Liquid limestone: Have you used a Kalkwasser Reactor?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

We run custom made 5 foot tall kalk reactors on our systems. They have their own controller so that we can set the Ph that we want the systems at and it doses appropriately. It has a Ph probe connected to the controller so I can monitor saturation and know when to add more kalk, and I can adjust the stirrer speed to ensure that it is constantly fully mixed. Currently dosing about 10 gallons per day to each system. Ignore the mess, we are doing some cable management LOL

pH is a relatively crude way to gauge potency. A 0.1 pH unit drop corresponds to a 21% drop in potency.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hi Randy,
You keep mentioning “settled” reservoir. Is there a difference in the potency of “settled” limewater vs stirred (cloudy) limewater?

Yes. The cloudy water can have lots of potency in undissolved calcium hydroxide particles.

 

[Dburr1014]

I don't exactly have a stirrer. It's more of a diy reactor. It's a very good compliment to my calcium reactor.
Every 3 or 4 days a dump in 3 table spoons Kalk. It is 100% ato make up water driven to the bottom of the container and the lime water comes out the top.(not slurry) My sump is a Rubbermaid container so it all mixed up pretty well before it goes to the display.
Every few weeks I make sure the end of the hose is clean.

 

[Kristopher Conlin]

I'm currently using an avast marine kalk stirrir fed with a kamoer peristaltic dosing pump. I absolutely love it! I used to have a few kalk dripper containers made up that I would rotate but this is so much easier and less maintenance.

I have my Apex turn the kamore off if I ever get at or above 8.4 ph as well.

 

[fish farmer]

I tried a kalk reactor that I made at one of our club meetings. It functioned well in the mechanical aspects, but was bulky for my needs and felt slow dripping kalk out of a settled reservoir works for me.

 

[ca1ore]

Been using the smaller Avast model for many years. Essentially flawless. Other than user error, very few things to go wrong. Now that I am just keeping softies (with a LPS here and there), kalk plus regular water changes meets my tank's hardness and calcium requirements.

My early efforts with a Kalk reactor (you can see the top of it in the picture) didn't work all that well - MESSY!!

 

[Projects with Sam]

I've been using a Kalkwasser Stirrer I currently sell here.
Been running it (or a prototype) since I got into reefing several years back.
I'm currently dosing about 100ml/hr from mine and find its great. I put a cup or two pickling lime into it every Qtr and I don't need to think about it.
I added a ph sensor to it to tell me when to add pickling lime.

it stirs for 3 seconds every five minutes to avoid caking.

 

[crabgrass]

I've been using a Kalkwasser Stirrer I currently sell here.
Been running it (or a prototype) since I got into reefing several years back.
I'm currently dosing about 100ml/hr from mine and find its great. I put a cup or two pickling lime into it every Qtr and I don't need to think about it.
I added a ph sensor to it to tell me when to add pickling lime.

it stirs for 3 seconds every five minutes to avoid caking.

How does this work exactly? Does it plug into your ATO line?

 

[TLO45]

I currently run a calcium reactor 24/7 and dose kalk through a reactor during the nighttime hours for ph.
I have been able to turn my calcium reactor back a bit and replace most of my evaporation water through the Kalk reactor. I use an Avast Kalk stirrer for Kalk passions and dose it with a Versa pump.
It has done well for me plus my ph is between 8.3-8.5 24 hours a day.

 

[Tidal Gardens]

We run Kalk on every system here, but none have a reactor. A typical system will burn through 15 gallons of Kalk mix per day. Kalk is your best friend if done correctly.

 

[Projects with Sam]

How does this work exactly? Does it plug into your ATO line?

It used to be fed by a Jabao DP-4 but that blew so now Ive got 2 1.1ml/minute BRS dosers feeding it RODI from my ATO reservoir.

My ATO is separate but also pulls from the reservoir.

Basically its a vat of pickling lime that overflows into my sump. Its stirred the bare minimum to keep the new RODI that is fed into the bottom fully saturated while not reducing its efficacy.

I was pretty good just estimating when to refill it with pickling lime but since Iinstalled a pH sensor in mine its been rock solid.
The only other stuff I dose is trace and Mg.

25% OFF a ParlaStir with code: R2R_liquidlimestone

 

[tzabor10]

We run Kalk on every system here, but none have a reactor. A typical system will burn through 15 gallons of Kalk mix per day. Kalk is your best friend if done correctly.

