Hydrometer question

[Ninong]

Sashi,

I know of at least two companies that will ship equipment internationally: Premium Aquatics and Custom Aquatic. I know that because I just checked their Web sites and they both mention international shipping. I checked Marine Depot's site but could find no mention of international shipping. There may be others but those first two should cover you. Keep in mind that I'm talking about equipment only, not livestock. Most U.S. companies will not ship livestock internationally, although a couple of them will ship livestock to Canada.

As far as having someone in the U.S. purchase equipment for you and then having that person ship it to Japan, I wouldn't recommend that at all because of the hassle involved with international shipping, even if it's just equipment. I did this once for a person in South America because he was ordering a large amount of equipment from several different companies, some of which did not offer international shipping. He emailed me a list of all of the equipment he wanted with links to the various suppliers. I then ordered all of the equipment on my credit card and had it shipped to my home. He had already sent me enough money to cover everything via PayPal. He was setting up two 650-gallon aquariums, one as a reef aquarium and the other as a FOWLR aquarium.

However, that was a lot more complicated than I ever expected and it involved declarations of value that I didn't realize beforehand that I was going to have to make. To make matters even more complicated, I had to ship everything to another friend of his in a neighboring country, hundreds of miles to the north of his home, because he knew that that country's policies on such shipments was more lenient than his own. He planned to visit his friend to collect the shipment after it arrived. Everything worked out okay but it was still a lot bigger project than I anticipated when I first agreed without thinking of the potential risks. What if the equipment had been damaged in transit? What if the entire shipment never made it to its destination? Then what? What if the receiving country challenged my official declaration of value? At the very last minute, I was given the third party's address to ship to because his country wouldn't challenge the declaration of value, or at least that is what I was told. The country where my friend lived would have assessed a very large import tax on the real value of the shipment. All of that was explained to me only at the very last minute after I had already received all of the equipment and was ready to ship it to him.

Limewater (Kalkwasser) is usually dosed every night instead of freshwater for evaporation replacement. If your test results show that your calcium levels are rising too high, you can always reduce the amount of powdered calcium hydroxide you use to prepare the limewater. Two teaspoons of calcium hydroxide powder (Kalkwasser) is the most that will dissolve in one US gallon of freshwater. That would be two teaspoons per 3.8 liters. Just figure 1/2 tsp per liter. You could start out with 1/4 tsp per liter and then adjust it up from there if needed. Remember, the most you can get to dissolve in a liter of water would be 1/2 tsp. That's without using vinegar to increase the amount of calcium hydroxide powder that will go into solution, something I wouldn't even consider for various reasons.

Remember also that regular "pickling lime" is exactly the same as so-called "Kalkwasser" and a lot cheaper. It's 100% pure food grade calcium hydroxide, sold in the US under a couple of brand names -- Mrs. Wages' Pickling Lime or Ball's Pickling Lime. Look for pickling lime in Toyko, just make sure to read the ingredients label. It must read 100% pure calcium hydroxide without including any salts or spices.

Limewater (Kalkwasser) is prepared by stirring the powder into the freshwater no more than one teaspoon at a time. Stir briskly for about 10 seconds after each addition. When you have finished adding the appropriate amount of powder to the water, cover the container tightly with a lid and allow it to rest for the next six to eight hours to allow the solution to clear. You want to end up with clear liquid with sediments at the bottom of the container. You must very carefully remove just the clear liquid by either siphoning it from the top or by carefully pouring it from the container in one continuous motion into another container. You do not want to use the sediments in the bottom of the container, just the clear liquid.

This clear liquid is what you will dose into your sump at night, preferably over a four to six hour period. In other words, you want to set up a slow drip. There are various ways to do that and there are inexpensive products sold for this purpose or you can make your own.

I usually mixed the limewater in the morning and then used it that night, after it had been resting for 8-10 hours. It is not necessary to discard the remaining unused limewater or sediments from the container before mixing more. Simply pour more freshwater (R.O./D.I. water or distilled water) into the mixing container on top of the sediments and remaining limewater from the day before. Add new calcium hydroxide powder one teaspoon at a time as necessary, depending on how much new freshwater you added. Stir the whole thing all over again, even stirring up the sediments at the bottom of the container. Now allow this batch to rest for several hours so that it will clear up. I usually cleaned out the mixing container once a week, discarding any sediments and cleaning the bucket of any calcium deposits. Vinegar mixed with water will do a very good job removing calcium deposits if they don't come out with just plain water. Do not allow any of this stuff to get into your house drains! You must do this outside in a place where you will not kill off any plants.

Limewater maintains both calcium and alkalinity but it does not maintain magnesium. You will need to dose something else to keep magnesium up. I used a magnesium chloride product from ESV but there are others, or you can make your own using Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley's recipe. I added a small amount of magnesium chloride (E.S.V.) to my sump once a week depending on my magnesium test results. I usually conducted all of my tests once a week on the weekend.

You should start out with one teaspoon of calcium hydroxide powder for your four liters of freshwater and then increase that up to two teaspons per four liters, if necessary.

P.S. -- Mrs. Wages' Pickling Lime is sold in the U.S. at Wal-Mart stores for $3.90 (regular price), $1.99 sale price at the end of the pickling season. That's the 1 lb container. Food-grade calcium hydroxide (pickling lime) is also available in much larger sizes online for much, much cheaper prices per pound.

[pgsasi]

You are a STAR Ninong.. Thanks for the long lesson... Cheers

[pgsasi]

Ninong......
My friend is touring US and is now in SanFrancisco. he will be there for another 2-3 weeks and will come back to Tokyo. I am thinking of asking him to get me a Calcium Reactor from US. Can you suggest me a good model to buy.. Please advise.

Cheers / Sashi

[Ninong]

I will ask zhenya to comment on this because I have been out of touch with the latest equipment for the past four years now.

[zhenya]

Sashi,

Can you remind me what size tank you have? There are miriad of excellent skimmers out there, that includes types and price range. So, if you could at least tell me what price range you are interested in I can do a bit of recearch for you. Having said that, the latest craze and popularity is with the cone model skimmers. For example, this model is for internal use, which means that you'll need a sump to put that in.
More economical model, similarly designed, but as always the difference will be in the components used. That includes pump and ventury, and abviously acrylic itself.

PS. If funds are none issue I personally would've chosen Vertex Alpha model. I just prefer red dragon pumps to anything else out there.

[pgsasi]

Hi Gene
it's a 100g tank and I'm looking for a Calcium Reactor. I can spend US 300$ for this one. Please advise me on the best one to buy. Thanks.

Cheers / Sashi

[zhenya]

Hi Sashi,

I'm not sure what posessed me to think of protein skimmers instead of calcium reactors... I'm sorry about that.

Calcium reactors are difficult beast to judge. I personally like calcium reactor from Vertex, RX4 model.
Some information about them could be found Here.
It cost little bit over $300 dollars but you will have to add a CO2 bottle and CO2 regulator with solenoid.Perhaps you can easily get them locally?
That alone adds something like $200 to the overall cost. Aluminium bottle is roughly a $90 and regulator could be bought for a 100-120.
I believe that RX4 model will run more efficiently than most of the models that are similarly priced.