Kalk Reactor questions

[glalderman]

I think I know the answer to this question...(it's NO I believe)...but thought I would ask anyway...

Since putting in the Ca Reactor and playing with settings it is maintaining an Alk of 11dKH and Ca at 460ppm with the load I have in the tank now...

BUT...my PH levels have dropped and steadied out at around 8.25 during the day and dropping to (lowest) 7.97 over night (had been 7.25 overnight and 8.4 during the day)...right now I am adding Kalk to my top off water to bring the PH up a little, but was thinking about adding a Kalk Reactor to the tank...

my question is:

Can I plumb tank water to go through the Kalk Reactor?

I know it is supposed to be top off water...but I get very little evap after the lights go off and I was wanting to just Kalk during "lights out" to try to stabilize the PH a little more...and didn't want to add topoff water to the sump over night...was just hoping to recirc tank water through it like the Ca Reactor...

Any thoughts????

Thanks,
Greg

 

[itZme]

Greg, I would suggest running your ATO on a simple 24 hr timer that only allows the it to fill after the hours where the PH starts to drop. You could set it to be on from 2am till 9am to help keep the PH up where you want it to stay.

I think you have an AquaController if I remember correctly. If so you could add something like: IF time > 2am then ATO = ON. Then plug your ATO into the DC8 outlet you named ATO but still use the float switch on your ATO to switch the water when it needs filling. You could just pre-mix a bunch of kalk water to top off with and I don't think you will get huge salinity swings by losing a gallon or two during the day and topping off at night. It may fluctuate a bit but I think the PH swings are probably worse than the slight salinity change you may have.

I have never heard of adding kalk to saltwater but it could be asked in the chemistry forum for a quick answer.

 

[glalderman]

Yeah...I already have the Tunze Osmolator plugged in to the DC8...the only problem I see with that idea...is that it will dump all two gallons of top-off water that it puts in at once at 2am...that would make a huge PH swing! As even the normal top-off of the osmolator (maybe a cup or 2 of water) I will see ph rise about .01 or .02 each time it cycles...so two gallons...wow!

I picked up a NIB Aquamedic Reefdoser Quad (4 pumps) for a steal to dose two-part and topoff into my frag tank...that will only use 3 pumps at most...I guess I could just use the 4th pump to send Kalk to the 120 at night...if I turn off my Osmolator a couple hours before the MH's go off then I could spend the rest of the night letting the reefdoser put in Kalk every couple of hours and then have the osmolator turn back on in the morning to resume the daytime top-off operations...

see...Guess I sort of answered my own question! Thanks itZme!!!

Greg

 

[itZme]

I would change to the dosing pump and dose kalk only at night. If the doser adds kalk too fast you can use the MAX command on your controller to make it only allowed to run for 15 mins per hour or whatever you need. It seems like the osmolator is redundant once you have the dosing pump set up.

I would calculate how much you lose over the day and then try to split it into a small bit each hour after your lights are shut off.

My PH never drops below 8.25 overnight because I have a large fuge full of macro that is lit about 2 hrs before display lights go out and shuts off about an hour before display lights come on. It swings but only from 8.4 to 8.25.

HTH

 

[Sk8r]

Takes ro/di to dissolve the kalk properly as I understand it. A fuge can help with the ph problem.

 

[glalderman]

Running a fuge on reverse photoperiod already...I don't think the swing is that bad at .2 or so...but would like to stabilize it a little more...

never thought about starting fuge light a couple of hours before...good idea...

as for the RO/DI water...that is what I had read also...but was looking to see if anyone had use tank water before...

 

[Big E]

The drop in Ph your experiencing is negligable & not even worth worrying about. I wouldn't bother with the Kalk reactor......... just another piece of unecessary equipment to maintain.

When was the last time you heard of coral or fish dying because of the ph dropping a couple tenths of points at night? Hobbyist grade ph monitors aren't even accurate enough to worry about such miniscule changes.

 

[bosworth]

Greg,

You should be able to use your DC8 and Tunze ATO system to control a solenoid valvle switch to top off through a Kalk reactor based on the level of your float switches. This would allow you to continuously top off with kalk using your top off water. You can get the solenoid from mc master car. I you have any questions or would like to see how I have it plummed you can stop by.