Well don’t get to excited for most of us it is a little far of a drive and not too much to see at this point as far as aquatic animals go. Some of you knew the old Pet Safari which was located in Rehoboth. A couple of months ago the old owner sold what was left in the shop. A new owner, Chris one of her former employees from several years back, has opened up.
Unfortunately they spent most of their time and money on the exotic mammals section of the store. This is a pet shop not just an lfs. There was a lot of talk about what they would like to do in the future, but little if any progress has been made at all with the aquatic side of the store. They have started to order more corals then the shop had in the last 3 years, but they still have less corals then any shop in northern Delaware and the conditions they are in could be better. Hopefully they do well and find the money for the major renovations they are planning.
They have also been planning a really nice website… but so far nothing loads at the URL on their biz card.
The only problem with using an aqualifter with dosing kalk is the pump wont last long. These pumps are AWESOME, i use them for a lot of other applications but they wont hold up to dosing kalk in the long run. I went through two in about a year and half trying to dose 2part. Kalk is hell on pumps. An IV pump works well since the liquid never comes into contact with mechanical parts but they can be pricey. Gravity is the poor mans way to dose Kalk reliably long term.
[quote=“DamnPepShrimp”]
Best thing I have found with traps is don’t use food or bait, use a mirror. Most fish can’t stand another one of them and will “fight” it.[/quote]
Hmmmm…I’ll have to try this next. How do you isolate the one that you want to go in to the trap? I generally catch everything else in the tank twice but the fish I want to catch never go near the trap.
[quote=“logans_daddy, post:2, topic:914”]
The only problem with using an aqualifter with dosing kalk is the pump wont last long. These pumps are AWESOME, i use them for a lot of other applications but they wont hold up to dosing kalk in the long run. I went through two in about a year and half trying to dose 2part. Kalk is hell on pumps. An IV pump works well since the liquid never comes into contact with mechanical parts but they can be pricey. Gravity is the poor mans way to dose Kalk reliably long term.[/quote]
Did you use a pre-filter on your dosers??
I have been dosing kalk with a aqualifter for about 8mo now… maybe I need to clean it out or have a replacement ready to go???
I have never used it with kalk, i tried an autodoser with randys 2 part. I did use a prefilter which required constant maintanence and my pumps still failed.
How oftern are you cleaning the prefilters when dosing kalk? Do you know how much kalk per gallon of water you are using in your mix? How often do you mix/stir your kalkwater?
Im sure there are different ways of dosing kalkwasser. My goals were to have it dose automatically, reliable, and with VERY little maintanence. So far, the only thing i need to do with my stirrer is “recharge” it about once every 2 weeks which requires dumping in 1/4 cup of kalk. Other than that, its 100% hands off. Im only dripping during my reverse photo period. So far i like what im seeing and im considering using kalk for my topoff but im not there yet. I need to be sure that my ALK stabalizes, it tends to run high with a calcium reactor. Ive only been dosing for about a month now, but my PH is consistently .2 higher in the evenings than it was before dosing.
I guess im lucky so far-
Ive never manually cleaned out my prefilter or pump, it seems to be happily dosing away. I use this settup to dose my top off water/kalk water. I usually add a few tablespoons each time I add water to the 5gal bucket, and have been adding about 60ml of vinegar to the mix as well lately for increased potency. after the inital mixing I just let any undissovled material settle to the bottom so that im just dosing the decanted kalk water. every few months I dump out the bucket and clean it out to start fresh…that being said, when I do clean the bucket out, I run a blank bucket(no Kalk) as top off water to clean everything out.
Agreed on the keep it simple… this has been great for me. my pump is set on a timer to go off for about 20 min a day and is connected to a float switch for added backup. keeps my water level constant and adds kalk to the tank. this is my primary alk and ca addition tool. and I fine tune it with manual additions. my only problem is that im still struggling to keep my PH at a constant level. even with kalk water top off and manual additions daily of kalk slurry my PH is varying from 7.8-8.3. im trying to keep it at a steady 8.2. I may have to look into a kal reactor or other means of getting more kalk into my system…
kalk seems like a really great way to keep everything in check- if my ph is at 8.2, my ca is around 400 and alk at 3.8. I occasionally add a little ca just to boost it a bit… just need to get my PH under bettrer controll and I think I will be dialed in
from what I hear a kalk/ca reactor system is a great way to go. I hope to add the ca reactor in future builds.
Im still on the fence about vinegar additions to kalk. the last time I tried it, I probably added too much too quickly. I had a brown slime outbreak that was probably a rapid bacterial growth from the acetate.
I am taking it slowly this time increasing vinegar up to the 40ml per gallon range that i have heard is a decent range. currently at 60ml for 5gal. I am testing this as a method for overall nutrient reduction similar to the neo zeo method(feed the bacteria, have them consume tank nutrents, skim them out…)
Just thinking about it, logically it doesn’t make sense. Vinegar is an acid, kalkwasser is a base…BUT if you look at the science of it, it makes sense. The acidity of the vinegar takes the place of the acidity of the CO2 (Co2 + water = carbonic acid), but doesn’t allow the Ca (calcium) to pair up with the CO2 and make calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and fall out. So basically it allows you to get more calcium into the tank by dosing with kalkwasser, and the combination of the base and acetic acid makes food for the bacteria. That’s my take on it. Don’t know how much I believe…
the main difference is that on the back end, after bacteria have consumed the acetate, OH- is released back into the water. adding vinegar to the solution has the main effect of being able to push more kalk in to the water- both ca and Alk(and im assuming in the end a lower PH since the OH is relcaimed…)
The downside can be a large bacterial bloom. this can be a good thing in the long run if you skim hard and pull the bacteria out- hence lowering the nutrient level in your tank (see neo zeo method). BUT if you dose too much too fast it can choke your system like a cyano bloom.
seems succesful so far for me, and I can honestly say that it appears that the nutrient level in the tank( and nuisance algae ) are diminishing at a accelorated pace since beggining my additions.
[quote=“firecrackerbob, post:6, topic:914”]
I guess im lucky so far-
Ive never manually cleaned out my prefilter or pump, it seems to be happily dosing away. I use this settup to dose my top off water/kalk water. I usually add a few tablespoons each time I add water to the 5gal bucket, and have been adding about 60ml of vinegar to the mix as well lately for increased potency. after the inital mixing I just let any undissovled material settle to the bottom so that im just dosing the decanted kalk water. every few months I dump out the bucket and clean it out to start fresh…that being said, when I do clean the bucket out, I run a blank bucket(no Kalk) as top off water to clean everything out.
Agreed on the keep it simple… this has been great for me. my pump is set on a timer to go off for about 20 min a day and is connected to a float switch for added backup. keeps my water level constant and adds kalk to the tank. this is my primary alk and ca addition tool. and I fine tune it with manual additions. my only problem is that im still struggling to keep my PH at a constant level. even with kalk water top off and manual additions daily of kalk slurry my PH is varying from 7.8-8.3. im trying to keep it at a steady 8.2. I may have to look into a kal reactor or other means of getting more kalk into my system…
kalk seems like a really great way to keep everything in check- if my ph is at 8.2, my ca is around 400 and alk at 3.8. I occasionally add a little ca just to boost it a bit… just need to get my PH under bettrer controll and I think I will be dialed in
from what I hear a kalk/ca reactor system is a great way to go. I hope to add the ca reactor in future builds.[/quote]
So far I haven’t had any problems with my pump either. I will get a back up to keep on hand just in case.
