osmolater w/ calcium dispenser and controller

[jag1979]

I just ordered the osmolater w/ calcium dispenser from Marine depot, when do you think they will have them? (I also ordered the rock holder for the streams which are also backordered)

I have a 180 gallon w/ about 4 gallons of evap a day, which I top off w/ limewater. How will this system handle that much evap? How often will I have to add lime powder? I would like to set this up on a controller to stabalize ph will that be ok when the controller shuts off the osmolater dozens of times a day?

thanks, can't wait to receive this I always enjoy tunze products and customer service!

 

[rvitko]

The calcium dispenser we have and I think they probably do as well. The Stream rocks are coming in late next week. The Osmolators they expected they would be able to ship by mid next week, so in 2 weeks we should have more. That is a lot of evaporation. I would expect at that rate you will need to refill the dispenser every 2-3 days, you could try adding about 8tsps of powder. In normal use the osmolator only lets the water level drop a couple mm's so the dose at any time is very small. I would not connect it to a pH controller. The best way to stabilize your pH will be to run the calcium dispenser and use a calcium reactor with a pH controller.

 

[jag1979]

why would you not connect it to a ph controller? I have been running my current auto top off unit (which I don't like thats why im replacing it w/ a tunze) w/ a controller so that it turns off at 8.3, that way it mainly tops off over night to maintain a stable ph.

 

[rvitko]

If you turn it off on a pH controller, when it turns on it will run until it tops off and that could be way to much kalk at one time and it will take too long for the controller to register the spike. It also wil defeat a lot of the safety features of the osmolator by turning it off and on. In normal use the dispenser doses so little at one time the pH will not rise much at all and the best way is to run a Calcium Reactor to add a bit of CO2 when it gets too high.

 

[jag1979]

thanks, what is the drip rate of the pump?

 

[rvitko]

It isn't really a drip, it pumps about a gallon in 10 minutes. The sensor though turns it on when the water levell drops 1-2mm so it only adds water until the sensor is wet again, it doses usually a number of cups at a time, maybe 2-3 cups in your situation.