kalc pictures finally up

[Gator]

this is a picture of mats kalc reactor he made for me. hopefully i will have it running tomorow. Thanks to matt for all his excelent work, how do i get the picture to a smaller size it wont let \me post it

[Gator]

the picture is to big and i cant resize it

[scuba_steveo]

thanks for the tease gator

[::pete::]

Still no pic ... lets see it!!! :)

[matt]

It's been a homerian epic to get a single lousy photo of this thing. It's really my fault, I can't believe I didn;t just borrow a camera before giving it to Gator. So, I'll describe it. It is a modified version of the calcium reactor; 6" diameter, 18" tall cast tube with a small box underneath. No bubble counter, of course. The mixing pump connections are on the box, the output is on the lid, and the water input is a fitting on the box, but connected to a 1/4" lexan tube that goes straight up, outside the main tube, through a little hole in the flange, and ends in a John Guest elbow just above water level in the reactor. This way there is no back pressure on the dosing pump, and kalk will not drain back out into the dosing pump when its off. As far as mixing, the pump is the tiny pan-world; looks just like a miniature iwaki, pumps 175gph. The flow for the mixing is up from the box through the tube, lifting some of the kalk off the bottom of the tube. It's a pretty gentle mix, which I think is what's best. It's very cool looking, especially with the little pump.

As far as photos, I've been asking Gator for photos of his skimmer, calcium reactor, and this for a long time. He says they're coming...

[::pete::]

It "sounds" nice :-D

[Nano_Steve]

send the photo to me in an email (xien2000_corp(at)yahoo.com) and ill resize it for ya.

better yet just go to irfanview.com and download irfanview and use that program to do it yourself :) great little program for pc's

-steve

[Gator]

matt they are coming as soon as someone explains all this camera and stuff to me. You giver me a 3 story rock house and i can move it 20 plus m iles. but when it comes to pictures and getting my computet to work i am not very good. i emailed the pictured to xien2000 m,abey i did that right. but with my luck i did not hopefully everyone will get to see it soon

[Gator]

im trying

[Gator]

ayutout

[RobertG]

Gator are you running both the calcium reactor aswell the Kalk reactor?

[Gator]

not yet i cant get my doser working right. i hiikesd up a seocnd chamber to amtts calcium reactor and it haas a pf of 7.0 and alc of 48 i want mat to build me a bigger second chamber becasue my calcium and alc aere doing a better job

[matt]

Way to go Gator! Listen, I need to make it clear that I was NOT really ****ed about the photos and was joking about the whole affair. Gator, thanks for going to this effort, and understand that it's MY responsibility to get photos of the stuff I make. Since I haven't bothered to get a digital camera and learn how to use it, I can hardly hold you responsible.
Now, I have to say, an effluent of dkh48 at ph 7.0 is better performance from a reactor than I would ever have thought possible. Maybe there's something to this second chamber bit. I'd be interested in knowing how adding the second chamber affects your tank ph. My reactor has a ph of 6.8, dkh of about 30, and my tank ph almost never goes below 8.0 while maintaining high Ca and alk levels. I think your ph issues have more to do with the fact that you added MANY corals at once, which really punches the level of photosynthesis in your tank, causing a big drop in tank ph at night. Jim Norris told me his tank ph would routinely dip below 7.6 at night. You can try running the kalk reactor; I'm certain you won't need it for calcium replenishment, but i bet you'll be able to keep a very high ph, especially if you dose at night.

Corals need CO2 in the water for calcification; your calcium reactor will help provide that, and the corals' respiration at night will really push CO2 into the water. So, if you dose KW at night, you can keep the ph from tipping and still have plenty of CO2 to assist in calcification.

BTW, the photos are a little squished; in fact, the reactor is taller and skinnier than it appears in the photo. Thanks for posting them!

[Gator]

yes trhey are squashed it was the only way i ciould find to post them. i tries to make them bigger but it didnt work. when i saw them i was laugfing becasue they looked short and squatty like a bull dog. i am scared of the kalc becasue i cant get the pump working and if it was tp brake i think i could wipe out my entire system.