kalkreactor

reef_dude76

reef_dude76

Premium Member
Can anyone recommend a good kalkreactor to use with my Tunze osmolator? I was looking at the Tunze kalk dispenser but it is not rated big enough to handle a 180 gallon tank. I am planning on using an ASD calcium reactor in addition to a kalk reactor to get the benifit of kalkwasser topoff via the osmolator as well as the benefit of a calcium reactor.
 
I have the exact same setup and use a GEO. Don't be fooled by the lower price - his workmanship is extremely high. His focus on design also doesn't leave you with - "I wish it had this" type of feelings after the purchase. I have it and it fits perfect under my 180 Megaflow stand. Premium Aquatics has a picture of the old model but they will ship the new one. Go to www.geosreef.com for a picture of the new one. He uses a Maxijet which you can cheaply replace in the future - Nielsen reactors are infamous for tearing up pumps. Also notice the spigot near the pump. You can use this for completely draining to clean or just for removing some water to mix up the kalk before adding to the reactor. I also have one of his Calcium Reactors and the Nielsen Reactor is built from the same quality of acrylic.
 
This turned out to be a really good thread. I really do like the KM500, but its now over $400. I've never seen that Aquamedic, but it looks like a really nice design for a much better price than the Detec. I chose not to get one with a powerhead so that I didn't have to worry about cleaning another pump, or dripping, or cleanup. The KM500 works great, but if I had to do it again I'd prolly give that Aquamedic a try!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=746867&highlight=best+km500
 
I like the slow continuous stir design of the Deltec and Aquamedic much better than the heavy stir on a timer design of traditional reactors.
 
I have an AquaMedic catalog and was able to find more info on these units. They look AWESOME. The tube of the 1000 model is 4.3" x 20" and the 5000 is 8" x 24" - that is awesome. My KM500 also has an ID of 4" and is about 15" tall. So basically for $190 vs $420 and the AM is bigger. If it works well the AM is obviously a great buy, but I dunno how many people have used them, and with Deltec you get good customer service.

I also like the slow continuous stirring of the Deltec/AM units. Especially if you have a sensative top-off unit like a Tunze osmolator or the Elos osmo unit.
 
For some reason, the AM units dont get much press around here. They are clearly a better design, much like the Deltec but at a fraction of the cost.
 
What is the difference between a Kalkwasser stirrer and a reactor? When I clicked on the link to the Aquamedic product in the above link I noticed that the site separated the productes into stirrers and reactors.
 
Calcium Reactors tend to drive the pH down over time. Kalk Reactors will increase Calcium and increase the pH at the same time. If you skim through some of Randy's articles on pH - he also recommends use of Kalk for increasing pH over some commercial "buffers."
 
Calcium Reactors tend to drive the pH down over time. Kalk Reactors will increase Calcium and increase the pH at the same time. If you skim through some of Randy's articles on pH - he also recommends use of Kalk for increasing pH over some commercial "buffers."
 
I too am interested in the AM stirrer. I recently posted a thread asking for people's experience with it, but no responses yet. I'm a little curious that they have both this and the mix-pump style, and I'm wondering if the smaller stirrer model is really sufficient for a 400 gal tank like they claim (actually, I just care about a 240 gal tank :D )

jds
 
The size I think has more to do with how often you want to add more calcium hydroxide. The larger unit can hold more powder than the smaller unit so given you are adding the same amount of top off for a given aquarium the larger unit will take longer to use up all of the calcium hydroxide. Remember, you are adding a ton more of calcium hydroxide then can actually go into solution. As you add freshwater to the stirrer more calcium hydroxide can go into solution as the saturated water enters your aquarium.

Personally, since the whole reason for getting a stirrer is to automate and lessen filling and maintenance I would go with the big one. :)

The amount you will be adding is controlled by an external powerhead or peristaltic pump. I would not use the automatic top off as if that gets stuck on you can pump a crap load of kalkwasser into your tank and kill everything. Better to go for a peristaltic pump that will drip very slowly...

I suppose you could also gravity feed the unit and regulate the flow rate with a valve.
 
Well, I've yet to hear of the Osmolator getting stuck on. It has a photoelectric sensor, a backup level sensor and if that fails, the pump is on a timer so it can run no more than 10 minutes. For other types of auto-top off systems I would tend to agree.

The problem with the "big one" in my system is under-tank space. I'm literally in the market for a Ca Reactor that measures 1" wide, if anyone knows where I can find such a thing...

:D

jds
 
You can make your own with 1/4" or 3/8" acrylic, tap holes for JG fittings for inlet/outlet and fittings to plumb in a powerhead. ;)
 
Well, I've yet to hear of the Osmolator getting stuck on. It has a photoelectric sensor, a backup level sensor and if that fails, the pump is on a timer so it can run no more than 10 minutes. For other types of auto-top off systems I would tend to agree.
Click to expand...

This is the exact reason why I chose the Tunze for my top off system. I figured it had the best system to safeguard against getting "stuck open" and would be a good match with a kalk stirrer that gravity feeds to the sump. I am still unclear as to what the difference is between a stirrer and a reactor other than a reactor seems to have a pump. I would think that this could be problematic as the pump would kick up kalk "blooms" and deliver them to the tank.
 
Its the same thing, different name. You can mix with a magnetic stir bar or powerhead, either way hooked to a timer to mix often enough to adjust Ph of the effluent to what you need. I picked the stir bar because I think its just cool, I like lab like gadgets.

Mine is hooked to a AquaLifter pump (3.5GPH) fed from my sump on a timer matching my refugium lighting and monitoring with a probe and controller, I push SW rather than RO water through mine. Thus far I barely need to stir mine, I had read that kalk dissolves better in SW than RO water and plumbed mine this way, it also lessens the chance that my RO getting pumped in can spike Ph.

As with many things, theres more than one way to skin a cat.
 
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