Kalk reactor design question.
 

So i am going to make this kalk reactor: http://mars.reefkeepers.net/USHomeP...VisioImage.html

and was thinking... they have a separate pump and "loop" to recirculate and mix the kalk every once and a while (once it is on a timer) but couldn't you just have the top off water come in where the reciruclation does to stir/mix the kalk every time fresh water comes in? I know it wouldn't mix it quite as well, but wouldn't this still work and eliminate the need for another pump and timer? I want to keep the equipment down to a minimum with this diy project.

The thing with a kalk mixer is that you have a supersaturated solution, which settles out very quickly. You want to keep the mixture homogenized as best you can so that you're always replacing your evap with saturated kalk, and not just clean freshwater which won't do anything for your Ca/alk levels.

The topup water will enter in quite slowly. It's really not going to stir up the kalk at all. You'll get all your kalk paste at the bottom of the chamber and nice clear un-kalk'd water up at the top.

I run my powerhead for 15 minutes every two hours. At first I tried running it for an hour or a half hour once a day .. then twice a day .. then every six hours. In each case I found that the whole mixture was settling out between mixes. Every two hours for a few minutes seems to work OK though. Actually I'd prefer to go with a couple minutes every hour even but my timer doesn't give me that many program options (I think it maxes out at 20 on/off cycles).

PS. I couldn't look at the link you posted ... I think it got truncated or something because it has a "..." in it..

same

I have a large home made kalk reactor and I use a magdrive 2 as a mixing pump.. I have it come on for 1 minuit 4 times a day. once there is desolved kalk in your water it will stay saturated and the only thing that will settle out is the undesolved mix. so all you are doing is giving it a good mix once and a while to keep it saturated.

Steve

My mixing reactor volume is quite a bit smaller than yours. So maybe that has something to do with it. The turnover with a high evaporation made for a lot of kalk to dilute down for me. Nevertheless I can't imagine that the freshwater intake would ever be enough to keep the kalk mixed.

what pumps do you guys use? The smallest I found was the mag 250...

ya thats what I use.. if you make a large Kalk reactor (mine is 36" tall from 6" tube) it will mix it up nice and fast.


Delphinus, thats exactly it, my reactor probably holds 4 gal of water and my daily consumption is between 3 and 5. and you are right that the fresh water intake alone will not keep it mixed properly. I add about .5 to 1 KG of kalk to mine every 3 or 4 months.

Steve

How is the Mag holding up being on a timer?

awsome butr then again it only starts 4 times a day for 1 min each time.

Steve

Ya, that's not bad. How long have you been doing it this way? No problems?

I was thinking about using a Mag 2 just because it's got 1/2" threaded inlet/outlets which makes it alot easier to work with but wasn't sure if it would hold up to the constant on off's.

about a year now.. can't remember exactly.
I think you would have problems if it was comming on every 2 min or so but once ever 6 hours isn't real a heavy cycle

Steve

Does that mean Mags don't stand up to on off cycles?

I've not tried one on a timer but I was giving it some thought.

Doug