How often should I mix my Kalk in the reactor?

[Wiskey]

Hello!

I have an Ice Cap 150 Kalk reactor with the magnetic stir bar in the bottom, unlike my old Avast one it can't run all the time, though I do feel like it does a better job mixing.

The Reactor holds 2 gallons, I'm dosing 1.5 Gallons of water per day. The water enters in the bottom of the reactor, but not under the Kalk Powder, just above it so the water doesn't get saturated flowing through the powder when filling.

Right now I'm running the stir motor twice per day figuring that the fresh water would come in the bottom and push the fully saturated water out the top. Since I'm only dosing 0.75 gallons between stir cycles I assumed this would mean that fully saturated Kalk water is always being added.

But then I got to wondering if the fresh water coming in would mix with the Kalk water and dilute the entire solution?

What is the best practice here? Am I dosing fully saturated Kalk? Or should I be stirring more often?

Thank you,
Whiskey

 

[dwest]

I don’t know the answer. So this is somewhat of a bump. But I would be surprised if anyone knew for sure. I personally would stir it more often and see if it makes a difference. I am wondering if the manufacturer might be able to help.

I’m quite sure my avast K2 doesn’t deliver fully saturated kalk after a couple weeks after adding fresh powder. But that’s acceptable to me as I use both kalk and 2 part.

 

[stumpyid]

I run mine for 5 minutes every 6 hours. Been set like that for years.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It's a fundamental problem with many reactors to get saturated kalkwasser, but you may not need it.

Any idea how much alk you want delivered from it each day?

 

[Wiskey]

I don’t know the answer. So this is somewhat of a bump. But I would be surprised if anyone knew for sure. I personally would stir it more often and see if it makes a difference. I am wondering if the manufacturer might be able to help.

I’m quite sure my avast K2 doesn’t deliver fully saturated kalk after a couple weeks after adding fresh powder. But that’s acceptable to me as I use both kalk and 2 part.

I run mine for 5 minutes every 6 hours. Been set like that for years.

This is starting to sound like I was right in thinking that the solution will dilute and that I should be mixing more often. It will be a little more complex to setup on the Apex but totally doable.

Thank you,
Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

It's a fundamental problem with many reactors to get saturated kalkwasser, but you may not need it.

Any idea how much alk you want delivered from it each day?

Honestly I'm looking for as much as possible. My plan is to go for fully saturated Kalk to do take me as far as it will go, then I'm dosing 2 part after that to make up the difference between what the Kalk does and the demand is.

Right now my 2 part is the Triton Core 7, but I'm moving away from that in favor of something less expensive.

Thank you,
Whiskey

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Do you have a TDS meter? If so, measure the TDS shortly after stirring. Come back ever 4 hours or so and see when the TDS drops measurably. Set it to stir more often than that.

If I recall correctly, I believe others doing a similar test saw drops in the general ballpark of 8 hours, so every 6 might be a good starting point. It's been many years since I went down this rabbit hole though back in the apex classic days.

 

[Wiskey]

Do you have a TDS meter? If so, measure the TDS shortly after stirring. Come back ever 4 hours or so and see when the TDS drops measurably. Set it to stir more often than that.

If I recall correctly, I believe others doing a similar test saw drops in the general ballpark of 8 hours, so every 6 might be a good starting point. It's been many years since I went down this rabbit hole though back in the apex classic days.

I have one, but it's inline with my RO/DI system and I don't want to take that all apart,....

I do have a salinity probe I could steal from the main system and use to monitor and graph the TDS if I change the resolution on the probe in the Apex. I hadn't considered approaching the problem this way, it's a great suggestion. I can't steal that probe for a week or so, but I'll do that and see what's going on. For now I've changed it to mix every 6 hours since that seems to be what people are doing, then not dose for 15 min after.

Great thought!
Whiskey

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I have one, but it's inline with my RO/DI system and I don't want to take that all apart,....

