DIY Pressurised Kalk Reactor/Stirrer

[Borat]

Jagshemash! Warm greetings from the best country in the world (Kazakistan)!

In this threead I am going to show you some more advanced Kazakistan technologies: Kalk reactor!

To be very honest I have very little understanding of how a kalk reactor works, other than reading about it and hearing it's good for raising PH. My PH is generally quite low as I use CaRx for calcium/alk dosing (7,8).. But nevermind - we shall figure out the best design as we go along..

 

[Borat]

I bought this 700mm long tube (approximately 3 US pizza long) that has 110mm OD/100mm ID dimensions (approximately 1 US burger wide) - this was a bargain at £15 (+£10 delivery charge) because it was one of the off-cut (they normally sell tubing in 1m/2m lengths..

 

[Borat]

The reactor will consist of a magnetic stirrer underneath the reactor body and 3 bulkheads ( for RO water in, for Kalk water out and one more for draining excess air).

As kalk can have impurities - I want to avoid having microplastic being scratched by the stirrer bar... So I bought this petri dish that's 60mm diameter:

 

[Borat]

Here's the diagram - of how I envisage my kalk reactor to work... the purpose of kalk reactor will be to provide additional PH, not to dose calcium/alkalinity.

Obviously I can't avoid having extra calcium/alkalinity being added and will adjust my CaRx dosing schedule accordingly.

 

[Borat]

The idea of this genious plan is as follows:

- my tank consumes about 20L a week (as a minimum) in evaporation, that's about 3L/day.
- to the extent I add less than 3L of kalk water to the tank each day all of kalk reactor output will end up going into tank, this will be topped off by extra RO water as necessary
- the rate of evaporation does not affect the amount of kalk effluent being added

I plan to dose about 1ml/min continously 24/7, that's about 1.4L/day.

I already have a spare peristaltic pump, that's also a DIY build detailed here:

DIY Peristaltic Pump: Cultural Teachings of Glorious Nation of Kazakistan

A warm hello from a friendly nation of Kazakistan to friendly reefers from US&A! In this thread I am going to show a step-by-step guide on how to make a DIY peristaltic pump (similar to Kamoer FX-STP pump). I have already built such pump for my DIY calcium reactor and it's been working hard...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Borat]

Reactor lid held by 8 M6 plastic screws glued to the acrylic tube:

 

[Borat]

Magnetic stirrer will be built using Artclic F12 PWM fan as a motor



I build a double-plate, this one will be glued to the chamber..



..and this one will be underneath with the PWM fan attached

 

[Borat]

Gluing the reactor bottom panel..

 

[Borat]

Second panel receives a 50mm hole for magentic strip, PWM fan is seen there..

 

[Borat]

Gluing the enclosure walls..

 

[Borat]

Top cover receives 3 bulkheads and the reactor body is complete..




Reactor will be pressurised - similarly to how any CaRx reactor works.. therefore I added a neoprene rubber gasket to keep the reactor sealed..

 

[Borat]

Now we just need to add a few electronic components:
- Arduino Nano
- RTC clock
- connector for 12V supplied externally (standard 12v PSU used for home appliances)
- 12v to 5v voltage converter to power Nano and RTC

 

[Borat]

Mixing/sediment chamber completed..

 

[Borat]

Electronics is so simple that I didn't bother to have a proper PCB - used one of the Arduino Nano shields...

 

[Borat]

There is an external 12v supply DC connector (female) and a mini-USB port to upload the code into Arduino...



An acrylic stip with 4 magnets fitted inside (2 each side of centre) is glued to the fan

 

[Borat]

 

[Borat]

Made a 2cm thick half-ring that will surround the petri dish..

 

[Borat]

The reactor has gone live - I still need to sort out a few ball valves and replace the stirrer bar with a cross-type..

Started by dosing 1ml/min of saturated kalc solution...



The reactor is placed outside - half way between the tank and RO water container..

 

[gordan101]

Looks great! you make these look far to simple

 

[Borat]

Looks great! you make these look far to simple

I know what you mean simplicity is not my best friend in most DIY projects... but then it's more entertaining!