Pressurized kalk reactor
- Thread starter newfly
- Start date
Example: https://www.geosreef.com/product-category/equipment/reactors/kalkwasser-reactors/
I'd feed it with a peristaltic pump.
Very expensive though. I feel these reactors are so expensive it might be better just buying a Trident setup.
What I do is 5 gallon jugs and pull with a peristaltic pump. Requires having room for that though. My frag tank I effectively do the same but with a 10 gallon tank at the kalk reservoir.
I'd feed it with a peristaltic pump.
Very expensive though. I feel these reactors are so expensive it might be better just buying a Trident setup.
What I do is 5 gallon jugs and pull with a peristaltic pump. Requires having room for that though. My frag tank I effectively do the same but with a 10 gallon tank at the kalk reservoir.
How big is your tank and how much kalk you pushing in a night? Also do you have a ato reservoir?
Whoa. More than 2x I am dosing at 650 ml for same size system.
I am assuming you are dosing it in now? With what?
Sorry about the coral losses. Always sucks when that happens-
Ok my idea-not cheap but lazy aka “efficient”
What you see is the avast kalk stirrer-my idea would be to reverse the flow-
Pump in water into the 1/2 inch outlet by either using one dose head (with a big o barb) or an inexpensive sicce or other pump.
Then cut the intake tube quite a bit and use the doser to push the kalk into the tank. This has the advantage of pulling from the ato reservoir.
I got this as it was one of the few options that fit in the cabinet. Prior to that I was using a gallon jug and I had to replace every 5 days.
Really annoying…
I am sure there are some other ideas out there as well.
Ok my idea-not cheap but lazy aka “efficient”
What you see is the avast kalk stirrer-my idea would be to reverse the flow-
Pump in water into the 1/2 inch outlet by either using one dose head (with a big o barb) or an inexpensive sicce or other pump.
Then cut the intake tube quite a bit and use the doser to push the kalk into the tank. This has the advantage of pulling from the ato reservoir.
I got this as it was one of the few options that fit in the cabinet. Prior to that I was using a gallon jug and I had to replace every 5 days.
Really annoying…
I am sure there are some other ideas out there as well.
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That is a valid concern.
I imagine you could always pull Kalk from the avast with a peristaltic pump if you really wanted to. You'd have to somehow match flow rates going in with what you take out, but you could do that in a hacky way too.
1. Put the line that's extracting Kalk water near the top, so that it's always getting mixed Kalk, and it can't actually pull a large amount out.
2. Add and extract at the same time, or extract then add.
3. Extract faster than you add, and more than you'd add
Eg set it up to extract Kalk water out at 50% faster then you add, extracting at the same time as putting in, BUT because you have the removal line near the top of the reactor, it won't actually do that.
Because you extract Kalk water faster / more than you'd ever add, the system would actually only ever extract the amount you added. If you added 1L and it tried to extract 2L, it can't; it'd extract 1L of Kalk and the rest would just be air.
I'm not sure if that's clear. In different terms it'd be a resource constrained system where it would always be limited by how much you add. Ignoring wear and tear, you could even let the Kalk extract run 24/7 and only add at night, and it'd therefore only extract at night.
1. Put the line that's extracting Kalk water near the top, so that it's always getting mixed Kalk, and it can't actually pull a large amount out.
2. Add and extract at the same time, or extract then add.
3. Extract faster than you add, and more than you'd add
Eg set it up to extract Kalk water out at 50% faster then you add, extracting at the same time as putting in, BUT because you have the removal line near the top of the reactor, it won't actually do that.
Because you extract Kalk water faster / more than you'd ever add, the system would actually only ever extract the amount you added. If you added 1L and it tried to extract 2L, it can't; it'd extract 1L of Kalk and the rest would just be air.
I'm not sure if that's clear. In different terms it'd be a resource constrained system where it would always be limited by how much you add. Ignoring wear and tear, you could even let the Kalk extract run 24/7 and only add at night, and it'd therefore only extract at night.
newfly
Supporting Member
Love this idea. If I put the kalk stirrer in my current bucket, it will be the fail safe / insurance if the flow is imbalance due to equipment failure.
I have plenty of dosing pump, what’s another one.
I’m thinking diy the kalk stirrer in this setup. A 2.5L dosing reservoir sitting on top of a mag stirrer should do the trick.
I have plenty of dosing pump, what’s another one.
I’m thinking diy the kalk stirrer in this setup. A 2.5L dosing reservoir sitting on top of a mag stirrer should do the trick.
newfly
Supporting Member
plan is to fill in the morning in a single fill, turn in the stirrer for ?? mins, and dose at night. I like the idea of filling less than extracting. I think 5ml less is safe enough given that I do plan on adding kalk weekly. The reservoir should have 2L Buffer before overflowing to the main bucket . Plan to have sensor both in the kalk stirrer and main bucket. Never have too many sensor,
10min stirring every morning should be enough , you think?
10min stirring every morning should be enough , you think?
wazzupmac
Supporting Member
I recently purchased the Red Sea reefcan’s to serve as my ATO - they are slim and may serve your purpose of a container that isn’t big or obtrusive.
newfly
Supporting Member
Thanks. I look into the reefcan a while back. I have my ato plumb to my RO. It’s nice that it’s slim and such but not much room to add a float sensor . It save maybe an inch or two in width which doesn’t buy me much. My 5g Home Depot bucket works well.
Kalk reservoir is another story. Reef can is not that suited for kalk. Not easy to clean and stir, I think.
Let me know how it goes. I've definitely not tried this. It was made up on the fly. It seems pretty straightforward though.
If I was doing it, thinking it over more, I would start the extract, let it run a bit, start the fill, let the extract run a bit after the fill finishes.
Making that doable thought requires some electronic controls though. I'd do it with home assistant and some smart plugs or a custom DC output connected to the cheapo peristaltic pumps. Anything controllable though should work, especially if you just start both pumps around the same amount of time.
What pump and control will you use?
If I was doing it, thinking it over more, I would start the extract, let it run a bit, start the fill, let the extract run a bit after the fill finishes.
Making that doable thought requires some electronic controls though. I'd do it with home assistant and some smart plugs or a custom DC output connected to the cheapo peristaltic pumps. Anything controllable though should work, especially if you just start both pumps around the same amount of time.
What pump and control will you use?