Calcium IV drip help

What's the name of the controller you have? I just set up my Tunze Universal topoff system. I saw they have a container you can put in the topoff bucket to add calcium. I've heard good things about it ... but i was hopeing to not spend anymore money on my tank for a while. I had a talk with my girlfriend this morning. She's starting to get really jealous of the amount of time i spent on the tank now in addition to the $$$.

 

I try to keep my Cal at 450. When i use Oceanic crystals the levels are already at 450 in the mix. On my little 30g i didn't have to deal with calcium because the mix kept the levels at 450 with weekly water changes. Now that i have a big tank and water changes are every 2 weeks the levels drop more dramatically. Testing is so time consuming there has to be an easier way tank an unreliable IV. I set the thing so it driped every minute then the next day it had slowed to every 5 minutes. Also the jug has to be up high where it's visible. It brings down the visual appeal of the display. I'm looking into other meathods now. If anyone has any sugestions i'd love to read about it.

 

If you have a sump then you can drip it in there so its not visible.

 

If you have a Tunze osmolator you can just put your kalkwasser powder in your RO topoff water, that's what I do, but I do have a Neptune Aquacontroller Junior monitoring my tank too for PH although it's more of a redundancy thing in case something goes wrong with both of the sensors on the osmolator.

Just start with small amounts of kalk until you know what your tank needs. Start with like a quarter or half teaspoon per gallon of topoff or something like that, or however much kalkwasser you're dripping right now put that much into the same amount of water that your tank is evaporating each day.

One other thing is that calcium and alkalinity should generally be used up in equal proportion, you really only need to test alkalinity regularly because that is the more important of the two, just make sure you keep your alk stable and then occasionally test your calcium and make adjustments to calcium if it gets out of whack. That's my system anyway, plus alk testing is much simpler I've found, just count the number of drops needed to change color, takes 2 minutes.

Also, it seems like a large part of your problem is your girlfriend, maybe you should fix it at the source. ;D
I'm opening a reefkeepers relationship counseling center by the way, I'm gonna make millions!






(Totally joking about the girl thing just to be clear! Don't let her see this!)

 

Good to know! One question. When you put lime into the bucket it settles to the bottom, then with the pump kicks on to top off wont it add more tahn it should because it's all caked up on the bottom? I use the little pump that comes with the Tunze topoff setup. i've been told if i put lime directly into the bucket it will eventually kill my little pump or what the guy said was "shorten the pumps life span dramatically. Have you found this to be true? What do you do about the kalk settleing to the bottom? Or is there anything to do about it? I'll probably get the little tunze calcium bottle to go with the setup. I didn't order this time around and i'd like to hold off on spending more money if i can. The tank setup was a killer deal but i've put 2 grand into it after i thought i had everything i needed. At some point i need to just say no. What would you do?

 

I do have a sump, 30 gallons, but the jug for the drip system is like 3 or 4 gallons, it's big. The only place i can really put it is ontop of the fixture (there is room on the support rails) or i can put it on a stool next to the tank. Either place looks tacky for clients that are here to see my work not my tank. I have photos on the walls above the tank so that's really not an option either or the jug will block part of the image.

 

I use a AquaController III Pro but if your not wanting to spend any more money then I would be looking at one of these. The are not cheap but they take a lot off your shoulders in tank keeping.

 

My understanding is that everything that settles to the bottom after you mix it up good is stuff you do not want in your tank. I made a little stand or sort of a false-bottom for the container out of eggcrate to keep the pump off the bottom so it just draws in the water above the sediment.

Kalkwasser running through anything will form deposits. I think there's two ways to handle this. Run it through a vinegar solution every 6 months, or just replace the pump once every year or two, they're about $20 I think. Maybe there's more to it than I think, if so I would love for someone to respond with some experience.

That calcium dispenser basically sounds like a simple kalk reactor with no automation. To me replacing the pumps every year (on the aggressive end) it would take 5 years to pay off the cost of that addition. I'm going to try to maintain my osmolator pump so it lasts longer than a year so to me it doesn't make sense, but it depends what your priorities are.

Disclaimer: I've only been using the osmolator for like 6 months, most of my understanding of how things work is reading other people's experience and talking to a lot of people. It makes sense to me though. Like I said before I would welcome any other experience to to the contrary or supporting my current understanding.

 

I think you're right, this is from the first link you put in:
Dosing milky limewater, to get more lime into the aquarium than is available in clear, settled limewater. A drawback is the delivery of impurities in or on the solid particles, and the possibility that some solids may interact with organisms before they dissolve. I wonder if the calcium cup by Tunze would seperate the two or does it pump everything in with the topoff?

 

Yeah, that's a little out of my range right now. Do you toss the stuff that settles in the bottom when using lime?