I do have a salinity probe I could steal from the main system and use to monitor and graph the TDS if I change the resolution on the probe in the Apex. I hadn't considered approaching the problem this way, it's a great suggestion. I can't steal that probe for a week or so, but I'll do that and see what's going on. For now I've changed it to mix every 6 hours since that seems to be what people are doing, then not dose for 15 min after.

Great thought!
Whiskey

You could actually just move the probe over for a couple minutes to check the number real quick and then put it back in the sump if it will reach.

The resolution sucks for this purpose unfortunately. Full saturation should read around 0.6 probably. You could see how long it takes for the reading to go to like half or something and then stir like 4-8 times more often than that.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There’s a trade off in many reactors between stirring more and settling more to avoid slurry dosing.

When stirring, does the whole chamber get cloudy?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You could actually just move the probe over for a couple minutes to check the number real quick and then put it back in the sump if it will reach.

The resolution sucks for this purpose unfortunately. Full saturation should read around 0.6 probably. You could see how long it takes for the reading to go to like half or something and then stir like 4-8 times more often than that.

0.6?

Saturated limewater has a conductivity around 10 mS/cm.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

You could actually just move the probe over for a couple minutes to check the number real quick and then put it back in the sump if it will reach.

The resolution sucks for this purpose unfortunately. Full saturation should read around 0.6 probably. You could see how long it takes for the reading to go to like half or something and then stir like 4-8 times more often than that.

If you are referring to the inline HM Digital probes, it depends on which model you have. The TDS version will read about 515 at full saturation. The EC version will usually error out at full saturation. It is limited to 999, and full saturation is just above that (about 1030).

 

[ZombieEngineer]

0.6?

Saturated limewater has a conductivity around 10 mS/cm.

The units of measure are ppt. So that should make fully saturated read 0.5-0.7 assuming accurate calibration.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

If you are referring to the inline HM Digital probes, it depends on which model you have. The TDS version will read about 515 at full saturation. The EC version will usually error out at full saturation. It is limited to 999, and full saturation is just above that (about 1030).

I was referring to the apex conductivity probe the OP is currently using to measure tank salinity in ppt.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The units of measure are ppt. So that should make fully saturated read 0.5-0.7 assuming accurate calibration.

I think It is about 10 mS/cm at 25 deg C, which is MUCH higher than 0.5 ppt salinity.

 

[Viet658]

I have the ice cap kalkwasser reactor as well and I dose about 3 gallon a day. I set mine to stir roughly 30 minutes before every dose to get max saturation that is possible with the reactor. It settles out pretty well in that 30 minutes. I try to maintain full saturation as well since I have to supplement with a little two part to maintain my levels.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I think It is about 10 mS/cm at 25 deg C, which is MUCH higher than 0.5 ppt salinity.

Yep. I was a factor of 10 off. I thought it was 660ppm, it was 6600ppm or 6.6

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yep. I was a factor of 10 off. I thought it was 660ppm, it was 6600ppm or 6.6

Sounds good.

 

[Wiskey]

You could actually just move the probe over for a couple minutes to check the number real quick and then put it back in the sump if it will reach.

The resolution sucks for this purpose unfortunately. Full saturation should read around 0.6 probably. You could see how long it takes for the reading to go to like half or something and then stir like 4-8 times more often than that.

That's a good point, it would be fairly easy to drop the Apex probe in there for a week though and get a graph of how quickly the top of the solution looses potency. With the Apex probe I can adjust the resolution to get a clearer view of what is happening.

Whiskey

 

[Wiskey]

There’s a trade off in many reactors between stirring more and settling more to avoid slurry dosing.

When stirring, does the whole chamber get cloudy?

Yes, it sure does. Although it does settle in about 15 min though, at least settled enough to see through it. I'm using a DOS to add the solution, and it runs very slowly for about 12 hours per day to dose my 1.5 gallons. For that reason and the 15 minute offset I'm not having an issue with slurry.

Thank you,
Whiskey