kalkwasser?

[Mr.Firemouth]

I have been following the thread on RO/DI and I was wondering how many people have converted their make up water drums into kalkwasser reactors?

I use a 80g hex tank made of acrylic that would be great for seahorses. The tank would be a pain to plumb and maintain being it is 5' tall. I decided to use it as a freshwater reservoir.
I then decided after looking into German kalk reactors that I could dump a complete jar of Mrs. Wages into the reservoir and when I add make up water it would be saturated with Kalkwasser.
The only maintenance besides refilling on Saturdays would be to stir the cylinder once a day. The tank settles out in about 2 hours.
So far this is working well. I hope it spurs tons of corallines on my new 200g!

I will keep an eye on calcium/alk levels and try to avoid over kalking.

 

[DrBDC]

Don't do a daily mixing. Put a good powerhead in and mix for about 5-10 minutes. Let it settle out and what settles on the bottom is what you have added beyond saturation as well as impurities. You don't want to stir that up into solution esp. the impurities. That's the problem with kalk reactors vs. settled limewater.

Max saturation is 2 teaspoons per gallon so it's better to measure it out so that you don't slowly build up a mud at the bottom. After mixing, cover the top of the container too. It doesn't have to be airtight(would be impossible to dose from) but do a pretty good job. i.e. I just put the lid back on my brute can.

If you find your ca/alk is rising(measuring the alk is the easiest way to monitor) Then decrease your amount of kalk. But the settling and the covering w/o disturbing it is the most important.

 

[Mr.Firemouth]

Thanks DrBDC, would I only mix the slurry when refilling the container w/RO/DI water?

 

[DrBDC]

You mean when there's a bunch left over at the bottom still?

 

[rjd2reef]

Yes. Do you have to remove that/ The german literature said to replace water and stir but never spoke of impurities.

 

[DrBDC]

If you've been adding that much for awhile, what I would do is add 1 tspn per gallon for awhile for the fresh boost and then mix it all well and settle. The best bet would be to dump all and start fresh with a clean container.

 

[inwall75]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8718960#post8718960 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DrBDC
After mixing, cover the top of the container too. It doesn't have to be airtight(would be impossible to dose from) but do a pretty good job. i.e. I just put the lid back on my brute can.

What works really well is to not only put something over the top, but you can also custom cut a cover that floats on the water and drops down with the water level. Mike does this. Unfortunately, on this picture the water level is below what we can see so you can't see the bubble wrap. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/totm/index.php

There's probably only a 1/16th of an inch at the edges where the water can still come in contact with the air. He uses the kind where there's flat plastic on both the top and bottom of the bubbles so air cannot circulate between the bubbles. If you don't have that kind, just put the flat side down.

 

[DrBDC]

On my xray processor chemical resevoirs they have a foam like floater too. It helps to keep the air/fluid interface at a minimum. I hadn't thought about trying it with the kalk. Could be a good idea. Although on Randy's potency conductivity tests he didn't do anything but cover the brute can and it didn't drop in potential so it may be more than needed. It does form a film and perhaps that surface film stops/slows the interaction enough.

 

[inwall75]

Yeah, it might be overkill. I truly don't know. However, it's worked well for him like that for years. It was also pretty much free because he already had the bubblewrap.