mixed advice

[cyclops23]

i want to switch to a limewater top-off. i figured out that 1 gallon (almost exactly) evaporates over 24 hours. i figure i have about 80 gallons in the whole system. a friend of mine said that 1 gallon a day would be too much kalk. but would it be so bad if i just didn't mix the limewater to saturation? i'm going to start dripping it with 1 tsp. Mrs. Wages/g. i also modified an IO bucket to hold the limewater above my sump. i drilled a hole in the bottom and ran a 1/4" airline through it til it was about 1/2" above the bottom of the bucket. i'm gonna run the line to an air pump valve to moderate the drip. will this work? i'm dripping some out of a IV bag now, and i have it at 1 drip every 5 seconds. is this where i need to be? can someone give me a good starting point for dripping 1 gallon a day? i'll probably just have to play with it, but i figured it doesn't hurt to ask. oh, and i'm planning on dripping 24/7. i figure the IO bucket will hold enough so i'll only have to fill it every 4-5 days(i'm really bad with the daily stuff).

[bertoni]

If you back off on the limewater enough, the limewater will be fine. 1 tsp is a good place to start, but I personally watch the pH fairly carefully during my first dosing on a tank. A drop every five seconds sounds reasonable.

I'd be a little worried about the IO bucket failing and dumping the limewater into the tank. I use a peristaltic pump to dose lime, which adds some safety, although they can be expensive.

[cyclops23]

it's a 30g sump surrounded on the front and sides pretty closely by a cabinet, plus i will put the top on the bucket. i would make up a framework to hold it above the tank, but there isn't enough room and there's no room on either side of the cabinet. i didn't have much choice. i have 2 pretty heavy duty hooks to hold the bucket up, and if it does fall, it will more than likely tip forward and dump kalk (if any comes out) on the floor. that would really suck, but it's better than tipping it into the tank. should i drill a small hole in the lid so the kalk will feed better? or would that let in too much air?

thanks bertoni, you're always there to help a poor, dumb guy like me. :)

[bertoni]

A hole in the top of the bucket would be fine. The extra air exposure won't hurt anything.

Good luck! :)

[plankton]

Look for an inexpensive single channel dosing pump if possible to make life a bit easier for you.

I'm also a bit worried that on a bad day too much drips into the tank and raises your tank's pH too much (freshly made up CaOH has a pH of about 12). And, power heads are well known to die prematurely pumping that abrasive kalkwasser.

Scott

[cyclops23]

i can't afford a dosing pump. maybe down the road, but not right now. i need to raise my pH, but i have a pin point monitor to keep an eye on it, too. thanks guys.

[cyclops23]

how do the dosing pumps work? i was just looking at an aquamedic, and it says that it's a fixed .8 gph. even if you hook it up to a timer, isn't .8 gph a lot of lime in a short amount of time?

[aquarius77]

I made a dripper from a 5 gal bucket and a venoset iv tube. I hung the bucket of kalk in the back room from the rafters with a bracket rated for 125 pounds and ran airline to my sump. While maybe not the perfect setup it is working so far, very well. I have total control on the drip and for ten bucks it is doing the job.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, 0.8 gph is pretty fast, and unless the tank is very larger, I'd like to see it slower. Many dosers can deliver 1-30 gallons per day.

[rick s]

Maybe it was just me, but I never had success trying to set a drip using an airline valve. I had to play with it constantly, too slow, too fast. . .

[cyclops23]

yeah, i found that out. i put the IO bucket on the dinner table with another bucket below it on the floor. i filled it with 1g water to see if i could figure out where to set the drip. i had to play with it too much, so i guess i'll have to scrap that idea. i ordered a kent aquadose off ebay, so i'll just use the IV bag until that gets here. i didn't want to do it at first, but then i looked at the measurements, and i think it will fit in the sump cabinet much better than a bucket.

[Mike O'Brien]

Try an aqualifter pump. it's only 12 buck's and will give you year's of service. You can use a john guest ball valve to control the drip rate. Mine has been going for like 4 year's now.

[cyclops23]

i already bought the aquadose, but the aqualifter looks good. the way it looks, i'm gonna hafta drip pretty fast to get out 1 gallon a day. this 1 drip/ 5 sec. didn't cut it. my pH is the same and the water is down. i upped it to 1 drip/3 sec., i just want to get the drip set right now, i can play with how much lime to put in once i got it down to the 1g/day.