Kalk Reactor W/ATO

B

bobby_demay

In Memoriam
Hello RC,
I'm trying to figure the easiest safest way to set up my kalk reactor w/ATO. I would like to set it up like this: For example if my float switch trips on to top off water to the dosing pump(profiluxIII) is there a way I can delay the dosing pump from turning on for lets say two hours. I'm trying to figure out the easiest and safest way to use the profilux auto top off with my kalk reactor. I'm feeding my kalk reactor from my 33 gallon freshwater tank through the profilux dosing pump however My kalk reactor pump is set to go off when the float switch trips. When the reactor stirrs up the kalk it creates a concentrated high dose of kalk. I need to wait a couple hours before dosing. I dont want to set the reactor to mix at set times because the water in an aquarium evaporates at different amounts cuasing the auto top off to trip at different times. This will ultimately lead to dosing high concentrations of kalk. I also don't like the idea of having to guess how much evaperated water and setting the dosing pump intervals. Again water evaperates at different amount from day to day. The idea behind it all is to set it and leave it. Not set it and reset it and reset it again and again. hope you guys can help. thanks
 
Dump the reactor and just let the kalkwasser sit in a bucket, no need to stir it. I shut down the ATO for an hour after I add new kalkwasser (once or twice a week), then turn the ATO on and forget about it.
 
I tend to agree: a kalk reactor is best if you have real space constraints...but if you have a big reservoir, it will be best to go without, and if you can possibly return that piece of equipment unused, it might be a good thing. I got a reactor: the stirrer kept breaking down, it whitened my tank with kalk slurry twice (not a great thing) and then popped a tube and whitened my entire basement floor. Now I just dump kalk powder in my ato and let the evaporation rate handle it. THe reactor stirrer broke down or stalled, or the reactor had a crisis every few days. The ATO, which I stir once simply by adding fresh water, never does, not since I put it in, and the corals are ecstatic.
 
+1 on just adding the kalk to the ATO reservoir. It's a simple way doing things without the expense/risk of more complicated systems.
 
+2 I add Kalk to my ATO (tunze osmolator) and love being able to vary the concentration according to my demand instead of always fully saturated kalk.
 
These guys are spot on.

I personally like using a reactor but really only like the aquamedic unit. The stirring mechanism seems to be rock solid. I have had it running non stop for years.

I use dual float switches connected directly to a VERY slow peristaltic pump. This thing if it all failed would be adding water slow enough it wouldn't hurt anything. It might do 2 or 3 gallons more then my tank evaps over a period of 24h but it could not add more then my tank needs since my ato container is only 6 gallons. Which is what I have have evap every day. My RO auto flushes every morning and tops off the 6 gallon container with 0tds water.
 
Not to hi-jack a thread, but if I could ask a quick related question:
If you add Kalk to your ATO's, do you not have a circulation pump in there to keep the water moving? If you have a circ pump, does that keep the un-dissolved Kalk in suspension thus being sucked up by the ATO pump? Or do you remove the circ pump and leave the water in the ATO reservoir sit unmoving?
 
No circulation pump. With this rig, I bring up mg and alk and cal by hand to where I want (starting mg a little high at up to 1500) then dump in 2 lbs of kalk powder (Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime: 5.00 for 2 lbs) and open the lid (which has a gasket of rolled paper towel) once every week or so to add more water, which stirs the kalk up...and I check the mg every couple of weeks. It falls very slowly, so I can go a month or so adding nothing but more water. Only 2 tsp per gallon of the powder CAN dissolve in ro/di water, and the residue will dissolve only when more fresh water is poured in. In a few months, once the white at the bottom is noticably diminished to a little---I dump in another 2 lbs kalk, check my mag, and on we go. Theoretically I'd never need to do a thing but add water and kalk if I never let the mg sink too far. In point of fact, I haven't done a thorough scrub on this topoff since 2009. Note: the reason the output line gets thinner in the diagram is that I hose-clamped an airline connector inside the half-inch maxijet output hose to take the size of the hose down to a little jet, not a big one. More gradual add of kalk to my fuge area.
Sk8r10


