Kalk and SW

[glxtrix]

Allllrighty, so I'll dip a little into the whole kalk deal, but not too much because I don't know specifics (ie - scientific reasons).. I know there are links out there that explain this better than I can, but I'll just let you know my experience. One day about a month or so ago I decided to put a pump in my sump and run it to my kalak reactor to constantly drip kalk ( it was hooked thu my RKII to monitor pH so it didn't get too high...or low) It did an awesome job maintaining my pH at 8.3-8.4. One day I had talked with Jin asking why people don't run SW through kalk reactors....well he tells me there is some reaction between SW and kalk where he believes there is some sort of mineral drop out. I had decided to add some more kalk to my reactor a few days later and when I opened it up, there was an interesting surprise. I had to pull a decent bit to get the spray bar out....there was a solidified chunk in the chamber. Does this represent some soft of reaction between the kalk and SW....yes. Is it bad? While I found no immediate negatives happening in my tank, I'm sure there may be some sort of down side to this method....not to mention what it's actually doing to the levels of CA, Mg and ALK in the system. So in short...use RO/DI

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[rostato]

Good to know. I almost did what you did, but decided just to get a seperate med grade dosing pump and constantly drip kalk that way. I also still use a seperate top off set up.

 

[flyingarmy]

Lee..I get the same thing with RO/DI...huge goop in the bottom of the kalk reactor each time I change out kalk.

 

[glxtrix]

Do you get a physically hard formation though? That's what you're looking at on the top.

 

[mojo]

I believe this was talked about in the past.

 

[glxtrix]

Heh oh yeah....I remember that thread. Man how things escape the memory bank. You never actually ran sw through a reactor though did you? I guess my little experiment proves that it will clump the kalk...

 

[mojo]

glxtrix;241281 wrote: You never actually ran sw through a reactor though did you? I guess my little experiment proves that it will clump the kalk...

Nope, but I'm glad we know for sure now...

 

[george]

The difference between regular reactor "goop" and what Lee got is that the regular goop is just kalk paste. As long as it stays submerged, it'll get used up eventually. What Lee got is precipitated calcium which is much harder to dissolve (most of us use vinegar or similar acid to clean this precipitate off our equipment) and, in a super-saturated environment like a reactor, can cause cascading precipitation of the calcium and a resultant drop in alk and pH. This is also why you should never mass-add kalkwasser to your system or add dry kalk directly.

 

[glxtrix]

Yes sir...what fun.