Kalk water/ATO drip rate?

[grimmjohn]

Hey everyone...I could probably spend the next month fine tuning this process but I figured someone here could help give me an approximation or something.

Setting up an auto top off for my BB 30 gallon cube with lots of LR, some acros, and a clam (soon to be many more acros and clams). I have a remora pro with a mag three, and a 250W DE MH...I have an open top, keep the room about 75-78, and have a fan blowing at my fixture to keep things about 80-81, 24/7.

I was hoping to do a gravity or airpump fed drip tube...but am worried about just setting a gallon of kalk water up there and letting it drip...and fine tuning could take awhile so I was hoping someone could get me in the ballpark....

I probably loose about a gallon a day...so to keep my pH about 8.2-8-3 day and night should I just drip in pure saturated kalk water? About how many dips per second/30secs/60secs is that?

I figure 86400 seconds in a day and a gallon is 3.78 liters, which is 3700mL, and 1 mL is approximatly 1 drop of water...that comes out to 1 drop about every 23 seconds...or 4 drops every minute and a half...is that gonna be enough to keep my pH in the zone? Since I don't have any substrate to buffer will it shoot my pH through the roof?....And how the heck do drip just 8 drops every 2 minutes?

I'm a chem minor so I could figure this all out if I knew/figured out my exact Alk consumption, but like I said..someone has to have a ballpark figure....and the DIY method for dripping that slowly...
Any help would be appritiated.

Cheers,
grimmjohn

P.S .should I add a little salt to compensate for my skimmer or is that getting anal?

[durango_doug]

i plan to use a reef filler pump (from champion lighting). they're pretty pricey, but i here from randy holmes farley that they work fairly well. they're extremely adjustable and pump up to 3 gallons per day. they're also built for chemicals and stuff, so the kalk isn't an issue.

[ericandchrissy]

grimmjohn,

You might check the 1 drop = 1ml...those would be huge drops; use one of the graduated tubes from a test kit - just for kicks.

-E

[grimmjohn]

OH, so true..what was I thinking? Maybe 1 drop is one gram or something...anyway..so 1mL~25/26 drops...so that comes toooo barely over one drop a second...that sounds much better.....You just put a pinch clamp on some airline tubing I guess? And does a drop of saturated kalk water a second sound about right for a BB 30 gallon?
Thats for pointing that out E&C () : )

[ericandchrissy]

You're Welcome. As for the actual drip rate for your 30 BB, I'd say set it slightly lower than you think it should be and monitor your chemistry/water level for a few days. I would suggest you consider a dosing pump - much easier/safer.

-Eric