1st night of kalkwasser

i may do my first dosing of kalk tonight. i have used a small bottle of mountain dew that i got at walmart, put a hole near the bottom of it and siliconed in airline tubing. picked up a control valve at petco so i can do nice, slow dripping. i mixed one teaspoon of pickling lime into a one gallon jug of rodi water, closed, and shook. it has been sitting for about an hour and still looks slightly cloudy. is kalk supposed to be clear or slightly cloudy? i plan to fill my small dosing bottle maybe halfway since this is my first night. i will drip this very slow preferably just a drip every few secs into my main tank above a powerhead. i dont want to do it into the sump as there is hardly any flow in there. should i do this every night and see what happens, every other night. im thinking every night as i want to achieve stability. im hoping to gain great coralline growth off of the use of kalkwasser since nothing else seems to help it with my system it seems to be at a standstill.

 

i would drip into your sump. not your tank. not sure how much reading you have done on kalk. but you really have to be careful with it.

 

even if there is barely any flow in there?

 

You don't want to drip Kalk from the bottom of the container. That's where all deposits lie,assuming you let the mixture sit for some time and 1 hour isn't long enough.At least 24hrs. is safer. You don't want those deposits in your DT they'll dramatically raise your PH. Get a larger container than your MountainDew bottle.Something Gallon size preferably and make your mix in that,then let it sit for 24 hrs. then dose the fluid that's above the settlement at the bottom.Do this when all lights are off and PH begins to drop. There's no "fast" way to grow anything in a reef tank,It all takes time,and Coralline is one of those things. Don't let the drip excede one per second. Try this for two days and test your KH and CA and make sure they aren't that much higher than when you began the drip dose.Assuming you tested prior that is.

 

thats what im doing. i mixed one teaspoon into a gallon juice jug of rodi water. ill let it sit for 24 hrs. i will then siphon some of the top liquid into my small container which will be the doser.

 

Any Ca,KH,PH tests prior to the dose? If so,list them. Then post back with the results two days later.

 

i will test them tomorrow. i hate my api test kit for calcium. it says when it turns a certain shade of blue you read calcium. one shade of blue might appear different from person to person. so i never feel confident with it. same deal for my alk test

 

yes slower is better. and it will be much safer than dosing directly to your tank.

im new to kalk also. and i probably drove many nuts here with all my kalk questions. lol i also read on the net about it and watched a few utube videos. you might want to check utube out for design ideas on your drip system. as with all things in saltwater, there are many ways to go about things. nothing is set in stone. but be careful with kalk. i stress that because all i read about it.

 

ya im nervous about it but will take it real slow. my drip system is just a personal mountain dew bottle with airline hosing siliconed into it. i got a airline valve at petco and it allows me to meticulously control the rate of dripping. i can get it to one drip every 4-5 secs. nice and slow.

 

watch some of the utube videos. it really helps to see what people are saying. to get a better understanding. i felt it helped me.