[Samper]

My grandpa keeps everything, When his mother was in his care before she died she was on a dialysis. Her home health hooked up her up with all sorts of medical gear and in the stuff was a nice drip hose. The gears in my head started turning when I saw them. On the hose it has a valve for regulating drip rate however there are no markings to indicate how much. I have just started dosing calcium and I think this would be the way to go about doing it. Anyone have any ideas on how to set this system up?


Also when I do get it set up is it possible to drip photoplankton and calcium together overnight or should I change jugs for each?

[Ninong]

You cannot drip anything else with the limewater. It has to be dripped alone. It has a pH of more than 12. My tank needs almost two gallons of limewater every night to replace evaporation, so my drip rate is an obvious steady drip. I have it set so that it takes about 7 hours to finish dripping. Your tank is much smaller and will require much less, but you should still strive to adjust your drip rate as slow as possible so that it takes at least three or four hours for it to finish dripping regardless of the amount.

I assume you are asking about dripping phytoplankton and the answer is that I don't believe this will work. I have heard of people using live cultures of phytoplankton in so-called plankton reactors (actually plankton reaktors since they're German) but I don't think you could drip either live D.T.'s or any of the cryo preserved stuff because it would get bad too fast, before it was finished dripping. You would have to ask the people who made the phytoplankton (not the place that sells it!!!) if it would be a good idea to slow drip it over several hours.

[Samper]

Originally Posted by Ninong

My tank needs almost two gallons of limewater every night to replace evaporation, so my drip rate is an obvious steady drip. I have it set so that it takes about 7 hours to finish dripping. Your tank is much smaller and will require much less, but you should still strive to adjust your drip rate as slow as possible so that it takes at least three or four hours for it to finish dripping regardless of the amount.

If I'm reading this right the best way to go about this is to figure out exactly what my water loss is per day, mix that amount of RO water with the right amount of Calcium hydroxide to keep my calcium around 400 ppm. Then set my drip rate to take the duration of the night to combat the ph drop that occurs.

Does that sound right?
Also does running a protein skimmer effect calcium content of the water at all?

[Samper]

also how do some people use their refugium and reverse lighting to combat that ph drop? How exactly does that work because I have been thinking about doing one up just to add to my overall water volume.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Samper

If I'm reading this right the best way to go about this is to figure out exactly what my water loss is per day, mix that amount of RO water with the right amount of Calcium hydroxide to keep my calcium around 400 ppm. Then set my drip rate to take the duration of the night to combat the ph drop that occurs.

Does that sound right?
Also does running a protein skimmer effect calcium content of the water at all?

You always mix more than you will need because you have to let it settle for several hours first in the mixing container before you carefully pour off the clear liquid, allowing the sediment and cloudy liquid to stay in the mixing container. You never mix your limewater in the same container that you will use to drip it.

Usually you allow two teaspoons of calcium hydroxide powder for each gallon of pure freshwater but you can reduce that to one teaspoon if it turns out that that is all your tank requires. You need to drip it as slowly as possible because adding it too fast can harm your corals.

Running a protein skimmer would have no effect on the calcium levels. The only thing it would affect would be the salinity over time. You would have to replace whatever amount of saltwater the skimmer removed in its collection cup.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Samper

also how do some people use their refugium and reverse lighting to combat that ph drop? How exactly does that work because I have been thinking about doing one up just to add to my overall water volume.

Photosynthesis has two phases, one that takes place in the presence of light and one that takes place in the absence of light. During the phase that takes place in the presence of light, the net byproduct is oxygen. During the phase that takes place in the absence of light (respiration), the net byproduct is carbon dioxide. You could say that during the daytime the zooxanthellae consumes carbon dioxide and gives off oxygen and at night it consumes oxygen and gives off carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is what lowers the pH at night. If you had a refugium with macroalgae that was giving off oxygen when the main tank was experiencing nighttime, that would act to counteract the production of carbon dioxide in the main tank. This is why you would want to have your refugium lit during the hours that your main tank is asleep.

[Samper]

Once again thank you very much!