Well its done.....DIY Kalk Mixer

[ttreptile1]

All done. Attached is a pic of the kalk reactor minus the mag3 that I will attach tomorrow. Just got my Mrs Wages Pickling lime in today as well. Everything was purchased at Home Depot with exception of the glue. I got that from a local glass shop. To be honest I was real nervous about working with Acrylic. But all in all it was fairly easy if you take your time and follow the basic rules of Acrylic. Total cost around $40 bucks. The mag pump I have laying around. Should be firing it up tomorrow. Later...

http://www.duf.net/reptile/kalk.jpg

TT :smokin:

[SweetJesus]

IXNAY on the Mrs. Wages for a PUMP driven kalk reactor. It will literally chew your impellar apart. ESV on the other hand is awesome. Impellars last forever, very fine, very pure!
Just my opinion.

[wedfr]

why have i not seen many pump driven kalk mixers? it seems like a good easy idea? do they get eatin up or clogged up like sweetjesus mentioned?

[SweetJesus]

There are several out there. Most do them DIY, but with the taps and such (IE 1/2" NPT being around $20) just not a reasonable prodject cost for one or two items.

Anyhow, I use the maxijet pumps on my kalk reactors so that if you do trash the impeller they are only $7 to replace. You can trash an impeller very very quickly with pickling lime. In my experience about 6months with Kent Brand, and recently been running about 12 months on ESV and still going.

The impeller wears between the magnet and the stainless steel impeller shaft. This causes the impeller to really rattle and become annoying if you have your tank in a living area.

[johnrags1234]

Details, Details, Details!
Is it from a DIY plan or did you make it up?

[ttreptile1]

I designed it from a few of the DIY plans on the web. Search under google for "nielson or neilson or nilsen". They all bring up different plans (what is the real spelling?). Anyway, I had limited acccess to 4" clear tube so I went to Home Depot and and used 1/4" acrylic sheets that depot cut for me. The demension are 7"W x 36" tall. I hooked the mag2 up just a few minutes ago and am running it overnite to check one more time for any seam leaks.

Sweet Jesus,

Seeing that you are a creator of these things I will follow your instructions. I will give the wages lime to a buddy to drip in and I will pick some ESV up at That Pet Place tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up!

:cool:

TT

[wedfr]

how much does the esv cost compared to the kent and the wages lime?

Also how fast do you go through it?

[Montipora]

Has anyone ever thought about coating the impeller with some kind of brush-on liquid plastic? At work we thread PVC coated metal conduit and after threading it we re-coat the exposed areas. This stuff resists acid and all corrosive materials....I would think it would extend the life of the impeller for years.

Now you have to ask if it's reef safe??? Once it is dry...like pvc cement...it's fine...George

http://www.acrylicreefsolutions.com