advice for kalk dosing pump

[blurry]

I'm looking for a recommendation on a dosing pump to use with Kalk. We will be running a RKE with a float sensor in the sump to dose only at night. The goal is to make the tank self-sustaining for up to 5 days to allow for weekend travel over the summer (RV camping!)

Evaporation is about 1 gallon/day on the 72 Gallon tank. So if dosing occurs over a 10 hour period that would be:

1 gallon => 3785 ml / 10 hours /60 minutes = 6.3 ml/minute if constantly running.

I've been reading that running peristaltic pumps constantly will cause early failure.

I'm thinking of a 50 ml/minute pump. the duty cycle would be 6.3ml/min/50ml/min = 12.6% which translated to about 8 minutes/hour. So figure running for 2 minutes on, 13 off.

I would probably put a buffer in there (say, capacity of extra 500ml) so that the dosing could keep up if evap increased.

Please check my thoughts on this to make sure I'm heading down the right path I'm open to suggestions on pumps, prefer to keep < $100

 

[Harry_Y]

When I had my 72 I just used a 5 gallon bucket and
a Maxi-Jet 600 that had a hose hooked to it's output.

I added Kalk in the bucket with the RO water for my topoff

I still do it the same way on my 180 but now use a 32 gallon trashcan

the only down side is you so waste some Kalk, put it you buy if as
Pickling Lime or even better as just Lime it is not a big deal.

 

[blurry]

Thanks Harry! what is your daily evaporation? What is your rate of introducing kalk topoff?

Thanks!

 

[gilmour01]

i use a litermeter 3 and love it. it pumps ro/di water from my reservoir thru my kalk reactor and into my tank. my evaporation rate is about 2 gal/day.

you can pick up old hospital peristaltic IV pumps for less than $100 on ebay, and they'll work just as well.

 

[lazyreefer]

Not sure what sort of float switch you might consider if going with the Maxi Jet method, but keep in mind if a build up of carbonate, a broken fastener, or algae/detritus interferes with how it works, you have the potential of dumping your entire ATO reservoir of limewater into your tank all at once. The resulting PH burn would pretty much kill your livestock.

Limewater is some strong stuff with a PH over 12, its really not the best solution for raising Ca and ALk, although it is good for maintaining those parameters once you get it up there. Presently I'm just going with straight RO water with a buffer in my reservoir, just because I'm using a Maxi Jet as my pump and I don't want any accidents. If I made a future investment of a drip pump I would consider using limewater, but again there are other pros/cons to using it.

 

[mgny]

I have been using the reefiller pump for 5 years or so. For the reason lazyreefer brought up i use a timer which goes on at 11 pm and runs till 7 am or so. Never will trust a float switch. The pump can be adjusted to do between 1 and 7 gallons a day. I mix the kalk in a 44 gal brute can which lasts a few weeks. It can pump from a long distance, 200' i think. Only drawback is it is noisy. In my basement it's not a problem.

 

[Who Dah?]

i use a litermeter 3 and love it. it pumps ro/di water from my reservoir thru my kalk reactor and into my tank. my evaporation rate is about 2 gal/day.

you can pick up old hospital peristaltic IV pumps for less than $100 on ebay, and they'll work just as well.

+1 to both comments
:D

 

[Harry_Y]

Thanks Harry! what is your daily evaporation? What is your rate of introducing kalk topoff?

Thanks!

Winter about 3 gallons a day, Summer about half that.

I just eyeball it as I add in the Lime.

I use less Lime in winter since I evaporate more.

 

[cmjreef]

What if the reservoir is positioned ABOVE the sump? Is this possible or will all the RO or Kalk gravity feed out of the reservoir into the system?

 

[blurry]

What if the reservoir is positioned ABOVE the sump? Is this possible or will all the RO or Kalk gravity feed out of the reservoir into the system?

Would you be using a float switch to maintain the level? The only issue I can think of is (1) you would bosing 24 hours a day insead of just at night. If the float sticks and then releases you could put a lot in at once which would shock the system. (2) float switch seizing from having kalk go through it.