Ice Cap Kalkwasser Reactor Use Inquiry

[rdavidw]

Any pictures of your elbow setup and how you use the vacuum break. I tried cutting a thin piece of plexi to make a solid top to put between the oring and stirrer lid to try and prevent overflowing out the top and I think it vacuum locks the fluid from going out the exit hole.

Mine is a newer version that comes with a 3/8" threaded bulkhead. The older ones had a 1/4" threaded bulkhead. I cut half of the threaded side off the elbow it came with on the outside and threaded it into the inside with some aquarium silicone. I then cut half the treads off a straight push fitting and threaded it to the outside with some aquarium silicone. The Tee on the outside has a section of 1/4" line facing up that does not connect to anything. It is just there to prevent back pressure and as a vacuum break.

If you have the 1/4" older version, I would do the same thing but use 3/8" push to 1/4" threaded fittings on both sides.

The rats nest of relays up in my I beam and my SmartThings smartplugs only turns on the Kalk Stir pump at a trickle if all of the following conditions are met:
1) Water level is below the Kalk float in the sump, which is set slightly higher then the fresh water ATO float.
2) PH controller is below 8.35
3) Kalk stir bar has not run in the last 45 min
4) Fresh water ATO pump is not running (to prevent overfilling of kalk if there is a larger water loss)

Here is the relay wiring:

The PH Relay is wired to the normally closed side, so when the PH controller goes over X value it powers on the relay and breaks the trigger loop to the Kalk pump relay. PH controller also opens a motorized ball valve bypass to my skimmer's CO2 scrubber.

I have a SmartThings plug on the Kalk Stir bar that is set to turn on every four hours for one min. There a is a second SmartThings plug that just powers the Stir relay and is programed in SmartThings to power on as soon as the stir bar power comes on and to then turn off 45 min later.

This system has two basic controls, a speed controller on the little 12v kalk pump that regulates how fast the kalk is dosed when the kalk pump is running and the dial on the PH controller. If the kalk water top off is less then the evaporation of the tank then the lower float in the sump kicks in the fresh water top off.

This is a shoot off of the Chris Meckley Method. I set the PH controller a little under my avg PH of 8.2 while transitioning from just dosing calc and soda ash to mitigate the alk spike and then slowly turn up the PH controller a little each week to 8.4. Working perfectly so far.