some questions

[newtosa]

Matt - good info on cost. Next time I'm buying a sheet of acrylic, I'm gonna look into the price difference. I took the sales guys word for it and didn't ask the followup question ("How much is way more?") - never the best practice.

Andrew - I wanted to reinforce one thing: dripping limewater is a great practice, and it is nothing but beneficial to your reef. Whether you need to do anything else is based on your animals, size & evaporation of your tank, etc. Many, many people find KW dripping alone sufficient. And there are others of us who need to do other things to provide the best environment. Don't get scared off by the complexity; you won't know for sure what you need until you've tried dripping KW.

Dean

[newtosa]

Yes, pickling lime. I'm thinking of running a controlled experiment like Jim, though: one 150 tank just like mine (running lime drip), and another 150 just like mine (but running official Peter Wilkens Kalkwasser drip). First I need some angel investors to float the venture capital. Anyone game? Or maybe I'd better just get a 300 gallon and drip lime on one side and KW on the other. Then I'd have a much cooler tank, and my results could support any theory I wanted to believe in! He he.

Seriously, I don't know on the alk support. IMO, any impurities in the pickling lime should affect Ca addition and alk addition in the same ratio (esp. given recent articles by our teacher Randy on RC). Bottom line for me is I wanted both a CaCO3 reactor and a KW reactor online in my system, so I don't care that the KW drip is leaving alk just a little low. I'm still waiting on my 2nd dosing pump, so I can get everything set up (Minh's recent experience has helped me resist the temptation to do it faster by using a float switch).

Dean