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hello all!
well i have been doing a lot of test and my calcium is kinda low. i am doing a waterchange soon and do i add the liquid calcium above. i was just wondering if anyone else uses that and if so, do you add it everyday?

or would it just been better for me to get a simple kalk set up like in the video cast?
and also where do i get pickling lime...i know its in the forums somewhere and i will look, but until i find it, if anyone can help me out, itd be great!

the stuff you have there is great stuff, the problem is that if you have a large tank it gets VERY expensive to use all the time.

this is where my pickling lime is from
MRS. WAGES® Canning & Pickling Salt <br>48 oz. (1362g) (http://mrswages.stores.yahoo.net/mrswagcanpic.html)
i got a case of the stuff over a year ago, and still have a few containers of it left.. :)

okay great! thats a lot rob. now with the kalk setup from the video cast, can i just run that like all day? 24/7

ohh and 50 my 50 gallon, could i just try one can of it to try it out? or would that go way too fast to even see a difference?

Bear in mind that dripping Kalk (and, for that matter using Kent calcium) will need Magnesium supplementation. The easiest way to do this is to add about 1 tsp/20 gallons of epsom salts (buy in the grocery store pharmacy section) twice a week.

If you use Seachem Reef Advantage, you'll get the calcium and magnesium in one, but that's back to paying a fair amount for supplements.

Also, I don't know about Kent liquid calcium, but Kent Turbo Calcium is Calcium Chloride which will also deplete your alkalinity, but that can be boosted easily as well.

George great point on the magnesium.. yes something to watch for..

Mark, the best thing is to start the drip and adjust your drip rate as needed

mark, i used that for my nano. i drop 5-6 drops daily.

i have a question for all of you, do i need to add lime? would 5-6 drops of ca liquid be sufficient?

uhhh so epsom salt is the thing to do? if i were to use reef crystal salt, does that have more calcium and magniesium than IO? and then not even drip?

Mark,
yes Reef crystals salt does have more Mg ad Ca than regular Instant Ocean
wether its enough can only be determined by testing

ohh okay...but for now, should i be adding epsom salt? or do i buy a magniesium additivve?

you should test your magnesium, one you know the current reading then you will know if you need to add or not.. :)

yeah i knew that..lol

Mark, Epsom Salts is the drugstore name for Magnesium Sulfate which is what's in the aquarium market's magnesium supplements. Apparently Epsom is a town in England where they first figured out the medicinal uses of the Mg salts in water (thank you, Wikipedia). Basically a bag of Epsom salts is the same thing you get at the aquarium shop, but costs a lot less.

But, if you walk into a pharmacy and ask for "magnesium salt", you'll probably get a blank stare, so we have to shift to "Epsom Salt" outside the LFS. :)

And if you're going to start dripping Kalk, start slow. All the reef keeping forums are littered with horror stories of white-out tanks from people who went to fast into Kalk dripping.

I recently got a MRC Kalk reactor going and forgot to set the stirring motor to a timer and almost nuked my entire tank with a kalk snowstorm. Fortunately, my losses were limited to a single purple tipped acro, but could have been much, much worse.

ohh okay thanks george...well after i test it, i will determine if i need it. and then add the ....2.5 tsp for my 50 gallon. and i only do that if its low right?

Yes. As with all additives, the best thing to do is test before, then dose, then test every few days to see what the fall-off is so you can get a feel for how much you need to regularly dose.

It is possible to over dose magnesium.