Yeah, no worries, don't fix it if it ain't broke. :)

K, I think I am confused... Isn't Kalk Reactors used to maintain calcium... Or are they different from actual Calcium reactors.

I was wanting something to help maintain calcium, automatically. Any help would be appreciated.

Did you have a look at the first article I posted? BTW Lime, pickling lime, kalkwasser, kalk, and calcium hydroxide are all different names for the same thing. This is what is in the article:


"* What Is Lime?
* Where To Get Lime
* Purity Of Commercial Lime
* What Is Limewater?
* How To Dose Limewater
* Vinegar And Limewater To Reduce pH
* Vinegar And Limewater To Boost Limewater Potency
* What Else Is In Limewater Besides Calcium And Alkalinity? Metallic Impurities
* What Else Is In Limewater Besides Calcium And Hydroxide? Mg++ and Sr++
* What Gets Left Behind On The Bottom Of The Limewater Container?
* Does Limewater Degrade Over Time? The Degradation Reaction
* What Else Does Limewater Do In An Aquarium? Raise pH Whether You Want It To Or Not
* What Else Does Limewater Do In An Aquarium? Raise pH When You Need It
* What Else Does Limewater Do In An Aquarium? Reduce Magnesium
* What Else Does Limewater Do In An Aquarium? Reduce Phosphate
* Limitations To Limewater: Limits To The Addition Of Calcium And Alkalinity
* Dosing Other Additives in Limewater
* Lime Safety
* Summary"

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

Thanks, I do believe I read that article, but will go over it again. Much appreciated.

Money isn't really a factor, I am just trying to see how I can manage my dosing regime in a automated fashion. I am thinking by doing it this way, I can keep constant parameters... Not saying mine are bad, and I don't have much in the way of fluctuations, but anything to make it more realistic to a natural environment. I am just scared to do anything like this and kill my tank.

Two different beasts but work toward to a similar goal.

A kalk reactor is a just a fancy kalk mixer. Some use powerheads, some actually use stirring devices. You can dose kalk without using a kalk mixer. The simplest setup is a bucket and a dripline and poof, done.

So the reactor makes it so you don't have to mix up new kalk as often.

A calcium reactor on the other hand uses CO2 to lower pH inside of it to dissolve calcium gravel. The CO2 diffuses out of the water after mixing into the tank water, leaving behind just liquid calcium. As such, it's a little more complicated, but can be adjusted to output a very high degree of calcium.

If your calcium draw is low to medium, the kalk reactor will serve your needs. If your calcium draw is extreme, however, it possibly won't be able to keep up.

But as stated, kalk can be used to precipitate phosphate out of the water column. This makes a kalk mixer still useful even if you have a calcium reactor.

Delphinus, Wow thanks!!! you made it all make sense. My calcium demand is probably low to medium, so Kalk makes sense. And with phosphate management, Kalk looks even better. I will look into this. Anyone willing to show off their system to me, in Calgary... Like I stated before, I just don't want to do anything drastic and kill my tank.

I suck at explaining things but the last article that I posted:
How to Select a Calcium and Alkalinity Supplementation Scheme
summarized the differences between kalk reactors, calcium reactors and 2 part supplementing methods.


EDIT: oops you just beat me too it. lol I really should get off the computer and go do something else.

Hey Fkshiu,

how exactly do you run your kalk with your osmolater? I have a reservior with an osmolater and am interested in hooking something like that up.

I simply stuck a TLF phosban reactor on the outfeed of the osmolator pump. This way everytime the osmolator kicks in kalk water is mixed and pumped into the tank.

Tunze's calcium dispenser works exactly the same way except you pay a lot more for their container instead of a phosban reactor. I hooked up the reactor with the osmolator tubing using drip irrigation bits from Home Depot.

I simply refill the reactor with kalk once a week.

This passive method is not as effective in saturating the water with kalk as an active reactor whereby the kalk is stirred up on the regular basis. But it works fine for my purposes of simply keeping pH up with my calcium reactor doing the heavy lifting for Ca/Alk.

Does anyone in the Calgary area have a kalkwasser mixer for sale? Just wondering, if so, please post specs and what you want for it. thanks.

I also have a Deltec Fluidizer not being used, can this be modded for this purpose?