Kalkwasser Slurry dosing Manifold available for testing

RobB'z Reef

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For any DIY'ers out there that are looking to continue with kalkwasser but are hitting evap limits or if you want to save piles of $$ over dosing two part or other more expensive alk/ca additives calcium hydroxide is amazingly cheap. This can also preclude the need for a calcium reactor in theory or be a good compliment to one as well. There's a growing number of us out there experimenting with dosing kalk slurry (an over saturated/suspenion of calcium hydroxide of 1-4% by weight) with concentrations of up to 24x over normal saturated kalkwasser. hit me up if you're interested, parts list is free and only requires 1 3d printed part. I am not selling anything here, the .stl file will be provided at zero cost as well. Total investment for this setup is less than $15.00

This unit helps with preventing localized precipitation and allows a larger range of options for setting this up with your current layout. I've successfully tested with dosing rates between 5ml/min to 20ml/min. It could work slower or faster, I just haven't taken it that far yet. This range should cover most applications however.

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fryman

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Wow very cool. Are you planning to make any of the 3D printed part for sale? I have an old 3D printer but it's not very good and I'd prefer to just buy the part from someone with a better one.
 
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RobB'z Reef

RobB'z Reef

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Wow very cool. Are you planning to make any of the 3D printed part for sale? I have an old 3D printer but it's not very good and I'd prefer to just buy the part from someone with a better one.
im not going to sell it, it's like 12 cents worth of filament. If you have limited access to a 3d printer we could work something out where you just pay shipping for the part. I have a write up on how the manifold works and there are a few other aspects surrounding how you keep the slurry suspended and setup etc. I also have a dosing calculator (excel) that is a good starting point for this as well as normal saturated kalk.
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Reef AquaCult

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@Rob.bucek cool idea and setup. Can you briefly explain the inputs and outputs to the manifold? I’m assuming the kalk slurry coles from the 1/4” RO tubing and then you connect a powerhead to the large barb? I listened to your chat w telegraham. Good stuff!
 
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RobB'z Reef

RobB'z Reef

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@Rob.bucek cool idea and setup. Can you briefly explain the inputs and outputs to the manifold? I’m assuming the kalk slurry coles from the 1/4” RO tubing and then you connect a powerhead to the large barb? I listened to your chat w telegraham. Good stuff!
Hey thanks for replying. Yeah that was a long stream! It's a bit late but I'll follow up tomorrow with a little write up on how it works.
 

Reef AquaCult

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@Rob.bucek so the Venturi is not like a protein skimmer for injecting air. It’s only to cause an area of water turbulence for better mixing to dissolve kalk?
 
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RobB'z Reef

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@Rob.bucek so the Venturi is not like a protein skimmer for injecting air. It’s only to cause an area of water turbulence for better mixing to dissolve kalk?
That's correct. Without this you have to dose it into a very turbulent area of your sump (assuming you have one) or down one of your overflow drains. This type of setup isn't always possible for everyone as it requires everything to be very localized to the dosing point. Running slurry without this you have to dose fast and with a very short line to avoid it falling out of suspension inline. If it's not dosed into a turbulent zone you'll get localized precipitation. This allows the setup to not be immediately adjacent to your sump and opens up the dosing rate to pretty much anything.
 

Reef AquaCult

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That's correct. Without this you have to dose it into a very turbulent area of your sump (assuming you have one) or down one of your overflow drains. This type of setup isn't always possible for everyone as it requires everything to be very localized to the dosing point. Running slurry without this you have to dose fast and with a very short line to avoid it falling out of suspension inline. If it's not dosed into a turbulent zone you'll get localized precipitation. This allows the setup to not be immediately adjacent to your sump and opens up the dosing rate to pretty much anything.
Makes sense. Cool gadget you made. Do you have stl on thingiverse?

I’ve seen Luca uses some modified ceiling fan motor and telegraham uses slw-10 for mixing. What do you currently use? I think the constant mixing of the slurry is also a major hurdle.
 
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RobB'z Reef

RobB'z Reef

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Makes sense. Cool gadget you made. Do you have stl on thingiverse?

I’ve seen Luca uses some modified ceiling fan motor and telegraham uses slw-10 for mixing. What do you currently use? I think the constant mixing of the slurry is also a major hurdle.
his ceiling fan thing died quickly, he doesn't use that any longer. We've moved on to Jebao SLW type power heads. I've had an SLW-10 running for 6 months now in a slurry bucket without issue, others even longer. I haven't uploaded it yet, i was actually trying to catchup on getting my stuff up there. I can do it later today along with a parts list and assembly diagram. The 3d printed part is about 12 cents in material and off the shelf plumbing parts from home depot/lowes etc is around $10 bucks (not counting how you want to plumb it in, i.e. hose/piping/pump). Here's a link to a youtube stream where Telegraham, Luca and myself are discussing kalkwasser and other reefing nonsense.

