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clinton 30 min. north of davenport. Aquatic enviroments is a great lfs. Its like a home away from for me.

Where in Eastern Iowa? I grew up in C.R., and went to U Of Iowa. Are there any good LFS in Eastern Iowa?

we got a few more inches. i had to do the driveway just cause of the drifts. roads aren't too bad but no-one can drive on snow yet around here. not like we live in canada or anything. eh
lol

We got our share here in Ohio today, 6 inches in three hours and calling for more tonight. All this on top of a nice layer of ice.......

that's more snow then i have in ontario.lol
that last storm was almost enough to have to do the driveway, but i didn't have to clean my windshield.

I found a refractometer for 20 bucks @ an industrial tool supply place. I just found it again on e-crater for 24 plus shipping. http://www.ecrater.com/p/5141693/sal...ium-ocean-reef the quality of the tool is pretty close to identical to what I've seen at my LFS's refracts selling for 60 to 80 bucks, and in six months the only thing I've found to be sub par is that I have to re-calibrate it about once every two weeks. Not a big deal, just zero it with some ro/di water and your done, so I feel that it's a valuable find.

Originally Posted by dahenley

you should be able to get the filters and the heater for 100$ and the hydrometer,

Agreed. Here is a full set including DI resin for $55 http://www.melevsreef.com/shop/f4.html

BTW hate hate hate hydrometers. Much better off to spend $40-$50 on a refractometer.

you should be able to get the filters and the heater for 100$ and the hydrometer, i still use one on my 240 reef.... its not always the actual number of the parameter, its the consistency. so if its off, but consistent, then your not doing as much harm as an off parameter that fluctuates as your trying to achieve that special number....

The best way as I have found without a Kalk Reactor is the obvious drip method. With my current system, I drip 2-gallons of Kalk Solution in my tank. I only do this with the lights off at night when the Ph is naturally supressed every other night, sometimes every 3 days. The Mixture I use is 12 grams per 2 gallons of water.

One thing to remember and a common mistake when dripping. Always make the solution in enough time to allow a couple hours for all the suspended particles settle. Once you make up your solution (water and powder) your gunna shake it. You want this to settle. Once settled you'll want to start a slow drip about 30 - 40 per minute with lights off and at night.

I use the Brightwell Aquatics Kalk+2 and have had very good luck.

Sounds like the wife needs her priorities realigned.

Thx Jessy i was leaning toward the same way as well just wanted some impute on it thx alot again.

My order would be RO/DI and heater. Water quality is important but so is replacing a heater that could boil everything to bits

Most people start with 1 tbsp of kalk per gallon of RO water. You can go as high as 2 per gallon.

i want to drip dose it it.

Whatever you do, keep a close eye on it until you get it dialed in. I once accidentally doubled my dose of kalk in my drip and wouldn't have noticed it without my ph reading on the reefkeeper lite steadily raising. If I wouldn't have paid attention who knows what could have happened.

How are you gonna dose? With your top off? If so I would start will 50% RO water and 50% Kalk water and test daily to see what your tank is doing. It may take a few weeks to fine tune your mixture.

would it be advisable to rinse off my live sand bed that i have and try to get out the dinos on the sand or would that be more harmful? i have had this sand bed in there for more than 4 months. Also its no more than 3" inches deep.

I dont think running your lights at 4 hours a day will help with dinos. I did a full 5 day lights out with only ambient lighting in the house illuminating the tank. After the 5th day I started with only D/D lighting for 4 hours and slowly, slowly reaclimated the lighting back to my normal over 2-3 weeks. I have never seen dinos again and after the fifth day, My tank was completely algae clear including some other small pest algaes. Just my .02c

-Chris

Is there anything else i could use besides kalk. i never used it b4 and i don't feel real comfortable trying to use it just yet. ( not brave enough.....lol ) heard things can go wrong real fast if not done right. Hey thx though. My ph is currently now at 8.3 and have my lights running now for only 4 hrs a day.