 sump) with 540W of light. So does seam hight to me. My temp is kept around 78-80F

 

I lose about 1 gallon per day due to evaporation. I drip 1 gallon of kalk everyday for make up as well.

 

sorry, i guess you already said you have an open top.

 

tresguey I'd recommend a kent marine float switch in your sump. That's what I used to do. I mixed kalk in a five gallon reservoir and had the line attached to the float not go all the way to the bottom of the reservoir so it didn't suck in kalk paste. Worked flawlessly for years. The float costs $15.

Currently I use a Tunze Osmolator and Calcium reactor but that costs a heck of a lot more.

 

my temp is about 78-79. i would love to use a float but i have no sump. as i only have a fluval 404 on it. i did the math. and it takes about 7 drops per 10 seconds to replace about 3/4 of a gallon in a 24 hour period. my next question would be. will 3/4 of a gallon of kalk mix O.D. my 40 gallon tank?

 

If I were dripping that fast I'd dilute the kalk big time. But man, that drip rate sounds hard to nail down. When I was using a I.V., I had a hell of a time.

If I can persuade you, you could get a sump going for less than a $200. Most of that would be spent on a hang on the back prefilter/overflow which would run you around $60 for a tank that size. Then you need a sump - a 20 long would work nice for about $40 - and a sump pump - maybe an Ocean Runner 2700 or a Mag for $60 - $70 off the top of my head.

Food for thought.

This will settle a lot of headaches - the evap by using a float of some kind and you take a lot of the hardware out of your tank and put it down there.

 

tresguey,

Do you have any animals or coral in the tank that need or will 'use' the calcium?


John

 

my tank has about 60 ponds of live rock, two different types of shrooms and some polyps. but i plan on adding some LPS soon. my calcium stays around 550. and i have though about going to the sump matt. i just have one thing i dont like about the prefilter. is that the over the backs tend to noisy. i have an old 20l i turned into awet dry for my brother he isnt useing. but how to quiet down the prefilter is my main concern. any help would be great.