Additives / Dosing, what do you do/use?

[PeeperKeeper]

Yes it helps keep your Alk/Cal balanced so it's a real help if your trying to dose and get your levels up since without it you'd be fighting an uphill battle due to the swings alk can have.

The trick with pickling lime is to put it in a gallon jug (I perfer the clear gallon jugs you can get from rudy's tea) and shake it a bunch of times then let it sit over night.

In the AM everything should be settled and you should have a clear solution above that. He's the trick: Use an aqua lifter or gravity feed method to move the clear liquid to an empty clean container so none of the major residue gets stirred up and mixed into your tank.

So do you siphon off the clear liquid into another clean container and top off with that as needed? Is it okay to top off by hand like adding a gallon at a time, or is it important with pickling lime/vinegar/kalk to use an ATO so it goes in slowly?

[bimmerzs]

I use a GHL doser and BRS alk/ca/mg solution's. I also run biopellet's on my cube.

Cheers,

[+brian.srock]

If you have an ATO then thats the best place to put the mix. If your making the slury in a gallon container and have a 5 gallon ato then you should be adding 5 teaspoons of lime to the gallon along with a cup of vinegar and waiting 24 hours for it to settle then 4 gallons of water to your ATO making it a total of 5 gallons for your mix.

If you do not currently have an ATO you can set yourself up with a gravity drip but I would move the clear settled mix into three 1 liter bottles and just add one each day with a slow drip.

You can also use the gravity method to pour RO/DI water into your tank until you get an ATO or if you don't have room for one in the sump.

[George Monnat Jr]

Before I put together my ATO, I used this with a 5L Tupperware bin I bought at Wal-mart placed above my sump:

A Simple DIY Kalk Dripper