pickling lime

G

gingin12

ok well i pick up a bucket of pickling lime at kroger for less then $2
and my question is what is everyone using it for and if your using it what are your measurements your using
thanks
chris
 
Please read this over carefully, and then come back with more questions.

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php
 
ok so i think the only questions i have after that article is should i strain my lime water solution prior to using it and and would using a gallon of lime water for my system of about 80gal be fine
 
You dont have to strain it. The white stuff just settles on the bottom. I use a air line and air line valve to drip the lime water into my tank. I drip about 1/2-3/4 of a gallon a day. I have a 60 gallon system with about 18-20 SPS frags so my system doesnt need to much just yet.
 
You don't want the settled sediment nor the surface accumulations in your display tank, but the solution between the two should be dripped slowly overnight into your tank. Be very careful with it, since it has a pH of 12.

Here's a very simplistic DIY dripper:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/nftt/index.htm
 
I teaspoon per gallon of RO water. Mix it up, let it settle for an hour or so. Drip the solution into your tank overnight. If you have a Nano, all bets are off, but for a 55g - 90g tank, I'd think one gallon overnight is a good starting point. For a 120g - 180g, two gallons would be good.

Of course you must measure the alk, calcium, and pH levels daily to adjust how much to use and take the guesswork out of dripping kalk.

If you want to be extra careful, 1/2 tsp per gallon might be a safer method until you get a feel for how it works.
 
I have the test kits. Right now calcium is ok but alk is low. Can I have too much calcium? It shows 450ppm. Alk showed like 3 something.
 
Is that 3 meq/l, or 3 dKH? That's very important.
 
If you have low alk you can dose some baking soda or soda ash or a mixture of both. You have to be careful with this though because too much at one time can make the PH go crazy. Do a google search for dosing baking soda / soda ash in an aquarium
 
One of the safest ways I have found to raise alkalinity is to use Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium Powder. Use the jdieck reef chemistry calculator (link below) to determine how much to add to your tank. The good thing is that you can bump your calcium while safely adjusting your alkalinity, and the effect on pH is minimal.

http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html
 
with the correct mixture of soda ash (baked baking soda) and baking soda you wont affect the ph at all. And its super cheap
 
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