Avast K2 Kalk Stirrer

K

keithhays

New member
I want to say I am very happy with the DIY K2 kit. It assembled with no issues. It seems be operating as it should. Also, thanks for the extra nylon screw; I over tightened one of the black ones on the stirrer rod and the extra white one saved the day. I was up and running the day after I received the kit.
 
For anyone else looking at this; if you dose kalk and don't want to ruin your pumps, Kalk stirrers are the way to go. I didn't realize this before I got one, but only RODI goes through your dosing pumps with these.
 
I wanted to put out an update and ask a question. My experience so far with about 4 gallons a day and 1.5 cups of kalk in the K2 is that it appears to need a bit more mixing action. I had for a while tried with more kalk, but this actually makes the situation worse because the blades spin so far beneath the kalk, not much interaction happened. The PH appears to drop and I have taken to manually mixing every morning and evening until the cloud is just below the outtake. Has anyone tried to mod the blade or change to a variable speed motor? I know that I can get this working with one of those.
 
The mixer works by slowly mixing and saturating the water in the reactor, you dont want a cloud of kalk at any time or you risk dosing the solids. When the water is saturated you should see a nice crystalized layer on top. If you are doubting the potency of the mix you can simply do a ph and an alkalinity test on the effluent.
 
Avast Marine said:
The mixer works by slowly mixing and saturating the water in the reactor, you dont want a cloud of kalk at any time or you risk dosing the solids. When the water is saturated you should see a nice crystalized layer on top. If you are doubting the potency of the mix you can simply do a ph and an alkalinity test on the effluent.
Click to expand...

Thanks, it should be clear again this evening and I will double check both and let you know.
 
You are definitely correct. I waited 24 hours from any additional agitation other than the normal stirring; i.e. the water is crystal clear. Both the PH and the Alkalinity are way off the scale of both the Hanna Alkalinity checker which maxes out at 300ppm and my DA PH probe which just registered "error" which means well over 10 PH.

This means that it is doing what I needed it to do which is to compensate for the RODI coming into the tank. I am evidently using more alkalinity than I am adding from kalk since in order to maintain it I still adding some alk, but significantly less than before the kalk stirrer.

Thanks for your help and great product.
 
keithhays said:
For anyone else looking at this; if you dose kalk and don't want to ruin your pumps, Kalk stirrers are the way to go. I didn't realize this before I got one, but only RODI goes through your dosing pumps with these.
Click to expand...

I'm planning of order one, but not sure how it works? When you hook-up the K2 Kalk Stirrer how is it dosing into the tank. Do you need a separate pump or is plug and play tool?

Any help I would appreciate.

Thanks.
 
GhettoTang said:
I'm planning of order one, but not sure how it works? When you hook-up the K2 Kalk Stirrer how is it dosing into the tank. Do you need a separate pump or is plug and play tool?

Any help I would appreciate.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You will need a separate pump like a BRS 50ml dosing pump or something similar. You will use your ATO tank and set your pump to a timer either through a controller or manual timers. The pump will use the fresh RODI and it will feed through the stirrer and then into the sump. So basically, once you dial in your demand your ATO will just work a little less since you are compensating the evaporation with kalk enriched fresh RODI.

There are many other ways to do it, but this is what Ive seen done.
 
I just wanted to put out an update since i have now had the Avast K2 Kalk Stirrer running for 1 year (almost to the day). The unit is still functioning the same as the day I bought it. I wish I could say this about all equipment I have paid for on my system.

Now I just need to automate adding the Kalk. :)
 
I know this is an old thread but I just got this unit from a friend and I have some Questions. I now have a tunze 3155 ato... Can I connect this to the k2 to supply to water being evaporated instead of a separate pump. And what are your timers like with the stirrer if water is evaporating Through the day? What are the timers on both the pump and stirrer? Any help would be appreciated
 
Hey Dan. Thanks for getting back to me. So I have that piece and all set. Just wanted to know how much kalk should I start with? My tank consumes 2 gal a day. Thanks
 
ctenophore said:
Yes, there is a 1/4" pushlock (john guest) fitting for water input on the reactor lid.
Click to expand...

I have a 150g aquarium but was considering the K2. It's drastically oversized, but not that much more costly for the you build option. Does having the larger reactor provide any conveniences relative to frequency of refills, cleaning, etc?
 
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