Been thinking about running kalk in addition to my calcium reactor.

Maximus · #1 01/02/2008, 03:34 PM

What do you guys think? I've seen lots of successful tanks run kalk in conjunction with a reactor and have seen some impressive results. I've always either ran kalk or a reactor, but never at the same time. Kalk has lots of benefits such as increasing ph, precipitating phosphates and maintaining alk and calcium. Here is my question. Instead of using a kalkreactor, I plan on simply dumping in some kalk into my 30g topoff reservoir. The reservoir feeds into my sump via a Kent float valve. I would also hook up a small mj pump to keep it stirred 3-4x/day via my AC3. I know that I have a risk of the kalk plugging up my float valve, but it is an acceptable one. Does anyone see any flaws in this setup?

DanInSD · #2 01/02/2008, 05:06 PM

Kalk is often used with calcium reactors to offset pH drop caused by the acidic effluent. This is "standard practice" and is seen on most Tank-o-Month's.

I have no comment your proposed kalk delivery system -- I personally would use a kalkreactor for peace of mind.

Dan

Mikigo · #3 01/02/2008, 05:08 PM

Run kalk as water topoff at night time to keep the PH above 8.0

Marko9 · #4 01/02/2008, 06:00 PM

Sang- John runs Kalk through his top res. He keeps a power head in there to keep it stirred. You will need to do regular cleanings. I think that this could work as I have heard many incidents of people waking up to cloudy tanks as their reactors failed.

DarG · #5 01/02/2008, 06:13 PM

If you put the kalk directly in the reservoir and then continually run a powerhead to keep it stirred, that will keep the water in the reservoir cloudy from the kalk, right? Or am i missing something. I know that some people use unsettled, cloudy kalk water to top off but isnt the current method still to allow it to settle and then dose with the clear water? Or are most people dosing with the cloudy water these days? I havent ever used a Kalk stirrer / reactor. I drip in the clear water up top after the kalk has settled.

Thanks

DarG · #6 01/02/2008, 06:14 PM

Sorry, didnt mean to hi-jack.

Maximus · #7 01/02/2008, 06:19 PM

What you can do is run a small powerhead 3-4x/day at around 5 min each time. You should also have the output line a few inches above the bottom in order to prevent the slurry from getting in the output line.

Mark, that is good to know.