diy kalk reactor

[Briney Dave]

I have seen plans for diy kalk reactors that are to be used with a dosing pump but not for an auto top off
Does anyone have a reactor tied to an auto top off.

how should the plans be modified to use the auto topper rather than the pump

Maybe I should not do that?? : Which set up is better auto or dose pump??

 

[MMOORE0324]

You can hook kalk reactors up to ATO's but I wouldn't do it. The ATO could fail and then you'll have an overdose of kalk. It has happened to hundreds of reefers and it'll happen to hundreds more. I have mine on a timer and hooked up to an aqualifter pump. Works great. The times comes on at 10pm and goes off at 7am. That gives me about a gallon of kalk water over night.

 

[Briney Dave]

Thank you for the advice, I have never heard of that pump so I will go off to look it up.

I have heard of top off failures but did not know how much of that was just myth or hype by guys not setting things up right etc. You know how stories go on boards. But it sounds like I should go the other direction

David

 

[Briney Dave]

How do those pumps work exactly, hose into the freshwater and hose into the reactor

constricting flow on the out side of the reactor??

 

[Esquare]

I use my DIY kalk reactor hooked up to my Tunze osmodoohicky (ato). It is relatively reliable with several built in failsafes. Pics of the reactor are in my gallery.

 

[Briney Dave]

I just watched a neat little video on you tube where the bulk reef folks talk about that same ATO along with a aquamedic reactor

Seems pretty good but what if you don't need that much kalk? I evaporate 2-4 gal per day depending on air movement in my class, that is a pretty big range. How do I keep from over dosing?

 

[Esquare]

You'd be surprised how much it takes to overdose. I lose about 1 to 1 1/2 gals a day and have never had a problem; I stay right at 8.2 ph. Of course, every system is different and what is no problem in mine may crash yours (how's that for a noncommittal answer).

 

[MMOORE0324]

The problem with ATOs is that shut off valves can stick open, break or just not function correctly. I would agree that the Tunze ATO is probably the best but I personally wouldn't risk it. I have seen a lot of tanks completely die due to kalk overdose.

 

[Esquare]

Matt, you are correct that there is always that risk of the ATO going haywire.

It's good to discuss the relative merits of the different methods so that folks can make a more informed decision on which way they want to go.

 

[Briney Dave]

I like the "eye" plus float switch back up that the tunzue has. It seems much less likely to fail.

I am uncertain as to which way to go on that

 

[Tswifty]

When I was building mine, I used a combination of a few different designs. Like Eddie said, you would really need to dump a lot into your system at one time to get into the problem area. I was evaporating a little more than a gallon a day on my 90g system. Most ATO systems will dump so little in at one time that you'll be fine. Drip systems are a little scarier IMO.

I rigged up my ATO wrong when I downsized... My container was higher than my sump, and about 2 gallons of kalk was dumped into my 30g system. The only negative effect I saw was that some of the kalk residue got shot into the tank and landed on a purple monti cap bleaching a few spots here and there on it... pH spiked as well, but nothing died.

As far as hooking it up to an ATO, you don't need to make any special modifications. You're just changing where the feed line originates is all.

I use an ATO system which uses 2 float switches as well as has a time control which allows me to set the maximum time the pump can run once it kicks on.

Here's a picture of the one I made... you may want to shoot Keith (DEERE G) a PM, he may still have a copy of my design that I sent him.

 

[MMOORE0324]

I think I may have misunderstood the original question. I thought we were talking about hooking an ATO directly to an RO/DI and then to the kalk reactor. But hooking an ATO up to a freshwater reservoir is fine. I would say anything less than 5g.

 

[Briney Dave]

So if I were to use the tunze and the aquamedic reactor; I would be in pretty good shape. I looked into making my own reactor and the pros of the aqua seem to out weigh the con (price of buying verses making) I like to make my own goodies but that slow stir makes a lot more sense than the quick pulse and two different timers (one to turn on the pump and the other to keep the water from flowing through for a few minutes afterwards

 

[MMOORE0324]

That set up should work for you Dave. The only think that I don't like about the aquamedic is the stirrer. My kalk reactor is almost identical in design to TJs or the Geo kalk reactor. The stir style reactors have a tendency to jam up and break. Salty has the GEO reactor in stock right now for $314. Not much more than the aquamedic. Or see if Keith could build you one.

 

[Briney Dave]

Looking around I have seen a good number of similar designs with the power head and timers. The knock I read is having to use the two timers and if the timer keeping fluid from leaving the reactor until it has had time to settle fails then the very high pH fluid is dumped in (according to the video I was watching last night )

Am I right in thinking that way??

 

[MMOORE0324]

Well, you don't need two timers. You really don't need any timers. I'm not sure how TJ has his set up right now, but I just have my power head on a timer to go on for about two minutes four times a day. The only reason I'm using a timer now is because I found an extra one laying around. Before I would just plug the power head in every once inawhile to give the kalk a stir. I do have a timer on my aqualifter dosing pump. Not sure what you mean by a timer keeping fluid from leaving the reactor?

 

[Esquare]

I run mine with a controller (Neptune) so the multiple timers is not an issue for me. I think the ato is off for about 45 minutes after the powerhead does it's thing.

 

[Eggs]

If you use a timer, do you assume that your water system will not change over time? If something happens, how do you know the timer will not add too much.
I use the ATO method, but I'm always interested to see if something else is better. It seems to me that if your using a timer for dosing, you assume that the water parameters will not change from day to day, and you may not be aware of a problem until the next time you test the parameters. If the ATO malfunctions, you can tell as soon as you look at the resevoir.

 

[MMOORE0324]

I only dose kalk at night. I have a one gallon resevoir. The inlet of my aqualifter pump is hooked up to the resevoir, and the outlet goes into the reactor. A John Guest ball valve is on the effluent tube of the reactor. At 10pm the aqualifter pump turns on, and drips kalk at a rate of 1 dop/sec. It shuts off at 7am and there is only a tiny bit of water left in the resevoir. By adding one gallon of top off water/day... it keeps things steady. I don't need to dump two-three gallons of water in my sump at a time this way. All my water params. keep stable. I test PH, CA, and KH weekly. But even if all params aren't 100% exactly the same everyday.. that's ok. Being stable doesn't mean they never change. Small changes are usually ok, not just the large swings. All my corals are happy and healthy so that's all that matters to me.

 

[MMOORE0324]

Oh BTW I don't want to make it seem like my method is better than an ATO method.. it has just worked well for me.. that's all. _