Lime water...

[GaryP]

Its about time you put in your .02 cents Jim. I'm tired of carrying your load on this thread. Want to take over for me here? You're the Kalk guru anyway.

I'm not using a reactor so I'm not really worried about the residue. I clean my jug out occasionally.

[JimD]

Its about time you put in your .02 cents Jim. I'm tired of carrying your load on this thread. Want to take over for me here? You're the Kalk guru anyway.

I'm not using a reactor so I'm not really worried about the residue. I clean my jug out occasionally.

lol, Youre doing an outstanding job Gary... Very interesting and complete, keep up the excellent work.
You say you clean your jug every once in a while,, Id be curous to analize the components of that sludge/ material. What color is it?

[GaryP]

I've never used Pickling Lime. I thought I would give it a try. I've been using ESV. I think we need to try to get a bag of food grade calcium chloride and give it a try. I'll check on it when I pick up the Dowflake.

[matt]

Ok here is what I learned, most of which is a repeat for seasoned reef keepers. Keeping in mind that I am essentially a newbie, I will do a quick fact sheet.
(etc.)

You're making this much more complicated than it has be. First, you should really think of KW as a way to replace calcium and carbonate used by the animals in your tank, not as a way to micro-manage the ph or other tank parameters. So you need to get an idea of how much calcium and carbonate you're using. This is really dependent on the amount of photosynthesis in your tank, based on how many corals, clams, etc you have and the intensity of your lighting. You might want to read the secton on kalkwasser in Ron Shimek's "The coral reef aquarium" as he does a good job of explaining the use of KW from a practical perspective, with some chemistry to help you understand what's going on.

Really, the most important and difficult thing in using KW is to get the right delivery system; if you have a small tank with little evaporation and a sump, you might want to try the glass jug/2 holed stopper/pyrex pipe/tygon tubing arrangement. Basically you put a large glass jug of KW next to your tank set up so that when the sump level drops, KW flows out of the jug into the sump and stops when the water reaches it's original level. This is a nice auto top off as well. Or you can just drip a specific amount daily (nightly might be better). If you do either of these two things, it is almost inconceivable that you'll have a ph problem in the tank.

In the event that you have a very high calcium demand, using regular white vinegar (corals have no appreciation of good balsamic) to increase the solubilty of calcium hydroxide in water can be a good thing; no more than 25ml/gallon to start with is the typical rule of thumb. But, I think I'm safe in saying that if you had enough corals growing fast enough to demand this sort of thing, you'd probably have enough experience maintaining the CA and Alk levels in your tank to know what the best routine is. Have fun!!