Jestersix

Pressurized kalk reactor

newfly said:
65g tank, 1.5L kalk at night. Hmm come to think about it , it should last 7 days. Something is off.

Yes I have a separate ATO. I could covert the ato to kalk but I get a bit nervous on stability as evaporation is not different .
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How much evaporation do you have a day? Without a sump, I’d have to think that at 1.5-2L would be close to the daily amount. You’re reaching the limits of how much you can dose with kalk I’d imagine and you’ll have to change methods or add a secondary method soon.

Honestly, I think if you want lazy, get a calcium reactor setup. You won’t have to touch it at least 6 months, maybe a year.
 
RandyC said:
How much evaporation do you have a day? Without a sump, I’d have to think that at 1.5-2L would be close to the daily amount. You’re reaching the limits of how much you can dose with kalk I’d imagine and you’ll have to change methods or add a secondary method soon.

Honestly, I think if you want lazy, get a calcium reactor setup. You won’t have to touch it at least 6 months, maybe a year.
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kalk is mainly at night. Besides kalk, I am also dosing 8-10ml of soda ash at night, and 100ml during the day.

Evaporation is 0.6-0.8gallon/day depending on the temp . I got the combo dosing going for a while and it’s pretty stable. Dosing significant amount of kalk during the day may raise the ph too much.

What’s started this is I don’t have space for a larger kalk reservoir. I am pretty stoked with this diy kalk project. I’ll update the thread in a week once I have it setup.
 
Not sure if my evaporation rate is normal. I do have very high flow, 100x with a couple of pumps pointing to the surface.
 
Put this together . Will move this to inside the cabinet once I fine tuned the systems to ensure no accident , 2 level of failsafe

1. Float switch inside the chamber stop overfilling
2. Water leak sensor in the outside container in case water spill from the main chamber.

Magnetic stirrer run the same time as the fill via high flow dosing pump for 8mins to get 2L. Schedule to run in the morning so I can monitor the fill and stir.
 

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newfly said:
Put this together . Will move this to inside the cabinet once I fine tuned the systems to ensure no accident , 2 level of failsafe

1. Float switch inside the chamber stop overfilling
2. Water leak sensor in the outside container in case water spill from the main chamber.

Magnetic stirrer run the same time as the fill via high flow dosing pump for 8mins to get 2L. Schedule to run in the morning so I can monitor the fill and stir.
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How'd you wire up the float? I'm about to do a diy ATO using some electronics. My plan is use a float as the backup sensor, wired inline to the pump.

I'm curious if you did the same.

Regarding the stirring, any concerns about that increasing the likelihood of getting Kalk slurry up towards where you're removing water from the tank? If you ran the fill line down to the bottom of the container, I wonder if you'd even need to stir.
 
richiev said:
How'd you wire up the float? I'm about to do a diy ATO using some electronics. My plan is use a float as the backup sensor, wired inline to the pump.

I'm curious if you did the same.

Regarding the stirring, any concerns about that increasing the likelihood of getting Kalk slurry up towards where you're removing water from the tank? If you ran the fill line down to the bottom of the container, I wonder if you'd even need to stir.
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It’s a hydros specific float sensor . $30 bucks . It’s easy to integrate to my existing hydros ecosystem. The water leak sensor is also from hydros. I program the filing pump to stop if either sensor is triggered.

I’m filling and stir at the same time - 7am for 8mins . Kalk dosing starting from 8pm-7am. The plan is for the kalk to sit for >12 hours so the slurry will settle at the bottom.

Yes, the fill line at the bottom. I cannot comment is this is good enough ie not using the stirrer. I heard folks complaint about commercial stirrer consistency. I figure no harm adding a $30 mag stirrer. Maybe it’s not needed .
 
Reviving this thread.

The diy stirrer works as intended. However I’m hitting the issue @derek_SR mentioned - consistency.

It appear that the kalk is losing potency after 3-4 days. I put enough kalk in the stirrer to last 2 weeks but after 4 days it appear the potency lost at least 50%. If I add more powder , things are back to where it supposed to be.

I mess with the stirring duration but it seems to be futile.
 
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newfly said:
Reviving this thread.

The diy stirrer works as intended. However I’m hitting the issue @derek_SR mentioned - consistency.

It appear that the kalk is losing potency after 3-4 days. I put enough kalk in the stirrer to last 2 weeks but after 4 days it appear the potency lost at least 50%. If I add more power , things are back to where it supposed to be.

I messed up the stirring duration but it seems to be futile.
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Sounds exactly like my experience with the Avast Reactor (I'm a big Avast fan - not a knock there).

Patio said:
What do you think is driving the loss in potency?
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I think kalk just requires fairly vigorous mixing to fully saturate. It seems almost everyone that is paying close attention to their kalk reactor notices this lack of saturation over time, regardless of the brand or set up. And if you have a high demand system, it really sucks to not have consistent alk delivery and you end up having to manually mix it every couple of days which ruins the convenience.
 
Just tested the pH in my Avast and it's at 11 so below max saturation :confused: definitely ruins the convenience of it.

I wish I tested the smaller Bubble Magus kalk reactor I had before. It was loud but it stirred fast and very vigorously, so I had it stir two times a day creating a big white storm while pausing the doser for an hour. I wonder if this was more effective than Avast's slow stirring. I also wonder if the older Nielsen reactors which used a powerhead to mix the solution are any better.
 
Patio said:
Vigorous mixing seems like a solvable problem but like you mention there are other ways to consistent alk delivery.
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What's the solve? How do you get vigorous mixing without doing it by hand? Can't really add a wavemaker because kalk destroys pumps.
 
derek_SR said:
What's the solve?
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I was thinking more stirring mixing.

A few years ago I heard some people adding zip ties up the shaft of the mix bar. That is pretty crude diy though. I wonder if adding a more permanent paddle (like plane prop) higher up the shaft could help solve the vigorous stirring problem. That I don't have DIY skills for but would be nice if Avast or other manufacturer considered testing. Maybe it is not as easy of a problem to fix as I perceive?
 
Looks like this person attempted a mod to bring the mix higher up in the column. It helped but I the end, it didn't fully fix the problem long term.
www.reef2reef.com

Avast Marine K1 Kalk Stirrer Mod

Following since I have similar issues with both BRS and ESV Kalkwasser.
www.reef2reef.com www.reef2reef.com

I may try modding mine. I'm thinking a prop like you suggested on a shorter shaft to blow down. Maybe even a higher rpm motor.
 
Does this mean vigorously stirring is not the problem?

Sorry for all the thinking out loud.lol I can't wrap my head around not having a solution for keeping saturation.
 
Same boat. All this time I was thinking with the mixing paddle at the bottom where freshwater comes in that it would always be fully saturated. Why????!
 
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