diy kalkreactor

1

1628mna

New member
im looking in to making a kalk reactor pretty soon. does anybody have any tips,experience and were would i get a acrylic tube from around here? i looked on savko without any success. i have read alot about making one of these and im still on the fence about what kind of dosing pump or method to use as far as top off,any suggestiong or designes would be greatly appreciated!what about an aquamedic sp300 from marinedepot?




thanx in advance mike
 
yep I gota pvc one to. I was worried about not being able to see in, but really once you get it tuned up you dont' really have to. I've got less then 50 bucks in it to.
 
what kind of dosing pump did you guys use? i just got back from home depot getting the 4inch pvc stuff. im gonna try that house of plastics,thanx guys.


mike
 
I've got an old power head in my RO res. that i use to top off my sump. I plug the main out put and stuck a piece of 1/4 plastic line in the spot where the air line usualy goes. and use it to top off through my reactor. If any of that makes sense
 
I dont use a dosing pump.Mine is gravity fed from a 5g bucket I have a maxi jet on a timer to stir it.ITs hooked to a float.Ill try to get pics of mine tonight.I had most of the stuff the only thing I had to buy was a cap & lid for 6in pipe.I used clear tube on my stir pump so you can see it.(items used maxi jet ,2ft of 6in PVC.rigid air line,flexable airline,1 cap and 1 screw on cap,a 5g bucket,2 uni seals,
 
jeff that gravity feed is a real good idea, something definately to think about. pictures would really help and be appreciated.



thanx alot mike
 
lol yeah heres some pics. somtimes my mind doesn't translate my thoughts to my fingers very well.
I plugged the main output of the power head, and put some 1/4 line in the ventri hole of the power head. That line then goes to the inlet of my reactor. The outlet of the reactor then goes into my sump. The drain valve towards the top is used to drop the water level in the reactor for adding more kalk.

DSCF0981.jpg


DSCF0980b.jpg
 
holy crap i just figured something out for the better to me! i have a oceanus top off unit(the best ever). on this top off control box it has a dual receptacle to plug in the top off pump in the di resevoir. i just plugged another pump into the top receptacle and triggered off the float switch low and behold the pump kicks on using the float switch from the unit. so now i have my"dosing pump". i have the float switch in my sump, this is a practicle place to put the float switch for the kalk reactor right? in theory would this work? now were do i put my incoming kalk from the kalk reactor? do i put it in the same place as the float switch?


thanx in advance mike
 
mark i see you have a shutoff valve so you can fill with kalk. i thought kalk came in powder? do you liguidize it first?

thanx mike
 
Really what you want do is run the reactor inline with with your top off water. Instead of going right from your DI resevoir into your sump with the water, you wanna go from your di resevoir through your kalk reactor and then into your sump. Your actually toping off with the kalk water.
As for adding the kalk. I drain some of the water into a cup from the upper shutoff valve. Open the top of the reactor, and spoon in my kalk. Top the reactor back off with the water you drained into the cup, put the top back on, and your all set. The lower shut off valve is the top off water input. I used a valve so i could close it and walk it to the sink for draining and cleaning. It's open during normal operation.
 
im going to put a pump in my water resevoir that also tops my sump off too. one pump will go into water then run line into the kalk reactor, my other pump will go to my sump from the di water resevoir. both will be plugged into the top off unit and the float that controls this will be in my sump to determine evaporation. so when the float kicks on it will add water to the sump and the kalk reactor. does that sound like it will work? more and more i think about it it doesnt seem like it will. if that wont work were would i put a float switch to determine wether to give di water to the kalk reactor or not?


thanx mike
 
aadler, if im reading this right look at us plastics corp, it is like 7.00 a foot. mark why wouldnt i get alot of kalk?
 
They you would have it set up you would be toping off with kalk and DI water at the same time as opposed to replacing all your evaporated water with kalk water.
 
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