Calcium Reactor

[chicagoman_35]

I use a homeade solution myself, (Randy's 3 part recipe), Got my calcuim choloride from McMaster (was off season when I got it), this time of year ya can find prestone driveway heat at Publix... That, some epsom salts, and some baking soda and your all set! Cheap!

 

[chicagoman_35]

Mcmaster is Mcmaster-Carr... Item # 3190K36 ($29.91) I believe it is Dow. It is a 25lb bucket of flake...

 

[cameron]

Big D: I have some twopartsolutions.com in premade pouches if you want to try it out. I ordered a batch from them just to see what they have and how well packaged it is. Well done IMO. I know you can get even cheaper, but this stuff sure is convinient.

Also the cheapest place online that I know people have used is http://www.mainstreetseedandsupply.com/saltproducts.htm">http://www.mainstreetseedandsupply.com/saltproducts.htm</a>. Some guys over at reefcentral.com have ordered from them.

You can get a 50lb bag shipped $40 bucks. I have no idea how much that makes though.

 

[george]

I called the Woodstock location for Ready Mix USA and they do not sell stuff in bags. Apparently it's a bulk-only operation.

 

[justonemoretank]

Sweet Big D! I look forward to hearing back.

 

[george]

Hmm. I tried the Ready Mix Marietta loc and got no answer. Guess I'll have to call back.

I may be able to get us a wholesale lot through work, if we can get interest. I'll check on the pricing.

 

[cameron]

Would be nice to drop by with some 5 gallon jugs to a LFS and get a fill up of some already made up. Might be a nice opportunity for someone who has the time and storage capacity.

 

[kh971]

I myself used some calcium chloride pellets like Kent's Turbo Calcium, They were obtained through the hospital through a friend. This was laboratory grade stuff and worked great. I noticed that Aqua Chem has calcium additive you can put in a pool. This is available at Wal Mart, Home Depot, and Lowes. I am not sure about the purity of it or the makeup. Does anyone else know?

 

[george]

kh971 wrote: I noticed that Aqua Chem has calcium additive you can put in a pool. This is available at Wal Mart, Home Depot, and Lowes. I am not sure about the purity of it or the makeup. Does anyone else know?

The pool stuff should be good enough for aquariums. Just make sure it doesn't have any marketing-gimmick additives or extra ingredients. It should just be a calcium hardness increaser.

 

[george]

Big D wrote: Looks like it can be used, just at a lower dosage due to the unsurity of it's moisture content which is what I was trying to avoid

If you start off with a known volume of water and a fixed volume of the calcium chloride, you can do the math to figure out the absolute amount of calcium in the product using a titration calcium test kit.

Unless you keep it perfectly sealed, though, it'll absorb moisture over time anyway. One of its primary uses is as a desiccant in concrete curing.

 

[george]

rhomer wrote: You can pick up prestone drive way heat at any publix for about $7.00 about 5lbs, which is listed in that article as a sub for turbo calcium. I'm about to the point to start since I picked some up Sunday. You can also use epsom salts for the mag portion. I picked up a 2lb bag at publix for 1.79.

I actually remembered to check in publix last night and picked up some of the http://www.scotwoodindustries.com/pageprodprestonedrivewayheat.htm">Driveway Heat</a> to give it a try. It's actually 9.5 lb for $7 which is pretty good considering you don't have to dig up a secondary container and you don't have to find a concrete supplier.

From it's [IMG]http://www.scotwoodindustries.com/MSDS%20for%20Website/Heat%20MSDS.pdf">MDS Sheet</a> it appears to be 90%-97% CaCl though so some adjustment to the Dowflake recipe is still needed.

 

[kh971]

Have you used the Aqua Chem stuff George? I still have a thing of it from this summer, from the kids pool.

 

[george]

kh971 wrote: Have you used the Aqua Chem stuff George? I still have a thing of it from this summer, from the kids pool.

No I have not. Best thing to do is dissolve some in RO water and test it for all the bad things (including chlorine, of course).

How big is your "kids pool" that you needed calcium hardness additive? That must be some pool!

 

[george]

Big D wrote: I had thought of using a test kit, just wonder how much of my kit will be wasted trying to test for 37,000 ppm a few times?..:sad: I've got one of the expensive Seachem kits, it's a great kit, I guess I could do the math on the titration and figure out how many ml's it would take...

You'll get the least error with the more volume you add of the calcium, but it has to be added to enough water to make for a reading in the range of your test kit.

Off hand, if I were doing it, I would start with a liter of water (easy math) and add 1 table spoon of calcium. See if the reading is off the chart or not.

Since it is a salt dissolution, you could start with a TDS meter to get a ballpark reading on some zero TDS RO water.

The biggest problem is the varriance in granule size affecting the actual amount of calcium in a table spoon from batch to batch. Perhaps if you ground it to powder then added a measured quantity?

 

[george]

I have a TDS meter if you need to borrow one.