Mrs Wage's Pickling Lime

[nate-g]

Anyone ever have any problems dripping this stuff? It's 1.50 a pound a krogers and it seems to do the trick keeping my Ca and Alk up. I'm just wondering if it has any 'bad' stuff for the tank in it too. I would think not since it's food grade pickling lime, but I'm just wondering if anyone has heard anything bad about it.

Nate

[Ray1214]

Nope. Actually sounds like a good deal to me.

Ray

[nate-g]

yeah, I originally bought 3lb online, then I found kroger had it in a wierd place (like by the party supply stuff?). Anywho... now I have like a years supply of kalk for less than $15. Guess I should have mentioned that to Bill last night at the Aviarium, but he was already checking out anyway, and I don't want to take away business from that LFS. They've always been good to me.

Nate

[hesstondc]

Nate

Call me stupid but once you start dosing Kalk, you must stop all calcium dosage right? I dose A and B as of right now and will for a few more months, ( I have some huge bottles)....

Does this work better than dosing the chemicals? ie liquid calcium

Thanks
Clay

[nate-g]

well there are some advantages to both ways. I'm not an expert by any means, but I do know that dripping kalk has the following advantages:

-Can be just added to your make up water (if you drip it slowly)
-Does a good job of replenishing both KH and Ca in about equal proportions
-Precipitates phosphates from the water
-Mantains PH
-a LOT cheaper than pretty much any other way of replenishing used up KH and Ca (except maybe a Ca Reactor which is expensive up front though).

The downsides are:
-Must be dripped slowly because Limewater has a high PH
-For systems with a very high Ca and KH use (like with alot of SPS), Limewater may not replenish Ca and KH fast enough... it just depends on how much evaporation you have that you can replace with Limewater.

That's all I know. Others may have more to add.

Nate

[WestPat]

Wal-Mart also sells Ball's Pickling lime that I have been using in my system for three years. I just got a clam, so the real test is to come.

Just my .02$
David

[hesstondc]

Nate i have been having problems with my ph recently ...I will give that a try....

What kroger are you buying it from...Is it the one off of sugar loaf....How much comes in a bag and how much is it...?

Do you just mix it in a bucket with a power head and then collect the water from the bucket and leave the undisolved behind? How much per gallon of water that you drip into the tank? Do you just drip it into your top off water?

Sorry for all the questions...Just looking for another project for my tank....

[Ray1214]

Clay, I would first use the kalk you bought then work over to the lime. I actually drip into a top off tank which gets turned on by a powerhead into my sump. Like I said i just use an airline, air valve and tubing. Probably 2 bucks total. (I buy the lee's plastic valves for about 3.99 for like 9 of them and I go through one every few months.)
My wife drips but she still uses iodide, calcium, strontium, and reef pllus.

Ray

[cyberchef]

Kalk can do a great job of maintaining your Calcium and Alk levels but is not good for raising them if they are low. Use the 2 parts additive to raise the calcium and Alk to the proper levels then use the kalk drip to maintain them. If your system is using it faster than your kalk drip can maintain then you can use the 2 part additives to raise either/both levels as it needs it.

I've read that for kalk drips to "work" you need to be dripping at least 1/10 of the tanks volume per day. On my system, aprox 125 gallons total volume, I drip about 3 gallons a day due to evaporation.

Also dripping 24/7 is not a problem.

[nate-g]

Clay,
I got it for 1.50 for a 1 lb bag at the Kroger at riverside parkway and 120. It was back near the party cups and plates. There is a small canning section there.

To drip it, about once a week I fill up a 5 gal bucket with RO/DI water (this is my top-off water to replace evap.). To this bucket I add 3 or 4 tablespoons of the Lime powder (which is caustic so be careful and DONT inhale it or get it on you) and stir it with a long spoon. The water turns milky white and I add just a bit more lime until the water is saturated and it starts to stay at the bottom and not disolve. I put a small powerhead in this bucket with 1/4 tubing running from the powerhead to my sump. At the end of this tubing i put a knot or an air valve and adjust the flow into the sump to match my evaporation (for me this is about 1 drop every 2 seconds). Then I just let it go until the water in the bucket drops down to the powerhead in a week or so. Clean out the bucket and and start over. You can aso add any aditives to the water in the bucket that you usually put in, such as iodine or reef plus or whatever (as long as the aditive says it's compatible with limewater).

Hope that gets you started.

Nate

[andbigdaddy2]

is the power head on? wouldnt that put alot of pressure on ur power head?

[SShindell]

This thread is 5 years old. I think he figured it out by now...

[Berggy]

holy cow thats funny .... i read them all ... thinking of the answers till i noticed the date too

[andbigdaddy2]

lol man i didnt even notice