ken, with your kalk "tee"ed off of your top off and dripping into your tank, what is the drip rate you are using? i currently have my rodi water hooked to the elecronic solenoid controlled by a dual float switch from autotopoff.com and it fills my sump return chamber directly from the rodi unit whenever the water level is low enough to be switched on.. i was thinking abt getting a kalk stirrer and not sure how to plumb it in. i have a 92g tank with a 54g sump2/3 full.. is there a specific amount of kalk water i would need to keep my levels?
I have the exact dual float switch from autotopoff as well as (3) solenoid valves that I never used. Originally, was going to control the solenoid valves through my Aquacontroller where (2) valves remained open all the time. I was going to set my parameters accordingly so that if my PH rose too high then the valve to the Kalk reactor would close and the valve where the RO/DI going into my sump would open. If the PH remained lower then the parameter I set, then the valve for the direct RO/DI into the sump would be closed while the valve for the kalk reactor would be open. If the water lever rose high enough to turn the float switch off, then I had it turn off the solenoid valve that was before both the previous valves. Of course it always works best in my head then actually doing it. I never set up my aquacontroller thus never set up my valves. The dual float switch sat in my sump while I never hooked up the valves. Recently, I upgraded to a 180 gallon tank and finally came around to starting what i planned. Now, the only problem is that the relay switches in the black box doesn't seem to work cause I can't get the valves to work when I tested it. Long story short, i wasted my money.
I remember reading somewhere on here that someone had the same setup and that the valve leading to the kalk reactor never closed because the PH never rose to the level to close the valve. So in essence, all his RO/DI went through the kalk reactor then to his sump. Plus if you look at the solenoid valves on autotopoff, they don't recommend having the valves on all the time. In this case, (2) valves will need to be on all them time. I don't know if it will void the warrenty if the valves were left on the whole time.
With that, I decided to "T" off my RO/DI line where one goes to the float valve and the other to the kalk reactor. As the water rises, it will shut off or slow down the drip on the float valve. The effluent off the kalk is set at (1) drip every 2 seconds. So far, everything has remained constant. My PH has yet to go above 8.2 and at night, my PH drops to about 8.09-8.12. Again, I have the pump on the PM reactor to turn on for 1 minute every 4 hours. I still monitor the valve that controls the drip cause I'm pretty sure the lime water will calcify on the valve causing it to clog. In that case, I'll just pull off the valve and rinse it off.
It is working for me so far so I'll try it for a while. I don't know how it will turn out long term. I have nothing to lose right now because my tank is still empty and I'm still cycling it. You must remember that kalk can only be introduced slowly.
