Let there be light! Now how do I let there be growth?

[Nano_Steve]

just got my 250 watt AquaMedic AquaSpaceLight in the mail today and MAN what a difference than pc's!!!

i just made an emergency run to austim aquariums and bought a small thing of kent kalk and some tubing along with a gallon jug of distilled water. i want to make a temporary means of kalking my system and am wondering what everyone keeps their drip rate at?

i was thinking of drippin 24 hours a day with maybe a 1 drop every other second. does that sound like an alright idea or do i need to make it only a night time thing?

thanks, steve

[StephenA]

I drip it every night from a milk jug. I try to drip 1 drop per sec. I usually start off faster, Like Joshua says "they clog".

Next time you need Kalk go to Albertson's and get Ms Wages Pickling lime for 78 cents for a bag that last a year.

And yes, only drip at night.

[Nano_Steve]

great thanks for the tips guys!

stephen,

im told that pickling lime should not be used because it has added agents that are harmful in large amounts to our tanks. i dont know how credible my source was but it scared me enough to buy the name brand stuff.

-steve

[StephenA]

Hmmmmmmmmm, I've never heard of any negative agents in the lime. Plus you are only adding it in small amounts. I would imagine it's the LFS or Kent saying things like that so you will buy the $15.00 stuff.

I'd like to see what GaryP or Instar say about the topic.

[Nano_Steve]

yeah definitely. id love a difinitive answer on this. the man who told me had done quite a bit of homework in other areas so thats y i was inclined to listen to him but i know he was no eric bornemann ;)

-steve

[brewercm]

You guys in Austin need to start selling and shipping to us poor San Anotonio folk that don't have Albertsons around any more.

[StephenA]

I wasted about 30 days reading up on it and could only find warnings about using Lime that was bagged for yard or other uses besides food grade, like the Ms Wages Pickling Lime.

I also asked several of the local LFS about the igredients and they all claimed it to be the same as kent. Just like the superbuffer is baking soda with borate. So I use baking soda for my super buffer.

Brewercm;

Remind me before the next meeting and I'll grab some

[Tim Marvin]

Set your drip rate then submerge the end of the tubing and it won't clog...

[captexas]

Cliff - I got some pickling lime back when Kmart was going out of business. I still have a can and a half if you want it. I don't use it since I got my reactor going.

[brewercm]

I got a small amount of Kent a while back but it won't last long. I'll get it from you if you aren't going to use it again.
Online for that stuff is the cheapest way to go for sure. I just hate ordering one item at a time because of shipping charges.
I can't wait till we move and I can get the new setup going, I want to setup one of Matts skimmers and calcium reactors so I don't have to mess with the other stuff.

[captexas]

Cliff - it's yours, the cans have been sitting for awhile since I got that reactor from Matt. It was his first one, but it still works great. That and my auto topoff make things easy. Now if I could just get my magnetic glass cleaner to move around on its own I would be set! lol

[Nano_Steve]

also yall, this is my first venture into sps, is there anything else i really need to know?

i bought a bar of cyclop-eeze that i will mix with dt's to spot feed also.

-steve

[captexas]

Steve - I think with the lights and occassional feeding, you don't need to do much. Without a reactor, you need to keep an eye on your calcium and buffer levels. Depending on how many corals you have of course, the levels will fluctuate some. I know you already know this, but don't just follow the instructions for any additives without testing the water levels. If you add too much buffer you will have problems. I think once you get things stabilized it will be fairly easy to maintain.

Good luck with everything, I know I was excited when I added a metal halide to my 58. I had 380watts of VHO and then I added one 400 watt halide. It made a big difference.

[matt]

As long as you are using pickling lime without any added salts, i.e, it's 100% hydrated lime or Calcium Hydroxide, it will be fine to use as kalkwasser mix.

[JimD]

As long as you are using pickling lime without any added salts, i.e, it's 100% hydrated lime or Calcium Hydroxide, it will be fine to use as kalkwasser mix.

I dont entirely agree with that, Ive been doing the kalkwasser thing for quite some time and have used just about every kind of kalk available. The only time youll notice a difference in purity is if youre using a kalk reactor, most of the so called "budget" mixes have always left behind a nasty brown/tan sludge in the bottom of the reactor when cleaning,. Its not something I choose to introduce to my system. Its composition has been said to contain heavy metals. The ONLY kalk mix that is pure calcium hydroxide is ESV. ESV has never left any questionable residue in my reactor. Personally, I wouldnt fool with any lesser kalk, spend the extra bux for a little piece of mind....

