Kalk Reactors

[whatcaneyedo]

Just call me old fashioned I guess, I use both a kalk reactor and a Calcium Reactor. Plus a beckett skimmer but thats another story.

Here is my DIY Kalk Reactor. Its the same principle as a Precision Marine or GEO reactor. Freshwater from my ATO system pumps through it to mix with the kalk powder inside which is then pushed into the aquarium. The pump on the side turns on with a timer several times each day to give it a quick mix. Once every two weeks I open up the top and dump another cup of kalk into the reactor.



Here are some articles for further reading:

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm

The Self Purification of Limewater (Kalkwasser)
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2003/chem.htm

The Degradation of Limewater (Kalkwasser) in Air
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-0...ture/index.htm

Magnesium and Strontium in Limewater
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2003/chem.htm

How to Select a Calcium and Alkalinity Supplementation Scheme
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

Here are some articles for further reading:

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm

The Self Purification of Limewater (Kalkwasser)
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2003/chem.htm

The Degradation of Limewater (Kalkwasser) in Air
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-0...ture/index.htm

Magnesium and Strontium in Limewater
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2003/chem.htm

How to Select a Calcium and Alkalinity Supplementation Scheme
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

Randy Holmes-Farley is the MAN!

I do a CaRx with kalk as well, but my kalk reactor is passive meaning that I don't have anything like powerhead stirring it up. It's just hooked up in my top off resevoir as part of my osmolator. I mainly use it to keep pH up as opposed to supplying the tank's Ca and Alk needs.

[Dez]

I used to use both Kalk and Calcium reactor, but after starting zeo, the main guy on the zeo forum recommended that I cease using the Kalk reactor because the Kalkwasser has binding properties for P04. I have since taken it offline and my ph sits a little lower constantly, but everything is still growing fine. I'm not sure if you're a zeovit user, but this was the info I got from the zeo forum.

[Delphinus]

Yeah they don't like you running kalk if you're doing Zeo.

Other than the interference with Zeo, there's nothing wrong with running a calcium reactor and/or kalk reactor. "Old school" doesn't mean it doesn't work, just that it's not the newest bandwagon fad.

[whatcaneyedo]

In the first article I posted Randy talks about how the addition of kalkwasser helps to reduce phosphate by several different methods. Binding to precipitated calcium carbonate or forming calcium phosphate and becoming coated with organic molecules that are skimmed out are two of them. Hardly a reason to stop using it in my opinion. What was the zeo guys rational?

[Delphinus]

Probably on account that it's competing for PO4 (zeo will pull down PO4 as well). Apparently in some cases a slight amount of PO4 (or more specifically the ratio of NO3 to PO4) is more important than the actual numbers themselves (and both are used up organically) so maybe running both simply depletes it too much perhaps. I'm just guessing. It would be a good question to ask over at zeovit.com to see what spin they will have on that. If you do happen to do that please post back here what they say.

I hope I didn't put you off by calling it old school - not my intent. Like I said, it works great, it's just an idea that's been around a while (I was running both ... in 2002. ). I don't anymore though, I use my CO2 on my FW planted tank and just dose the reef tanks (using a ghetto but automated setup). It's more economical for me this way since I run multiple reef tanks.

One nice thing about a kalk reactor is that the output can be split to different tanks so it lends itself well to the many-tank-syndrome people. Calcium reactors cannot.

[whatcaneyedo]

Thats okay I was just curious. I've only been doing this for 5 years but I buy so many things second hand that I've become old school because the old electricity sucking equipment is so cheep to buy used.

[Delphinus]

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

[soapy]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

Randy Holmes-Farley is the MAN!

I do a CaRx with kalk as well, but my kalk reactor is passive meaning that I don't have anything like powerhead stirring it up. It's just hooked up in my top off resevoir as part of my osmolator. I mainly use it to keep pH up as opposed to supplying the tank's Ca and Alk needs.

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.

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by soapy

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.