kalk reactor question

[dmilne85]

so i just got in a aquamedic kalk reactor and got it hooked up to my top off unit and each morning the alk rises quite a bit.... is there anyway to tune it or are they not able to be adjusted at all. im very shocked that its putting to much alk in my tank b/c i have tons of sps, a large clam and my tank is about 140 gallons total in volume. currently i have a 1 cup of kalk powder mixed in the reactor...if i change the amount of kalk in the reactor will that make the solution weaker? i was told that you can not adjust a kalk reactor but that does not make sense to me.

 

[wingmans10]

No it is not adjustable. the saturated kalk is what it is and how you have it set up now will dose on a call for top off water. depending on your evaporation rate, your results may very. if you put less kalk into the reactor, you will get the same water params out of it but for a shorter time than if you had put more into it.

 

[dmilne85]

ok so if it is adding to much alk there is nothign i can do...? i have a hard time believing that a 120 gallon tank with tons of sps and a large clam is not using enough for this reactor to work...

 

[sjm817]

This is the constant stir model? If so, put a timer on the stir motor, so it is not always mixing. Maybe have it on at night, off during the day. If its not stirring, the dosage will be weaker.

 

[BrokeColoReefer]

and why can you just dose less? the adjustment is in the amount of saturated limewater you add, not the limewater itself... I dose 5 liters a day of saturated limewater to maintain my reef.

 

[Scubadiva7]

maybe putting that sitr motor on a timer would be a good idea. the reason why i can not just does less is because the reactor needs to be feed fresh water which comes from my auto top off and all water that gets replaced for evaporation goes through it. i guess the only way i could dose less would be to reduce the amount of evaporation in my system... which would be hard.. not sure how i could do that.

 

[kevin gu3]

I am not familiar with this reactor but none of them should raise your alk that much. Does it dump cloudy kalk mix full of precipitate into your tank or does it dump clear water? If so, fix it; high alk is just one of the problems.

To fix it, run the output thru a settling tank before it goes into your system. I use a filter container similar to the pre-filters on my RO/DI for this. The topoff flow is so slow that all the precipitate settles to the bottom of the filter container. I dump it every so often.

 

[dmilne85]

the whole reactor was a bit cloudy even after 2 days of operation. i only had one cup of kalk powder mixed in, and i heard to keep the mixing motor running 24/7 so i figured that was normal.... however i took my kalk reactor off line last night b/c my alk was getting to around 13 dkh and this morning the reactor is a lot more clear... so i think maybe tonight i will try plugging it back inline. if things do not improve now i might try your idea to have it dump into a settleing tank before it goes into my sump.

 

[kevin gu3]

Is the water dripping into your tank clear or cloudy? If its cloudy the precipitate could easily swing your alk too far. If it's clear it would be hard to add so much that it hurts the tank.

 

[sjm817]

What model is this? Is it the one with the very slow 1 rpm stirrer, or is a model with a fast stir? If its the latter, it should only stir a few times a day on a timer.

 

[dmilne85]

i was not aware they had two different models. but the one i have has the magnetic stir bar and it turns slowly