[GaryP]

StephenA,

I'm not really a Kalk guy, so I can't really help you here. JimD is the real Kalk expert. I bow to his experience. I mainly only use it for pH adjustment, not really as a Calcium supplement. I don't have a reactor and its just take to much is to much of a hassle without one for my size tank. I think the residue is probably silicates or something similar that they add as an anti-caking additive to the commercial stuff. Maybe its just impurities. Since silicates have been shown to cause diatom blooms I don't think its a real good idea. On the other hand if it stays in the reactor as a residue, then that tells me its not really water soluble anyway. As is the case with a lot of this stuff, its just conjecture on my part without getting some hard data to support my conclusions. My advice is to go with JimD's experience.

Gary

[Nano_Steve]

well i ended up dosing about a half a gallon last night and this morning.......BAM! coraline growth incredibly noticeable ALREADY! i cant believe my eyes at how fast this has taken to work. its like miracle grow on steroids. i mapped the growth of 2 small spots of coralline from this morning to this evening and i would estimate at least a 3-4 mm growth in just 6 hours.

thanks guys for all the tips.

another question. i have my lights about 6 in away from the water level, is this optimum or do you think lower would be better?

-steve

[StephenA]

6 is a little close, My lights said 10-13 in from the surface.

[Nano_Steve]

its a DE 250 watt with a protective shield if that makes a diff (i dont know).

**scuttles off to check ballast**

-steve

[mhaynes01]

what does kalk or lime do fro your tank , i am geussing it is for your inverts?

[RobertG]

My lights are at about 6-8 inches. You will have to watch your temp. , if you notice any bleaching of corals you should move it up a little.

[manny]

Check out this thread Steve. Jim Norris recommended checkin out my magnesium level and it seemed to work out pretty good for me. Also some other pretty good tips. http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=4797&high light=magnesium

[brewercm]

what does kalk or lime do fro your tank , i am geussing it is for your inverts?

Driping a mixture with water helps keep calcium levels up for hard corals, clams, snail shells. Basically anything that has a skeletal type system that uses up the calcium from your saltwater mix in order to maintain growth.

[StephenA]

The CA level is for the whole tank, not just the corals. Even fish need a decent CA level.

[Nano_Steve]

i agree with brewercm, ever since i started dripping kalk night before last ive noticed a tiny bit of growht in all my inverts as well(at least the snail shells that i can tell). ive never really supplemented my system with any form of calcium so this is probably gonna continue to have extremely noticeable changes until the system settles down into a medium of growth.

nonetheless, im totally stoked that i can actually see growth. those 2 spots of coralline i posted about earlier are almost filled up in the middle, i checked this morning and it is now a very small round hole rather than the larger "line" through them yesterday.

thanks again for all the tips. josh, im definitely gonna keep an eye out. ive only received frags from tim and sam and neither of them seem to have those red bugs yet(hopefully never will) they sound terrible from your other thread! good luck with them and thanks for the dipping tip, ill be sure to do that from now on.

-steve

ps manny, thanks for that thread, ill take my water to be tested after i get back from my morning class and ill post it here in a few hours.

[Nano_Steve]

ok here are the readings i got a few minutes ago at aquatek:

pH: 7.8-7.9
NO3: 30
NO2: 0
Amm.: 0
kH: 9
Cal.:86 mg/l (anyone care to convert?)

anyone care to translate what i need to be doing now? id really appreciate it :)

i know i need to bring up my kH but i figured by just now starting the kalk drip that i would turn up low this first test. ill test it again in a week or 2 to see.

what do yall keep ur calc levels at?

-steve

[Nano_Steve]

oh yeah,

spec. grav.: 1.020-1.021

-steve

[SueT]

Steve, I don't know how to convert that calcium level but I keep mine at 460ppm. That is probably considered a high normal. I keep my alk. levels at 12 or less although right now I went to full strength kalk. and I'm up in the 13's for alk. right now. No problem just kicked 1 frag I had into wicked colors. :-D Do keep track for your magnesium too as that will allow the calcium to work at it's most optimun. I keep my mag. ~ 1200ppm. SG I keep at 1.024.

Salifert has test kits for calcium, KH and magnesium if you'd want to try them.