It sounds easy but as a newer reefer, it went so poorly. Ca++ over 600. Thankfully water changes brought everything back

 

[Greybeard]

Hm. I'm a big fan. Used to use Kalk directly in the ATO, but it just too maintenance intensive for me. Kalkwasser is some pretty nasty stuff... it'll gum up about anything it's running through.

I'm using an Avast kalk stirrer, with a 50ml/min dosing pump pushing fresh water into it. 50 seconds per hour, gives me close enough to a liter per day. Been doing so for years. Pump is fresh water, so the pump doesn't get gummed up. Reactor has a large gravity overflow discharge, I've never seen it clogged. Every month, I add a half cup of Kalk to the stirrer, shut dosing off for a day while it settles. I pull the reactor and rinse it out, start clean, about every 6 months. Makes for simple maintenance. Oh, RODI for the reactor is from 2 gallon reservoir that gets auto refilled once a day. A low level sensor alerts me if there's some sort of problem. High pH shuts down dosing and alerts me... System has been dead reliable for years now.

Actual ATO is handled separately. Evaporation varies quite a bit season to season, but as long as it's > 1l/day, no worries. And if it's not? There's a high level sensor in the sump to alert me if sump levels rise.

 

[Projects with Sam]

It sounds easy but as a newer reefer, it went so poorly. Ca++ over 600. Thankfully water changes brought everything back

Agreed. It was a bunch of hard lessons before I finally got to a place where I am comfortable with it.
There is a recipe for success... take your time ramping up the dosing and test often. wish I could sell a insta-success but a lot depends on the user too.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Hm. I'm a big fan. Used to use Kalk directly in the ATO, but it just too maintenance intensive for me. Kalkwasser is some pretty nasty stuff... it'll gum up about anything it's running through.

I'm using an Avast kalk stirrer, with a 50ml/min dosing pump pushing fresh water into it. 50 seconds per hour, gives me close enough to a liter per day. Been doing so for years. Pump is fresh water, so the pump doesn't get gummed up. Reactor has a large gravity overflow discharge, I've never seen it clogged. Every month, I add a half cup of Kalk to the stirrer, shut dosing off for a day while it settles. I pull the reactor and rinse it out, start clean, about every 6 months. Makes for simple maintenance. Oh, RODI for the reactor is from 2 gallon reservoir that gets auto refilled once a day. A low level sensor alerts me if there's some sort of problem. High pH shuts down dosing and alerts me... System has been dead reliable for years now.

Actual ATO is handled separately. Evaporation varies quite a bit season to season, but as long as it's > 1l/day, no worries. And if it's not? There's a high level sensor in the sump to alert me if sump levels rise.

That is is pretty much my maintenance routine too minus letting it settle.
Sometime I just pop the top and dump the pickling lime into the reactor from the bag.
usually an hour is long enough for it to settle even with the repetitive stirs.

 

[nereefpat]

Space is, IMO, the only advantage over a settled limewater reservoir.

And in that case, someone would likely have a larger container for top-offs.

I've been using kalk for decade, and I honestly can't think of a reason to use a reactor. I just don't get it.

 

[BAMatter]

It sounds easy but as a newer reefer, it went so poorly. Ca++ over 600. Thankfully water changes brought everything back

Could have been easier to just dose alk and let the calcium back down naturally

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

pH is a relatively crude way to gauge potency. A 0.1 pH unit drop corresponds to a 21% drop in potency.

It's better than nothing though, right LOL? Honestly potency isn't what I'm gauging. It's more of a fuel gauge to let me know when to add kalk. I'm not chasing alkalinity numbers. As long as Alk is between 7 and 9 I could care less where it resides. In my experience (and many other coral farmers) Ph is the single most important number to me besides some of the basics like salinity and temperature. I strive for Ph stability rather than Alk stability. It seems to be working...

 

[ryanjohn1]

It's better than nothing though, right LOL? Honestly potency isn't what I'm gauging. It's more of a fuel gauge to let me know when to add kalk. I'm not chasing alkalinity numbers. As long as Alk is between 7 and 9 I could care less where it resides. In my experience (and many other coral farmers) Ph is the single most important number to me besides some of the basics like salinity and temperature. I strive for Ph stability rather than Alk stability. It seems to be working...

Tanks dope!

 

[ryanjohn1]

Personally dose settled lime water.