DIY Calcium Drip?

[seamonkee]

I went to a shop (not lFS) with a marine tank... The owner happens to open the sump and pull out a make-shift kitchen tupperware container and premix some calcium (powder form) with water...

I ask him out of curiousity what he is doing, he say it is his DIY calcium drip... he shows me proudly a nozzle drip tap he affixed near the bottom of the tupperware container....

He also said this was the advice given by some LFS shop (quite famous one but no mentioning)... since he is only having FOWLR...

Wondering is this really possible than getting a calcium reactor? i thot need CO2 or something like this?

If going for FOWLR + softies, if this is possible, I may do the same rather than invest in a calcium reactor...

[auberon]

Think this is for his kalkwasser. I did the same for mine.

[Bernard]

I went to a shop (not lFS) with a marine tank... The owner happens to open the sump and pull out a make-shift kitchen tupperware container and premix some calcium (powder form) with water...

I think he must be dripping kalkwasser

I ask him out of curiousity what he is doing, he say it is his DIY calcium drip... he shows me proudly a nozzle drip tap he affixed near the bottom of the tupperware container....

For this you can get a container fix with a nozzle tap and connect to dripping counter. you know the water dripping counter use by hospital? is less then $2 per pcs.

[Achilles Tang]

He's either dripping Calcium Chloride or Kalkwasser.

[weishun]

i think most likely its a kalkwasser drip....

[FuEl]

Most people with calcium reactors either have sps or lots of coralline algae. Of cause the plus point with calcium reactors is that they will keep your tank parameters stable once correctly tuned. Manual dosing can be done if you are keeping mostly softies and LPS. However, you should always test before dosing so that you do not upset the balance in your tank. Dosing too rapidly or with other supplements adjacent to each other can have different effects too.

[seamonkee]

Most people with calcium reactors either have sps or lots of coralline algae. Of cause the plus point with calcium reactors is that they will keep your tank parameters stable once correctly tuned. Manual dosing can be done if you are keeping mostly softies and LPS. However, you should always test before dosing so that you do not upset the balance in your tank. Dosing too rapidly or with other supplements adjacent to each other can have different effects too.

So how do I exactly test and determing the dosing rate?

You mean test the calcium level? but how do we know the depleting rate before we can decide the dosing rate?

[FuEl]

Measure how much your calcium levels drop in a week and use it as a guage as how much kalk to add per week. The amount of kalk you can add also depends on your rate of evaporation. So most people who keep sps give up on kalk as you'll have to dose daily in large amounts to keep up with calcium depletion. Dosing so much kalk when your evaporation rate is low will lead to your specific gravity dropping. Dosing kalk in the long run will lead to magnesium deficiency. Which means you'll have to monitor your magnesium levels and add magnesium sulphate (epsom salt) to bring it back up to normal levels (above 1300ppm). That's why I chose to go for a CR. At least it maintains Ca levels, kH levels and magnesium levels. As for kalk I dose it at night to minimise the nightly pH dips.

[madmac]

Dosing kalk in the long run will lead to magnesium deficiency. Which means you'll have to monitor your magnesium levels and add magnesium sulphate (epsom salt) to bring it back up to normal levels (above 1300ppm). That's why I chose to go for a CR. At least it maintains Ca levels, kH levels and magnesium levels. As for kalk I dose it at night to minimise the nightly pH dips.

Do you think that with regular water changes, mag levels can be maintained, without intervention... as a better method for kalk top-up users... ? just looking for a better method.

thks

mm