Evaporation And Adding Kalkwasser - Discussion

 Lastly, I am starting for the first time to add kalkwasser. My tank  does not evaporate much (maybe 1 gallon week).

That's not too good. Most believe in high evap to maintain calcium via kalk. I evap a minimum or 15 gal per wk in my 200 now a 255 with refugium. You should have fans in your hood which will increase evap and some go as far as placing fans (sometimes very large fans) over the sump. The more air movement= evap = more frequent or larger doses of kalk. I would say a 55 should do about 5 gal per week and added in 2  2.5 gal increments. You add the kalk in the am when the pH is lowest. Mix in the pm let settle then dose in am

So I will be adding this probably once a week. What is the rule of thumb for adding how much in a period of time? Is it one drop per second?

Depends the size of the drop,  using an airline tube the drops are large, an IV bag they are small. I would recommend airline with a reliable clamp and dose the 2.5 gal in a 24 hr period you will be fine. The MAIN thing is to make the adding water to the container/mixing/dosing as EASY as possible so it is
not a dreaded inconvenience. That's the main trick! I use a 5 gal bucket with a pump at the bottom and a water supply right in the bucket. Fill... add kalk... turn on powerhead...mix for 4 hours or so... unplug powerhead... let settle for about an hour... then drip in. I drip 5 gal in about an hour through airline w/o clamp.

Simplified Reefkeeping

I understand the goals of the water treatment equipment, and the function of the live rock filter. I'm planning for a high intensity lighting system so I can keep a wide variety of corals, hence water quality is paramount.

Ok  a "wide variety of corals" will have a equally wide variety of demands. As you know I am not a proponent of extreme wattage, which has been one of the reasons for doing my survey Id suggest to have a look at that.

Anyway, again I would recommend easier to keep corals and usually...the higher the light requirements the more difficult to keep. For example a HL SPS tank will consume a heck of allot of calcium, so a calcium reactor may be in order and depending on your physical location the heat from the lamps and pumps usually transfer to the water so If your in this league.. a chiller may also be called for.

 Keep in mind a wide variety can really be *a wide variety* but the long term costs of operation is damn costly Believe me!!

Simplified Reefkeeping