Cali Kid Corals

Auto Top Off w/Kalk

scuba71

scuba71

Supporting Member
BARcard
So I am contemplating on whether to use an auto top off switch connected to a pump that gets the fresh water from a reservoir and pumps the fresh water into the Kalk reactor VS connecting my RO to a solenoid which is connected to to the auto top off switch that pushes the RO water into the Kalk reactor.

Any recommendation?
 
If you use an ATO, make sure it works and is fail-proof...If that's possible for an ATO :D

Would have nuked my tank at least twice if I had kalk in my ATO.
 
iCon said:
If you use an ATO, make sure it works and is fail-proof...If that's possible for an ATO :D

Would have nuked my tank at least twice if I had kalk in my ATO.
Click to expand...

Well, I planning on using a JBJ ATO that will turn on/off the solenoid whenever it requires topping off. So unless the JBJ ATO stays on, then I am out of luck. I am just trying to see if anyone has a different solution that works.
 
I use a peristaltic pump to feed my Kalk reactor (ATO driven), that is the safest route to go IMO.
 
GreshamH said:
I use a peristaltic pump to feed my Kalk reactor (ATO driven), that is the safest route to go IMO.
Click to expand...

Is the peristaltic pump connected to directly to or to an off shoot of the RO unit?
 
It's feed by a reservoir that has it's own ATO. It's best not to pressurize the feed of a peristaltic pump, that can lead to a disaster when the tubing finally fails as they all fail at some point. It pulls from the RES and pushes it into the Kalk reactor which dumps into my sump.
 
GreshamH said:
It's feed by a reservoir that has it's own ATO. It's best not to pressurize the feed of a peristaltic pump, that can lead to a disaster when the tubing finally fails as they all fail at some point. It pulls from the RES and pushes it into the Kalk reactor which dumps into my sump.
Click to expand...

I am trying to avoid having a reservoir all together to have one less thing to maintain. I guess that does not seem to be the recommended solution. Thanks Gresham.
 
What is there to maintain with a res? Seriously, not being sarcastic...

I think I touched mine 3 times in a decade and once was to check the water level :lol: The other two times were to stick another input tube into it and the other was to replace the float valve to my RODI since I broke it walking by.
 
I guess remembering to fill the reservoir. I thought about auto filling a reservoir, but I don't have the space for it. Then again may be it does not have to be that big.

Do you have a diagram or a pic by any chance of your set up?
 
I second Gresham's recommendation. I use a resevoir coupled with a peristaltic pump which pushes water through a kalk reactor.

The primary benefit is that it is unlikely that I will overdose my tank with kalk. The litermeter is actually also connected to a float valve, so I have a double fail safe that I won't nuke the tank.
 
I use the first (lowest) float switch as the primary way of keeping the sump topped off to the correct level.

I set the litermeter to a rate that is slightly higher than the rate of evaporation of my tank. This way, if the first float switch fails, the pump will still top off the tank, but will not go crazy and flood that tank with kalk.

Over time, it would overfill the sump, but I have a second float sensor that detects if the sump gets too high and then cuts everything off.
 
I have one float switch for the apex, two reservoirs (that I manually fill), one for kalkwasser and one for plain RO water. For dosing pumps I use an aqualifter for each container. Then based on the float and pH the apex turns on the corresponding dosing pump.

I mix up my kalk in a gallon container, let it sit overnight and then the next day siphon off the top the saturated kalkwasser into the ATO reservoir. If I had a sump I would use a calcium reactor and a nilsen style kalk reactor.

This guy wrote up his design for a nilsen kalk reactor and has some good info and diagrams on how to set one up. It looks like what you want to do where it pumps water directly from your RO unit. http://www.mv.com/users/besposito/nilsen.html

I'm also using Mrs. Wages pickling lime, its $2.50 a pound at wal-mart and is pure food grade calcium hydroxide. Much cheaper then the stuff they sell for reef use.
 
Pumping direct from the RO will be very hard on the DI if it turns on and off frequently through out the day (TDS creep).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top