Roland Jacques
Premium Member
Anybody have a good DIY dosing system.
FOR evaporated water/ kalk, ...
FOR evaporated water/ kalk, ...
Any good DIY dosing systems???
- Thread starter Roland Jacques
- Start date
Medical feeding pumps work awesome. Can find them as cheap as $25 on Ebay. My suggestion would be to pick up a kangaroo 324, they are a bit more pricey (around $75 on ebay), but the mods for them are well documented and they are easy to mod for aquarium use. There are a few places snapping them up and soldering in 2 or 3 jumpers and charging a minimum of $100 premium. Kind of a rip off considering the whole mod might take you all of 15 minutes. Other models can be modified but until someone buys one of the overpriced pre-modded units and finds out where to solder in the jumpers you are better off going with a 324. I have had really good luck with mine.
Keelay
New member
I use Tom's Aqualifter pump with a DIY Kalkwasser reactor. The pump is $11 online it flows at 3GPH (a fast drip rate).
I have the pump on a cheap rotary timer feeding the kalk reactor from my RO reservoir . The timer interval is setup to be just under the typical evap rate. Right now it is every 4 hours on for 15min.
I also have a reverse setpoint milwaukee ph controller plugged in to keep the kalk pump from going off if the pH is above 8.2.
I have a mixing pump in the reactor on another timer. The timers are synchronized in time. The mixing pump goes on twice a day 15 min after the feed interval goes off. This leaves 4 hours to settle before feeding again.
I have another pump in my RO reservoir on a float switch in the sump to feed RO water. This rarely goes off since the kalk replaces most of the evap water.
Toms Aqualifter pump $11
DIY reactor $25 (rubbermaid food storage container, pump, pvc pipe, etc)
pH controller $85
Float switch $8 (http://members.cox.net/kyledugger/reef/DIY_floatswitch1.htm)
RO pump $12 (maxi-jet 400)
I have the pump on a cheap rotary timer feeding the kalk reactor from my RO reservoir . The timer interval is setup to be just under the typical evap rate. Right now it is every 4 hours on for 15min.
I also have a reverse setpoint milwaukee ph controller plugged in to keep the kalk pump from going off if the pH is above 8.2.
I have a mixing pump in the reactor on another timer. The timers are synchronized in time. The mixing pump goes on twice a day 15 min after the feed interval goes off. This leaves 4 hours to settle before feeding again.
I have another pump in my RO reservoir on a float switch in the sump to feed RO water. This rarely goes off since the kalk replaces most of the evap water.
Toms Aqualifter pump $11
DIY reactor $25 (rubbermaid food storage container, pump, pvc pipe, etc)
pH controller $85
Float switch $8 (http://members.cox.net/kyledugger/reef/DIY_floatswitch1.htm)
RO pump $12 (maxi-jet 400)
Roland Jacques
Premium Member
Good info thanks, im going to look at both of these opptions.
Heres something i dont understand, why do people mix the kalk water so often? i was going to just fill a 15 gallon reservior with mixed clear lime water and let that be the make up water. then refill it when empty.
I guess my question is if you dont add any fresh water to the lime water, is thier any reason to have a pump mixing it over and over?
Heres something i dont understand, why do people mix the kalk water so often? i was going to just fill a 15 gallon reservior with mixed clear lime water and let that be the make up water. then refill it when empty.
I guess my question is if you dont add any fresh water to the lime water, is thier any reason to have a pump mixing it over and over?
miatawnt2b
New member
would you please provide a mod link for the kangaroo 324?
Thanks!
-J
Thanks!
-J
It's on another forum but it is the best I have found on the net, complete with pictures. It works like a charm. I think the biggest pain in the butt of the the whole thing is figuring out what type of tubing you want to go with, depending on the ID of the tubing your dosing rate will differ. I just set mine for 300ML per hour and pump for an hour to figure out a multiplier. I did find that 3/16 soft sided surgical tubing most accurate 1:1 ratio, but it breaks down rather quick. You have to replace it like every 3 weeks. Lots of guys have been going with the tygon tubing from US plastics and seem to be happy with it.http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40885&highlight=kangaroo
Anthony Calfo always says, mix the lime or kalk once for a few minutes or less, and then leave it alone in a relatively airtight container.
I use the Aqualift pump and speedfitting dripper to get a flow rate of less than 1 gallon per hour, on a timer that comes on for 15' segments. I haven't even bothered using the float switches I have. Maybe once every 4-5 days I run the pump for an extra 15'. The tubing for the intake of the pump only goes to about an inch above the bottom of the container (5 gallon watter bottle) so it doesn't suck up any powder residue.
Keelay
New member
If you're not adding fresh, then I don't think there is a reason to mix it over and over. Once should do it.
My Kalk reactor is 1.3 gallons and am continuously pushing fresh through it. One benefit is the pump never touches kalk water. But then I have to mix over and over again to keep the water in the reactor saturated. I do have this all automated so it's not bad at all.
Not sure how you are going to make a 15 gallon reservoir "relatively" airtight. Not sure how important the air tightness really is.
There's a couple really good explanations from Randy in the chemistry section on this topic. Apparently once the water is saturated in Kak there's no reason to continue mixing it, in fact it may be a bad thing if there is other stuff that has settled out.
It's defenitely worth the read..
It's defenitely worth the read..
