Kalkwasser Reactor - How?

ddr_phish · Apr 13, 2009

Ok, I've searched and searched, but I'm not finding what I need to know. I'm trying to figure out how exactly a Kalkwasser reactor works and doses. I realize that there is a pump connected to the reactor that is to keep precipitate from forming on the bottom, but is this what also drips it out? How would I go about hooking this up to a ReefKeeper controller?

ddr_phish · Apr 14, 2009

anyone at all?

Viva'sReef · Apr 14, 2009

The pump on the reactor is to Mix the Kalk slurry on the bottom with the new fresh water. My pump mixes for 10 min, 2x a day.

A seperate pump is used to push unmixed fresh water to the bottom of the Kalk reactor, pushing up the already mixed/saturated kalk water through the top of the reactor and into your sump.

What Reefkeeper do you have?

killingseed2000 · Apr 14, 2009

+1 , your want your RK unit to monitor your ph and so while you dosing you need to set you RK unit to stop the feed pump to the kalk unit when your ph reaches a certon ph. let say 8.3 , then the RK needs to turn off the kalk and stop feeding the tank.

kalk will raise your ph , so be careful in that area while dosing wil kalk.

here is another thread with some more info.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19985&highlight=kalk

Paul_N · Apr 14, 2009

Most people use it for ATO or just run it at intervals during the evening to keep the PH up.

ddr_phish · Apr 14, 2009

Ok so there are two pumps? One mixes it a couple times a day set by the RK, the other pump pushes it into the tank when the pH is too low, set by the RK.

Do I just top off the reactor with RODI water everynight?

macawmagic · Apr 14, 2009

i used to manualy mix the kalk with rodi in a 18 gallon rubbermaid that was connected to a float valve in my sump. 1.5 years of topoff and my sps were growing like crazy!

ddr_phish · Apr 14, 2009

How do you guestimate the concentration of the Kalkwasser if your going to just use it in an ATO?

macawmagic · Apr 14, 2009

i put "about" 1 tsp. per gallon of water. aka I started that way and as time went on just started dumping the jar in the bin till I was happy. i wish i had a kalk reactor though cuz my method was pretty messy...but now i've got a calcium reactor so I'm all happy!

ddr_phish · Apr 14, 2009

Ok if I'm gonna use a reactor then do I just manually add water to it whenever it looks low or is there some other method? Sorry for all the questions, Kalkwasser Reactors got me all messed up some how though.

Viva'sReef · Apr 14, 2009

You don't want the Kalk solution to touch air inside the reactor, so the reactor needs to stay full at all times. You want another container holding your top off water, the second pump I talked about earlier is what pushes the water from the fresh water holding container(Top off water) through the Kalk reactor and out into your sump. You would use a float switch connected to the RKE to control the pump when the water level drops in your sump.

Also when using a reactor, you don't need to measure Kalk concentration. The Kalk should be mixed to maximum concentration

cloakerpoked · Apr 14, 2009

Here is my DIY kalk reactor (pic taken when I was still leak testing it, hence the small amount of leaking :)

It runs on a timer, but could easily run on an ATO or float switch. The MJ900 is plumbed to circulate the water in the reactor. I just add a few cups of kalk to the reactor every month or so. Honestly, the amount doesn't matter (within reason) since the point is to hypersaturate the water in the reactor the the point that there is a slurry. The rest of the water in the reactor is loaded with kalk to its capacity. I pull from the very top of the reactor (probably about 2' high) so there's little chance of pumping gobs of kalkwasser into the main system. The still resevoir is gravity fed into the chamber, and an aqualifter pump on a timer doses the system. Hope it helps, since a picture is usually worth a thousand words.

cparka23 · Apr 14, 2009

ddr_phish said:
Ok so there are two pumps? One mixes it a couple times a day set by the RK, the other pump pushes it into the tank when the pH is too low, set by the RK.

Do I just top off the reactor with RODI water everynight?

The way most people set up their Kalk reactor is to use it in conjunction with an ATO (auto top off). Fresh water goes into the reactor and pushes kalk-saturated water out from the reactor and into the tank. So rather than adding just water, you're adding a solution of kalk (calcium).

As for connecting it to a controller, it sounds like you have the dosing pump idea wrong. The dosing pump pushes water to the tank when the water level is low -- nothing to do with pH. The safety feature that killingseed2000 suggested is to set the controller to turn OFF the feed pump at a certain pH in order to prevent it from spiking the pH too high. This method prevents the big problem with kalk reactors, but also means that you'll need to top-off your system some other way if it turns the reactor off. That's a easy compromise for a necessary safety feature. A bad experience with a kalk reactor usually means a tank crash.

ddr_phish · Apr 14, 2009

Thanks so much everyone for helping explain, I think I got it down now. I have the Kalkwasser reactor set up with a pump mixing it in the reactor. I have my ATO connected to the Kalkwasser reactor so that whenever my water level is low (or pH) then it will kick on the ATO pump which will in turn push out the Kalkwasser. The RKE will also have a shutoff for the ATO pump incase the pH gets too high. Does this all sound correct? :)

cloakerpoked · Apr 14, 2009

yep, sounds right to me. You could, but definitely don't need to run that pump all day. As stated earlier, a few times a day for 10 or 15 minutes is all it takes.

ddr_phish · Apr 15, 2009

Ok great, I'm sure thats something I could easily set with an RKE. Thanks all for your help, I finally got it through my head! :D

Psychographic · Apr 15, 2009

I made a simple Kalk Reactor out of a Fluidized Bed Filter (basically a Phosban style reactor) I had laying around, it runs off of a Aqualifter pump that feeds from my ATO reservior. I added a check valve between the the Aqualifter and the reactor to keep it from backflushing through the pump and into the ATO reservoir. By doing this only RO water is never in contact with the pump which should cut down the need for cleaning any build up that would occur from the Kalk, and no Kalk gets back to my ATO res. so I don't have to worry about the corrosiveness of the Kalk laden water damaging my aTO pump.

The Kalk powder settles to the bottom of the reactor and the slow flow through it has been enough to keep it at saturation as the RO water has to pass through the slurry at the bottom of the reactor. It is also slow enough to keep only "clear" water from dosing into the sump. I do give the reactor a shake once a week to stir it up a bit.

I run mine through an AC Jr. and have it set to 10 minutes on out of each hour with a drip rate of one and a half drops per second. I also set the controller to shut it off at 8.3 pH. for safety. The normal ATO pump still keeps my water level adjusted, but runs much lless frequently now.

I feel by doing it this way, my dosing is much more consistant than just using the Kalk as strictly my top off supply.