kalkreactor

That's the way I understand it. It seems that a kalk stirrer would be better suited to work with the osmolator than a reator that employs a powerhead to stir the kalkwasser powder. The powerhead seems that it would be more likely to cause kalk blooms and deliver large amouts of kalk at a time.
 
I use a Tunze with a Geo Kalk Reactor. There are many ways to add Kalk to the tank. I wouldn't worry about a little powder entering the tank - I believe it is Calfo that uses the "kalk slurry" method of delivery. My Geo also has water exiting from the top. The really concentrated Kalk suspension doesn't make it to the top of the reactor. I'm not sure if it is a pump gph or pump direction of flow (it pumps straight down) issue... but the kalk suspension does not go all the way up. I may also just be how much I am adding... I don't know.
 
Sorry for my ignorance, but I'm just getting into using kalk and I just need to understand the logistics of these setups. Am I to understand that in the example of using the tunze topoff system, that the pump included in the topoff would send topoff water to the kalk reactor/stirrer, and then kalk water would exit the reactor and go directly to your tank/sump as kalk water topoff? So, topoff reservoir - pump - reactor - tank/sump, is this correct?

And if I'm correct on that topic, then if you are someone who is on a really tight budget right now and you want to set up an auto topoff so you can actually leave the house for more than a day, but you also need to add kalk as well, but you can't afford the tunze topoff AND a reactor/stirrer - is there any major concerns with mixing kalk water in a separate container and just dumping it into the topoff reservoir and using the tunze osmolator to feed the kalk water from there? thanks
 
Thats how I used to dose my kalk, I had a 30 gal container that i mixed my kalk powder into with a small powerhead. I have the JBJ top off controller with a Mag2. Now I put pure RODI as top off and use the reactor to dose the kalk with the aqua lifter, my AC Jr monitors Ph and turns the aqua lifter on when my Ph gets below 8.3 and off again at 8.4, I stir for a minute once per day. My Ph is pretty stable so I don't really need to stir a lot.
 
I would be concerned that running kalk water through the pump would drastically reduce the pump's life. Tunze makes a kalk dosing container for use with their top-off system which basically just has kalk powder in it, and the top-off pump does the mixing when it turns on. Even if you don't use the Osmolator, you could probably use the same concept, and their kalk container, if you used it, is fairly inexpensive.

jds

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7443020#post7443020 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Shooter7
Sorry for my ignorance, but I'm just getting into using kalk and I just need to understand the logistics of these setups. Am I to understand that in the example of using the tunze topoff system, that the pump included in the topoff would send topoff water to the kalk reactor/stirrer, and then kalk water would exit the reactor and go directly to your tank/sump as kalk water topoff? So, topoff reservoir - pump - reactor - tank/sump, is this correct?

And if I'm correct on that topic, then if you are someone who is on a really tight budget right now and you want to set up an auto topoff so you can actually leave the house for more than a day, but you also need to add kalk as well, but you can't afford the tunze topoff AND a reactor/stirrer - is there any major concerns with mixing kalk water in a separate container and just dumping it into the topoff reservoir and using the tunze osmolator to feed the kalk water from there? thanks
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the replies, and I'll take a look at the container you're talking about. I have, however, read some other threads while trying to piece this stuff together and it seems as though the pump that is supplied with the osmolator has fared ok for folks trying to do this kalk/topoff water setup as I described...and even if the pump had problems, the pump itself was pretty inexpensive to replace. So, I guess I'll research that container and compare costs of replacing pumps vs using the container.
 
This is a link to the water reservoir which the pump sits in:
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=TZ4115


This is a link to the container that holds/mixes the kalk:
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=TZ4113

This is a link to the replacement pumps:
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=TZ4115

I own a Geo Nielsen reactor and the Tunze Calcium Dispenser. The Tunze Dispenser is not worth the money. It relies on the input water to mix the kalk. The Tunze metering pump puts out a small stream of water.... so little kalk is mixed and little kalk is used. It was pretty disappointing.
 
Sorry for my ignorance, but I'm just getting into using kalk and I just need to understand the logistics of these setups. Am I to understand that in the example of using the tunze topoff system, that the pump included in the topoff would send topoff water to the kalk reactor/stirrer, and then kalk water would exit the reactor and go directly to your tank/sump as kalk water topoff? So, topoff reservoir - pump - reactor - tank/sump, is this correct?
Click to expand...

This is pretty much the setup I am putting together. The decision I am trying to make is if I need the kalk reactor/stirrer or if I can just mix the kalk in the topoff container and let the Tunze pump deliver the kalk to the tank. Not really sure why you would need a reactor/stirrer if you can indeed deliver kalk via the metering pump in the osmolator.
 
Primarily because you can go a little longer without adding powder, for me anyway, only 30 gal top off container, lasts a week. The other benefit is no air contact, so less precipitate and lost Ca in the water. Oh, and did I mention its another cool gadget? I like gadgets.
 
You may be able to get away with putting kalk in the top off water. I think you are talking about this - please correct me if I am wrong.

Kalk water - top off pump - sump

The only problem with that is that you need to elevate the Tunze dosing pump above the kalk. This pump is designed to suck from the bottom - so it can almost completely use 95-98% of the water in the top off container before being refilled. The pump also has a very small hole to let water in and it is a pretty weak pump. Let's just say when I let my topoff go empty and the pump sucks air.... I need to invert the pump to let the trapped air out or it will not pump water.
 
With regards to my question, you are correct....to a point. I am talking about mixing kalk water in, say, a couple of 5 gal buckets, letting it settle, then siphoning off the saturated water into something like an empty 10 gal tank used for a topoff reservoir. So, most of the sediments would be in the mix up buckets and not so much in the top off reservoir. Topoff res going empty would be highly unlikely for me except in the most strange of circumstances, but even if something weird occurred that kept me away for awhile, I believe the osmolator comes with something that shuts off the pump if the topoff reservoir starts to go dry, doesn't it? So feasibly, I could put that pump on something that keeps it just a 1/4" off the bottom of the tank and be in pretty good shape I think. Mind you, this is mainly a "for now" situation until things get better around here financially and I can maybe go a bit more high tech than dumping buckets of kalk water into my topoff.
 
The pH of the Kalk is pretty high and you will go through pumps faster... but they are around the 15-20 dollar range.

The Tunze also has a "max on" timer that will shut the pump off after it has been running for some time... not sure exactly how long though.
 
I have a Reeftek pump (maxijet) based reactor. There is NO wear that I can see on the pump. It only turns on for 1 minute, 4 times a day for the mixing. There is zero Ca buildup on it either. It has been in daily use for 3 years. IMO much nicer then the stir bar since you still have to replace the wear plate.

JMO
 
You would need a lot of stirring to wear the plate down.I,ve used mine for 5 years 4 x per day and it's still in excellent condition.
 
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