 
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RobB'z Reef

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Makes sense. Cool gadget you made. Do you have stl on thingiverse?

I’ve seen Luca uses some modified ceiling fan motor and telegraham uses slw-10 for mixing. What do you currently use? I think the constant mixing of the slurry is also a major hurdle.
Uploaded, my profile is RobBzReef on thingverse
 

Reef AquaCult

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Can you explain this in this in more depth as to how it works and how to use it? I get what kalk slurry is but not sure how you would go about dosing it with this to thing?
You keep the 2-5% kalk slurry suspended with some sort of pump. Then you use a regular dosing pump to pump the slurry through this manifold thing just like you are dosing regular kalk. The slurry has a tendency to not dissolve in saltwater unless the water is very turbulent to help with mixing. So the manifold is designed to help the concentrated slurry
Mix to dissolve into the salt water. I haven’t tried it but this is how it works.
 

Reef AquaCult

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his ceiling fan thing died quickly, he doesn't use that any longer. We've moved on to Jebao SLW type power heads. I've had an SLW-10 running for 6 months now in a slurry bucket without issue, others even longer. I haven't uploaded it yet, i was actually trying to catchup on getting my stuff up there. I can do it later today along with a parts list and assembly diagram. The 3d printed part is about 12 cents in material and off the shelf plumbing parts from home depot/lowes etc is around $10 bucks (not counting how you want to plumb it in, i.e. hose/piping/pump). Here's a link to a youtube stream where Telegraham, Luca and myself are discussing kalkwasser and other reefing nonsense.


Great thanks very much! I’m interested in trying it but so far regular kalk is enough for my setup.
 
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RobB'z Reef

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Great thanks very much! I’m interested in trying it but so far regular kalk is enough for my setup.
yep, that's perfect. This isn't being hyped as a replacement to normal alk demands that are within your ability to replace via evaporation limits (I assume my evap limits to be the lowest amount at any given point in the year, typically summer). This is to extend your ability to meet alk demands when normal saturated kalk volume exceeds that, OR, if you don't want to spend $$ and complexity on a Ca reactor OR you are spending too much $$ on proprietary two part additives.
 
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RobB'z Reef

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You keep the 2-5% kalk slurry suspended with some sort of pump. Then you use a regular dosing pump to pump the slurry through this manifold thing just like you are dosing regular kalk. The slurry has a tendency to not dissolve in saltwater unless the water is very turbulent to help with mixing. So the manifold is designed to help the concentrated slurry
Mix to dissolve into the salt water. I haven’t tried it but this is how it works.
Correct, I've been using a Jebao SLW-10 (the quality for the price is quite impressive with their ceramic bearings) and it's been holding up in that **** storm very well for the last 6 months now. You want it in some sort of fairly air tight container to limit the contact with CO2 in the air. I use an empty salt bucket with a lid and a tiny slot at the top, just enough to get the power cord into the bucket and a right sized hole for the tube to your dosing pump. So while you can dose this via a peristaltic pump directly into your sump you'll need a powerhead to create a very turbulent area to avoid localized precip or I've also successfully dosed it straight down my main drain on my bean animal overflow.

However some folks also can't or won't want to locate all this stuff right on top of their sump and/or DT (it's ugly and there's space to consider). This allows you to perform the mixing 'remotely' as well, sort of bringing the tank water to the setup and then returning it. You'll want to keep the length of tube from the dosing pump to the manifold mixer as short as possible to limit anything falling out of suspension, but with this setup it's easy to achieve that.
 
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RobB'z Reef

RobB'z Reef

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Can you explain this in this in more depth as to how it works and how to use it? I get what kalk slurry is but not sure how you would go about dosing it with this to thing?

So at the top of the T fitting where i have that barb (I couldn't find a CAD file for a Mur-loc fitting) is where you dose the slurry from your dosing pump. How much is based on your alk demand and the concentration you are running. I have developed a calculator for that. On the right hand side is your water line in that would be coming from your sump, either via a dedicated pump or plumbed into an existing manifold. I've tested this with a pump rated at 260gph, more or less may work. You can also plumb an inline valve to help with flow control if you need it.

The 3d insert will create a turbulent venturi effect that will help prevent pooling at the dosing point and encourage mixing. The left hand side of course is your return to sump point and note that it is larger. The input is 1/2" and the output is 3/4", this must be maintained based on the fluid dynamic principles of how a venturi basically works. A higher flow transitioning to a lower flow at a point of constriction.

Now, you can find devices like this out there pre-made but they are expensive when you try to find ones that conform to NPT standards. Almost all of the more affordable ($12-$20) ones are built to the BSP standard and good luck converting those threads economically. They also tend to be very small at that price range and lack the volume throughput. This setup can be had from any local hardware store for around $10 or less assuming you have access to a printer for the added piece.

Kalk manifold exploded view.png
 

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