Kalk reactor...

[safeuerwehr]

ok for you DIY experts (hobogato/reefone) or anyother...Im interest in making my own Kalk reactor but most of the info I found was based on a makeup water feed so my question is this: Can i run the feed out of my sump like I do for my Calcium reactor....what are the pros and cons regarding this and how would you recommend it being done always on or off and on drip rate....LMK

[GaryP]

Short answer no.

Long answer: Kalk has very limited solubility in water (~1.4% or something like that.) When you are using SW, the solubility is very much reduced in addition. In addition, the high pH of the Kalk water causes the alkalinity in the water to precipitate. After a short while, you don't have a reactor anymore. A better term to describe it is a brick.

[JimD]

If you use your sump as your supply, youll be feeding saltwater to the reactor, not gonna work, it has to be fresh water in order to acheive the correct results.

[safeuerwehr]

ah ha.....hence all the reading i did only talked about fresh water introduction.....OK well back to the drawing boards on how to get fresh water sourse since i do water top offs with a bucket....any ideas? limited on space here?

[safeuerwehr]

ah ha.....hence why all the reading i did only talked about fresh water introduction.....OK well back to the drawing boards on how to get fresh water sourse since i do water top offs with a bucket....any ideas? limited on space here?

[JimD]

What type of kalk reactor do you intend to build?

[matt]

The best way to get water to a KW reactor is to use a peristaltic dosing pump. The best of these I've found are either the litermeter ($300) or the innovative aquatics refurbished medical dosing pumps ($150-200) You pump R.O. water from a reservoire to the reactor, which then drips KW into your sump. The innovative aquatics dosing pumps can be set to push as little as 1ml/hr or as much as 900, depending on the tubing you use. Mine is set at around 150ml/hr, which comes out to about a gallon a day. This matches my evaporation and the sump level never budges.

[JimD]

Ive been using a $15 Aqualifter pump for the last couple of years, works just fine and being low amperage, it can easily be controlled by an inexpensive float switch.

www.marinedepot.com/md_viewitem.asp?idproduct=OE1137

www.floatswitches.net

[Texreefer]

what about a gravity fed reactor with a float switch in the sump

[JimD]

How would the float switch stop the flow?

[Texreefer]

pressurized reactor gravity fed from large resevoir, effluent from reactor into sump through mecanical float switch that shuts off using pressure

[matt]

Despite Jim's success with using a float switch/powerhead arrangement, I would still recommend the dosing pump. There are many horror stories about a stuck float switch and a flooded sump. If you're just using water for top off, it'll knock down your salinity but that's it. If you accidentally dump a few gallons of KW into your sump at once, you could wipe out the tank. That's what happened to Minh in Corpus. I guess it depends on your tank size; if you have a 200-300 gallon system, a few gallons might not be a big deal. My tank is so small that even a 1 gallon overdose would probably kill alot of animals. The dosing pump makes it impossible to accidentally pump excess KW into your tank, and since it's a steady drip rather than a periodic stream, there is essentially no variance in salinity or ph.

I like these dosing pumps so much I'm thinking about getting another one to dose my home made 2-part Ca/Alk supplement. I think I need about 50 ml/day (about 2 oz) and the newer innovative aquatics pump can do that, it actually goes down to .5 ml/day per channel for 2 channel dosing.

[Texreefer]

my tank evaporates less than a gallon a week on 120 total gallons,, i would have to really up my evaporation rate to go with a doing pump... not sure if i want to do that or not.. good info though,,,, safeurwehr... not trying to hijack your thread, hope this info helps you as well

[JimD]

matt, Im not using a powerhead to dose the tank, Im using an Aqualifter vacuum pump to deliver fresh water to the reactor, check the link,. I was using a high dollar parstaltic pump and it worked fine until the bushings wore out and got way too loud. The vacuum pump/float switch is a great alternative for folks that just dont have the coinage for the more expensive gear.

[matt]

Oh yeah, that's different, looks like a good idea. Still, though, 3.5 gallons/hour would kill me if the float switch stuck. Originally I was going to use a set of stainless steel sensors and a solenoid hooked up to my R.O. filter, which has a similar flow rate. Supposedly the sensors are more reliable than a float switch, but I never ended up using it because I bought the medical dosing pump.