Cheap Magnetic Stirrer for Kalk?

rmurken · Sep 13, 2020

Anyone have experience using a cheap Amazon mag stirrer to keep kalk stirred? Was gonna give it a shot.

Idea would be a kalk container with a stir bar on the stirrer; dose by feeding RO in at the bottom with a dosing pump, and let the KW at the top of the vessel flow through a tube into the tank.

R.Weller · Sep 13, 2020

Are you also wanting to add powder when RO is dosed or are you trying to dissolve more of the slurry?

Kalk really should not be stirred. See the thread below from the chemistry forum.

Kalk in ATO - Stirring Needed?

The ATO water will not be fully saturated, just adding a little to start, will it stay dissolved or in suspension indefinitely removing the need for stirring? I ask as I see people with stirrers/pumps w kalk reactors, why would they need it and not I with the ato, is it because theirs is...

www.reef2reef.com

ReefBeta · Sep 13, 2020

What's your definition of cheap? This is a good one.

rmurken · Sep 14, 2020

zsxking said:
What's your definition of cheap? This is a good one.

That TLF KW reactor is actually what I have now! It’s a cool design, but I’d like to be able to dose throughout the day. A dosing pump is ideal. But the TLF rig doesn’t really work with a dosing pump. I have a 55G tank so looking to be a little more precise.

rmurken · Sep 14, 2020

R.Weller said:
Are you also wanting to add powder when RO is dosed or are you trying to dissolve more of the slurry?

Kalk really should not be stirred. See the thread below from the chemistry forum.

Kalk in ATO - Stirring Needed?

The ATO water will not be fully saturated, just adding a little to start, will it stay dissolved or in suspension indefinitely removing the need for stirring? I ask as I see people with stirrers/pumps w kalk reactors, why would they need it and not I with the ato, is it because theirs is...

www.reef2reef.com

Reading

rmurken · Sep 14, 2020

R.Weller said:
Are you also wanting to add powder when RO is dosed or are you trying to dissolve more of the slurry?

Kalk really should not be stirred. See the thread below from the chemistry forum.

Kalk in ATO - Stirring Needed?

The ATO water will not be fully saturated, just adding a little to start, will it stay dissolved or in suspension indefinitely removing the need for stirring? I ask as I see people with stirrers/pumps w kalk reactors, why would they need it and not I with the ato, is it because theirs is...

www.reef2reef.com

Ah. So. I think that’s true for dosing from a static reservoir or dripping. I’m looking to get more of a reactor style setup where RO comes in toward the bottom from a doser and overflows saturated KW through tubing into the tank. If you don’t stir in that situation (gently), the solution gets more dilute just from the addition of water without mixing it with the undissolved slurry at the bottom.

rmurken · Sep 17, 2020

Just to update this thread, I got a $30 magnetic stirrer off Amazon and rigged up an old Aquamaxx calcium reactor with a dosing pump.

The dosing pump puts 25ml of RO into the bottom of the reactor hourly, which pushes the same amount of KW out the top and into my sump.

At the same time, the magnetic stirrer comes on for two minutes. It’s enough of a stir to get the solids about halfway up the reactor, which I am positing is enough to mix and saturate the new RO while minimizing circulation of the upper layer of KW (but will monitor). It settles out within an hour, when the process repeats itself.

I think any old vessel could work—doesn’t need to be a $200 Ca reactor (I have low pH and also need to work my way up to a CO2 rig before I actually use a Ca reactor as a Ca reactor). A 1000ml filtration flask (erlenmeyer with a barb connector on the neck) with a one hole stopper for the doser would be ideal.

We are all armchair chemists, so don’t tell me you wouldn’t secretly love having a conical flask in your rig!