Help me pick a kalk stirrer

[psteeleb]

I don't see it in the discussion thread but some people supliment their calcium reactor with Kalk dosings to compensate for the lower Ph. Others will use Kalk exclusivly for their Alk and Ca supliments. I think anglefire has a calc reactor and is suplimenting but I may be wrong. My initial post to this thread assumed her using kalk as a supliment as I have seen several systems in the area that just add it to their top off. I would think those that use Kalk as their primary Ca/Alk additive use a more controlled approach.

 

[kwl1763]

I want to supplement but I'm not hooking my autotopoff into it. I might do something like Lee suggets but I would need a low level because of I'm just looking to supplement the calcium reactor! This would solve my issue and I could have the aquacontroller only turn the pump on at night that way I raise the pH at night and I could have the autotopoff turn on during the morning through midday so I don't have a full vat and then send more water to the tank via kalk.

All interesting stuff!

The reason I want to is two fold.

1) My dual chamber big calicum reactor is running full tilit and barely keeping up. This wil only get worse as my tank is only 18 months old right now. ( I couldn't add enough kalk for sure with only a kalk reactor on the topoff)

2) Over time peole with calcium reactors ee their alk creep abouve the calcium and the balance becomes slightly off. I don't remeber exactly why but it happens and the opposite is true of kalk reactors in that calcium is slightly higher then balanced. Running bothe prevents this from happening.

 

[Serk]

@psteeleb wrote:

Peter - A photo would be impossible, since the system has parts running behind my entire system, the entire length of the room, since the controller is on one end of the room, the reservoir on the other...

Please excuse the HORRIBLY bad sketch, but here's a basic layout of it...

Blue lines are water, red are electricity.

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Hey, I never claimed to be an artist!

The RO/DI reservoir has a mechanical float valve in it, and is plumbed directly into my RO/DI system so it stays fulls.

I didn't show it in the diagram, but there are 4 electric float switches wired in series (So that all 4 have to register "low" for the circuit to be energized) between the aqualifters and the controller. The controller is the "master" control so to speak, if the pH is too high, it cuts power to the float switches, which in turn cuts power to the aqualifters. If the pH is in spec, then the float switches are energized, and the decision to energize the aqualifters is in their hands. If all 4 float switches read low, then the circuit to the aqualifters is energized, and the topping off is allowed to occur...

I hope that makes sense... if not lemme know what part doesn't and I'll try to clarify...

 

[bdare]

Hey Serk,

Are all the aqualifters just to keep the water moving over a long distance?

Ben

 

[psteeleb]

@Serk wrote:

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It makes sense to me. I was wanting confirmation that you actually use the pumps in series - looks like you do. Is that a vertical lift issue or some sort of redundancy?

Also, are your four float switches two doubles? Sounds like you got this thought out and working. Do you run a calcium reactor or total Ca/Alk dose with Kalk? Also how often do you have to fill your kalk reactor?

thanks

 

[Serk]

The aqualifters running in series are because the water is being moved several horizontal feet, and a few vertical feet, plus to overcome the back pressure of the kalk reactor...

I don't run a calcium reactor, just the kalk reactor for my ATO...

And yeah, the 4 float switches is a pair of doubles, one plugged into the other...

 

[Serk]

Oh, and I add 2 cups of calcium hydroxide about once a month or so...

 

[orchidsnfish]

You would be correct. Angelfire does have a GEO 624. I want to supplement to keep the pH up during the night mainly and my corals respond well to topping off with kalk.

I was looking at my AC Jr manual and you can program the controller to do this to make dosing kalk safer through you ATO by controlling the float switch from there:

IF SWITCH OPEN
THEN H20 ON
IF SWITCH CLOSED
THE H20 OFF
IF PH >8.30
THEN H20 OFF
MAX CHANGE 010M
THEN H20 OFF

Apparently you use 2 pins on the serial port to operate a float valve through the AC Jr. Seems pretty safe to me except still doesn't address the problem of what if the pH is high and the tank needs top off.

Unrelated to kalk reactors...but I picked up this last night on ebay.
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~RS3675.html For what they cost new I probably would have never bought one. Curious to see how I like it.

FYI I emailed MRC regarding what size tanks they recommend each of their kalk reactors for:
Small- up to 200 gal
Med- up to 500 gal
Standard-500+ gal
Large- up to 1500 gal
I'm ordered the standard because I like overkill and it's not that much different in size or price. I also emailed greenmako about which one he got for his 300 gal and he went with the standard, but wishes he would have went with the large. I don't know this for a fact, but I would be willing to bet he also runs a big calcium reactor.

 

[Ashlar]

@orchidsnfish wrote:

That's why I separated my kalk from ATO (back before I started dosing two part). ATO demand changes based on humidity, temp, etc.. but the calcium / alk demands of the tank should remain fairly stable from day to day.

 

[Alex]

@Ashlar wrote:

That's why I separated my kalk from ATO (back before I started dosing two part). ATO demand changes based on humidity, temp, etc.. but the calcium / alk demands of the tank should remain fairly stable from day to day."]

Scott, what made you go away from the Kalk and started dosing 2-part?

I'm thinking of going from 2-part to only dosing Kalk...

 

[washingtond]

I considered the GEO kalk stirrer but became too complicated when connected to ATO and the volume of water that it moved when on. So I decided to go with a simple IV drip feed from a large (30 gals) kalk water storage located in the garage and drips approx one drop per second into the sump 24/7. That drip rate keeps up with most of the evaporation in the 200 gal tank. I am also running a GEO Calcium Reactor full time. I travel a lot and needed a system that would work for a week without any intervention and this does the trick. I mix up 20 to 30 gals of kalk a week depending on if I am going out of town or not.

I also have a ATO system with float switches and controller connected to a pump located in a 35 gal RO/DI water storage tank also located in the garage. This entire system is very simple and low cost that has been running for two years now without any problems. This system meets all the Ca & Alk demands of the tank.

By the way before this setup I used a two part method but was not good when traveling out of town.

 

[Ashlar]

@Alex wrote:

I was dosing 2 liters of kalk a day and it wasn't meeting the ca / alk demands. If I scaled it up to meet needs, I would have had to drive evaporation up. I didn't feel like running more fans to increase evap, and possibly have to run the heaters more, just to use kalk.

Now that I've got the 2-part running on a dosing pump, controlled by my AC3, I only have to touch it once every 2 weeks to swap out containers of 2-part.