kalkreactor question

rhoptowit · #1 10/06/2007, 11:57 PM

i am looking to get a kalkreactor, can someone recommend me a brand? its for a 65 gallon tank.

oh and i was looking to hook it up with my current ATO system, how would i make sure i dont overdose and cause my pH to get out of control?

customcolor · #2 10/07/2007, 12:50 PM

bump cuz i to wanna now the outcome of this

baldgeek · #3 10/07/2007, 03:11 PM

Not that this helps you an awful lot, but I got one made by a local reefer that is 8in diameter X 14in T for a 210G, fed by an aquadoser from a 5G bucket of RO/DI that acts as my topoff at the rate of about 1G/day. There is a stir pump that comes on for 4 mins every 4 hours. I guess the point is that it is not all that difficult to make one yourself.

rhoptowit · #4 10/07/2007, 03:31 PM

ill prob do that then

HDAlien · #5 10/08/2007, 09:23 AM

Geo.

gig · #6 10/08/2007, 09:36 AM

Precision Marine

ScubaTC · #7 10/08/2007, 11:02 PM

I have the BARS. But for starters with ATO... do not add a lot of kalk to the reactor in the beginning and continue to monitor your PH often.

100% of my ATO goes through my kalk reactor. When I started it out I also set the stir bar to come on for a few mins every couple of hours during lights out since the PH drops overnight. This helped keep PH up while topping off water. Be sure to not overshoot your PH by having it at 8.4 just before light on or it may start moving your PH toward 8.6 or higher during the day. This depends on how often you stir the kalk. I made sure it did not stir 4 hours prior to lights on.

Once you can see a pattern with your PH you should now how much to add and how often to stir. Your tank should begin to slowly adjust and handle the additional kalk.

I add more kalk when I notice my PH is running a little lower than it should over a few days.

roktsintst · #8 10/11/2007, 11:11 PM

Would you just put a reducer on the 1/2" line coming off the pump from the ATO??? My tank fills about once an hour??? is that going to be ok???

roktsintst · #9 10/11/2007, 11:41 PM

What if i had a separate maxijet 400 reduced to 1/4" and set to run at night with a slow drip??? would that work???

baldgeek · #10 10/12/2007, 02:50 PM

Scuba makes a great point. I just so happened that when I set mine up, the stir period and topoff period don't happen too close together. I have one hour during the day and 2 hours at night which gives the 1G ish that I lose everday. I have not yet noticed any wild shifts in pH. This actually gives a good chance to flash up the RK2 since it now does logging and look at the patterns. I absolutely love this setup though. Swapping out a bucket every 5 days or so while keeping calcium level up and ph stable is soooo nice. Next is to actually get an RO/DI unit with a shutoff and really keep it hands off.

Paulairduck · #11 10/12/2007, 04:22 PM

The kalk stirrer's are better than the ones with the maxijet

Aquamedic and deltec

baldgeek · #12 10/12/2007, 06:31 PM

I actually use a small little giant for it and it seems to work quite well, but I have never used a stirrer before, so that might, in fact, work better. Maybe on the next one.

julief20 · #13 10/12/2007, 08:24 PM

Precision Marine..Use it with a Reef Doser Pump& works great..

jmait769 · #14 10/12/2007, 09:02 PM

I have a ReefTek reactor and have used it for over a year with no issues. $179.00.

Quote:

how would i make sure i dont overdose and cause my pH to get out of control?

I'm using an AC jr to prevent stirring if the PH goes above 8.3 and some use a timer.

HTH

Jay

bulldogfish · #15 10/13/2007, 12:11 AM

I would go with ASD ( Aquatic Systems Designs). Scott makes a great product, takes pride in his work and his customer service is great. You can't go wrong.

madadi · #16 10/13/2007, 02:19 AM

i think running your top off trough the kalk reactor is a great idea. just keep in mind that if you connect your RO system directly to the kalk reactor and your float valve malfunctions you will have a lot of clean up to do. i would just fill up a 10-15 gal rubbermade container and gravity feed from that. in your case i would do just a 5 gal bucket.

on my auto top off i went a small step further because with an auto top off system, how much kalk it administers is directly related to your evaporation rate. on a rainy day your system will get less kalk then on a real dry day when the evaporation rate is a little higher. its tied in with the due point, blah blah anyway
what i did was:
i didn't put the kalk trough the float valve, rather its running off a medical dosing pump that administers exactly 175ml per hour. on some days thats enough to keep the level constant in the sump, on some days its not. so i have a float valve connected to a 5 gal of RO water and that keeps the water level/salinity constant.

it all cost me lless then 80 bucks
40 bucks for the medical pump off ebay
7 bucks for the float switch and 20 bucks for two plastic containers.
it worked great for me, but it will take up more space then most people want unless you have a fishroom in the back of the tank.

roktsintst · #17 10/13/2007, 08:47 AM

What if i got a maxijet pump and connected it to my kalk reactor and put a valve on the line and set it to drip. Then only turned on the pump when ph was less than 8.2 and not higher than 8.4. Would that work???

baldgeek · #18 10/13/2007, 01:28 PM

My setup is kinda like that already, but I have the ph monitor setup to turn the CO2 on the calc reactor off. Are you talking about using the Maxi for dosing the tank? Not quite sure how that would work. Seems like a lot of back pressure. I bought the AquaDoser for around $80, so it's not a huge investment.
Madadi, I have thought about that as well, which is partly why I have not done it yet. Have to figure out how to keep that from happening. And besides, refilling the bucket once a week or so is really not that big a deal.