The kalk that you drip will replace the water that evaporates. How much water do you evaporate in a 24hr period?

I would start out with a light dose of kalk, say 1tsp of kalk per gal of water and try to time the drips of the kalk to top up your tank by morning. Test your alk and if it has dropped then you need to make a stronger solution of kalk, if the alk has gone up then you need to add less kalk to the water the next night.
To get the right amount (unless someone else knows of an easier way :razz: ) it is going to take some fiddling and lots of testing.
While going through this stage I never bothered testing cal until I was sure I had alk stable. Once I figured out how much kalk I needed to keep alk stable, I checked the cal to make sure it was inline (it saves money on test kits).

By dripping at night when the ph is lower you lessen the impact of the higher ph. You will probably notice the ph of your tank going up a bit overall anyway but as long as your not just dumping the kalk water into your tank then small ph blips shouldn't be anything to worry about

marie, i evaporate about (give or take) 3L/day, that being said it'd be smart to start at about 1/2 a tsp/gal. i have both of those test kits so i'll be monitoring thru-out for the first week or so. as for a pH swing, my pH is already at 8.3 so i'm hoping it settles at no more than 8.5 after i'm done dialing in my kalk dosing? :lol: already made a kalk dripper, sooo techy too~! a 1 gallon jug, whatever works for me-

Don't you mean a ball valve then? How would a check valve work for that...?

Actually a check valve wouldn't work...unless your worried about syphoning all your tank water out through the airline.

I think they meant ball valve or those little clamp thingies that fit on the outside of the hose (which is what I tried and kept breaking).
I just knot the airline, its cheap and adjustable :lol:

The small air line valves work real well. They plug up after time but they are cheap.:biggrin: JL has a bag of 6 for about $10 if I remember right.
I use them to drip acclimatize my fish as well.

this is the one i use myka, to clear up any confusion. i'll give it a try but something tells me that there gonna clog up on me and i'll have to replace them all the time,we are talking about kalkwasser after all, and i might just go for maries airline knot solution!

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgur...icial%26sa%3DX
it's the pic of the airline control valves& tees.

those are similar to the ones I use.

The knot clogs over time as well but I just untie, run vinegar through and then tie back up again

is my calcium & alk going to jump the first day even if i dose minimal, like 1/2 tsp/gallon? or is it a gradual change unlike the pH swing? also what brand do you use marie? i was thinking kent..

I've used kent and littlesilvermax ( http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=26588 ) kalk and never any problems (that I know about) with either of them.
It's possible you could have a jump depending on how much alk/cal you use in a day but the worst that will happen is that it will precipitate out and you have to start all over again. I've overdosed more then once :lol:

*edit* If you find the impellor shafts on your powerheads are getting too much mineral buildup and need to be soaked in vinegar more then once every couple of months then you are adding too much kalk