Useful when telling somebody to rig a trashcan with airline tubing and pickling lime to add a pic of the coral that it feeds, so you can see it works: this is after fragging about a third off it off this year.
Sk8r10
 
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Sk8r's provided a great description for you, that's exactly how my system works too (minus the downsized MJ1200's output to airline hose). There's no need for a circulation pump to mix up the water, you need only stir up the kalk when you initially add it to your RO/DI water. For that I just use a 6 foot acrylic rod I found in the garden section of home depot for less than a $1.
 
yeah, right now I am using a 32 gal brute as my ATO. I have a Tunze osmolator and a float switch on my RO/DI unit. But I also have a Koralia Evo 1450 in there keeping the water moving. So if I do this, sorry - when I do this, I'll just remove the 1450 pump, raise the osmolator pump off the bottom and I think I should add a heater in there too. Still looking for Mrs Wages pickling lime or something similar. What's in this stuff, maybe here in Canada it's made by someone else.
 
It's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_hydroxide calcium hydroxide. Salt water dissolves it very, very slowly; fresh water dissolves it nearly instantly, but will only carry 2 tsp per gallon, max, unless vinegar is added. So we dissolve it in freshwater to shoot into the saltwater tank, where corals slurp it up. As do snails, clams, things with bony skeleton. Mrs. Wages can be bought directly online. Just google it. It's a foodstuff, used, yes, to make pickles. http://www.amazon.com/W502-D3425-Wa...2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1320607641&sr=1-2 If you can order from Amazon in Canada, that's it. Ball also makes it. From the hysteria among home canners trying to get pickling lime in Canada (I checked) it does seem that getting it from the states is a good answer. Perhaps Canadian pickles do not want that 'crisp' crunch.
 
Another related question... My ATO is only a 5g bucket. I dont really have room for more than that... If i put a bunch of kalk in (more than can be dissolved in 5g of water) and make sure my pump is off the bottom and not sucking straight kalk.. can i just continue to add water until i see the kalk at the bottom dwindle? I think this is exactly what you said you do, but i didnt know if bringing the volume down to 5g from 35g made a difference...

I guess also, can you have too much kalk sitting in the bottom of the reservoir? and what is really the difference between this and a reactor, it seems like the only difference is the reactor has a stirrer, which by this description seems un-necessary... am i missing something?

also, do you need to seal the reservoir? Or is it ok to have open to the air (other than the fact that it can collect contaminants this way..)
 
Well, you pretty much got it about the reactor. The reactor is tall and the undissolved kalk sits on the bottom. When the ATO pump kicks on, it pumps water through the reactor which by some means stirs the kalk on the bottom as the fresh water is pumped into it. The cloudy kalk water (kalkwasser? hah) is near the bottom and the cleared water is near the top where it goes out into the tank. This just ensures that the water is well saturated each time the ATO kicks on.

You can put as much kalk in as you like (as long as your tank is using that much and you don't overshoot your levels) because the water will only dissolve 2tsp/gal. When fresh water is added again after a top-off, the kalk will dissolve some more, until it reaches that total saturation point. Once the kalk powder gets low on the bottom, add more kalk.

Fill your bucket, put in some kalk, stir it once real good, and let it sit. You already got the rest figured out...

Too much kalk on the bottom isn't a problem I don't think. It's just sitting there waiting to be dissolved.

Hope that helps and is all correct... :)
 
Ok, so that sounds pretty much how I thought. The stirring just needs to happen whenever new water is added, but once the kalk is in solution it wont fall back out of solution. It only needs to be stirred with the reactor because freshwater is added more frequently...

So I guess my real question is... whats the point of having a reactor? it seems like its easier to put it in the reservoir..(assuming you have one, I realize people run their RO/DI directly into the tank as topoff.) and also what about the reservoir not being air tight? I thought I read something about limewater and not exposing it to air?
 
I personally keep a small powersweep in the bottom to circulate 24/7. Necessary? No, but it doesn't agitate the surface so co2 has no impact. Its a 20g reservoir though. Might be a different story in a 5 gallon bucket.
 
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