Kalk reactor
- Thread starter KrisDeitz
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Are u dripping or dosing?
A great tool. Have always topped off with kalkwasser, with the last 2 tanks through a kalk reactor.
The obvious benefit is the supplementation of Ca and Alk.
The other benefits include:
- helps maintain a more optimal ph
- facilitates the precipitation of phosphates
The challenge with kalkwasser is that you typically have to use it relatively quick as it reacts with CO2 and eventually loses its "potency" by converting to calcium carbonate.
A kalkwasser/nielson reactor eliminates this "freshness" issue by mixing the saturated limewater in an airtight chamber - thus, the potency is not compromised.
People say you only need to do water changes - I say you hook it up and reap the benefits of not only supplementing Ca and Alk, but the other side benefits as well. Moreover, top off is typically proportional to the size of the tank, so the concept should work regardless of the size of your tank. Once set up, just monitor to make sure that it is not over supplementing.
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It's the monitoring that is important IMO. With such a small water volume, the chances that you nuke your tank due to a Kalk overdose is high. Use a very small topoff pump and regulate it with restricted flow, timers or better yet a controller that can stop dosing when pH is too high.
I just started using a Kalk reactor on my system, which is around 500 gallons total water volume. I love it! However, when I am topping off, even though I only topoff about a cup of Kalk water every 10 minutes, the pH of mt entire system is effected each time it tops off.
I just started using a Kalk reactor on my system, which is around 500 gallons total water volume. I love it! However, when I am topping off, even though I only topoff about a cup of Kalk water every 10 minutes, the pH of mt entire system is effected each time it tops off.
Simple... add the recommended amount of kalk to the reactor. Mix with your topoff RO. Don't turn the ATO on for about 20 minutes after mixing.
If the reactor has a means to mix itself via pump, remember to turn off the ATO when you mix. If you use a controller you can program this in if you have two free outlets (one for ATO, one for kalk reactor).
If it has a "stir bar" that runs slowly and constantly, I THINK that those are meant to run all the time with the ATO running also. I'd let somebody else confirm that though.
I had chronically low pH no matter what I tried. (7.7 to 7.8 max, less at night). Adding a kalk reactor to my ATO setup made it stay at 8.3 during the day.
If the reactor has a means to mix itself via pump, remember to turn off the ATO when you mix. If you use a controller you can program this in if you have two free outlets (one for ATO, one for kalk reactor).
If it has a "stir bar" that runs slowly and constantly, I THINK that those are meant to run all the time with the ATO running also. I'd let somebody else confirm that though.
I had chronically low pH no matter what I tried. (7.7 to 7.8 max, less at night). Adding a kalk reactor to my ATO setup made it stay at 8.3 during the day.
Ok. I'd have to refresh myself on programming DA stuff, but basically you want one outlet to run on a timer (stir for X minutes every X hours). This will be the kalk stirrer pump.
The other outlet should mimic this time schedule but add :20 to the X minutes (so it changes state at the same time the kalk stirrer does, but stays off 20 minutes longer. This outlet should be OFF instead of ON during the scheduled stir time (this is the ATO outlet).
Does that make sense in telling you what you want to happen? If so, just jump on the DA forum for programming examples.
The other outlet should mimic this time schedule but add :20 to the X minutes (so it changes state at the same time the kalk stirrer does, but stays off 20 minutes longer. This outlet should be OFF instead of ON during the scheduled stir time (this is the ATO outlet).
Does that make sense in telling you what you want to happen? If so, just jump on the DA forum for programming examples.
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