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Old 07-19-2007, 06:57 PM
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Question Help with Kalkreactor maintenance

I bought a Precision Marine Kalkreactor KR620 one month ago and put 2 cups kalk powder in. I hooked it up to my auto top-off system. My calcium was starting to drift down the past week (from 457 to 407 ppm). Despite there still being 1" of white ppt in the reactor, the calcium in the top-off effluent was only 2 ppm!

What is remaining in the reactor if no more calcium is left?
How often do you add Kalk to the reactor? I am assuming that you don't wait until the reactor is empty (i.e. no white ppt left). How often to you clean out your reactors and remove the white ppt?
Thanks
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Old 07-19-2007, 07:46 PM
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Shane
does "ppt" refer to precipitate? IF so, i'm experiencing the same thing although I did not test the level of CA in my effluent.
When I add too much powder, I find the power precipitates into a fluffy material which I would then have to siphon out and add more kalk.

Does anybody else experience this precipitating of their kalk powder in their kalk reactors?
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Old 07-19-2007, 08:11 PM
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I get a packing of the kalk powder at the bottom of my reactor. I need to shake it up every few days to ensure it does its job.

Chin, can you describe the fluffy material? Still white/off-white, looks like it would be soft like say whipped cream?
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Old 07-19-2007, 09:02 PM
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Chin
ppt does refer to precipitate (back to my old chemistry days). I would check your effluent. I almost fell over backwards when I found my Ca was only 2 ppm with what I thought was lots of kalk in the reactor.

The Maxi-Jet 400 completely mixes up the Kalk so it does not get compacted on the bottom. The white material on the bottom is not fluffy, it looks the same as the 2 cups of kalk I just added again.

p.s. Adding the kalk really makes your protein skimmer work better. I had to adjust it as the lid was blown off overnight after adding the kelp. I think that even if I go to a fish only setup I will keep using Kalk just because it makes the skimmer work so much better. Anyone heard of this?
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300 gal starphire custom built in pentagon reef (+90 gal sump on Blue Line 100 HD return pump, 210lb LR, Euro-Reef RC250 skimmer, 2x400W MH, 2x28W compacts, 2xTurbelle classic 4002 pumps & Turbelle Stream 6100 on 7095 Multicontroller, running ZEOvit)

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Fish: damsels; sailfin, yellow, regal & naso tangs; ocellaris & tomato clowns; lyretail anthias; foxface lo; flame angelfish
corals: a few
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Old 07-19-2007, 09:03 PM
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Catherine
What kind of kalkreactor are you using?
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300 gal starphire custom built in pentagon reef (+90 gal sump on Blue Line 100 HD return pump, 210lb LR, Euro-Reef RC250 skimmer, 2x400W MH, 2x28W compacts, 2xTurbelle classic 4002 pumps & Turbelle Stream 6100 on 7095 Multicontroller, running ZEOvit)

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Fish: damsels; sailfin, yellow, regal & naso tangs; ocellaris & tomato clowns; lyretail anthias; foxface lo; flame angelfish
corals: a few
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Old 07-19-2007, 09:11 PM
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A DIY reactor, its a phosban reactor, which I've adjusted a bit. Its been working well, but does require the odd shakeup.

This is what it looks like:



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Old 07-20-2007, 12:14 AM
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Default fluffy

Quote:
Originally Posted by michika View Post
I get a packing of the kalk powder at the bottom of my reactor. I need to shake it up every few days to ensure it does its job.

Chin, can you describe the fluffy material? Still white/off-white, looks like it would be soft like say whipped cream?
the fluffy material looks like white cotton or the pulp of the lemon in real lemonade. Its off-white in color and translucent. Whenever it changes to this form, I siphon it out of the bottom of my reactor and add new kalk.

My reactor is a DIY which is basically the same as the OA's kalk reactor. The effluent is always above the water line so there is no backflow nor chance of saltwater contamination. The freshwater source is RO/DI at 0 TDS reading. And for kalk, I'm currently using Chem-master's kalk.
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Old 07-20-2007, 12:17 AM
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I use the same kalk as well. I've never heard of the fuffies, so I'm sorry I can't even begin to guess what it is.

Do you see a visual difference in your system when your reactor developes the fluffies?
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