Kalk reactor help

[rjn82291]

I was setting up my new PM kalk reactor/ dosing pump today. A few questions i have is when do you know when to add more kalk mix/water into the reactor? how often did you turn the reactor on to stir up the kalk mix? if i plug the doser into my ATO system will that be a suffient dosing amount? or should i have the dosing pump line feed into my ATO water then continue my normal ATO schedule?

Thanks for your help
Ryan

 

[JR's Reef]

You will want to figure out how much you use in a 2 week period and replace every 2 weeks at the most. So to help you figure out how much 2 tbs of kalk per gal of water so if you use 10g of water in a week you will want 20 tbs of kalk with a lil extra to be safe. How many times a day depends on how much water you need for top off so if your reactor holds 1g and you top off 2g a day it would need to turn on 2-3 times a day for 10-15 mins. pump straight into the tank

 

[Onedesign1]

20 tbs of kalk seems like an aweful lot to me. I don't run that reactor but I have a DIY which holds 2 gal of water and gets pushed by my ATO tank during top off multiple times daily...alot more than 2-3 times. i go through exactly 10 gal per week of top off water. I add 6 tbs every 2 weeks to my reactor. My calcium is pegged at 450. My tank is a 120g

 

[JR's Reef]

20 tbs of kalk seems like an aweful lot to me. I don't run that reactor but I have a DIY which holds 2 gal of water and gets pushed by my ATO tank during top off multiple times daily...alot more than 2-3 times. i go through exactly 10 gal per week of top off water. I add 6 tbs every 2 weeks to my reactor. My calcium is pegged at 450. My tank is a 120g

It all depends on the demand of your tank on how much alk/cal needs. 2 will be the max of alk/cal that 1g will hold you can use less if you tank doesnt need a lot of alk/cal. you can top off much as you like during the day and can turn the reactor on/off as much as you nlike but the water in the reactor will only hold so much alk/cal .
What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[turfster26]

I have a kalk reactor and add (1) cup of kalk to the reactor every month. I stir the kalk solution for 3-minutes 4 x's per day. I have a 180gl sps tank and have been dosing kalk successfully for 3 years now. I have a LifeReef ATO unit that tops off evaporated water and have the kalk reactor tied into my RO/DI unit.

HTH

 

[Onedesign1]

It all depends on the demand of your tank on how much alk/cal needs. 2 will be the max of alk/cal that 1g will hold you can use less if you tank doesnt need a lot of alk/cal. you can top off much as you like during the day and can turn the reactor on/off as much as you nlike but the water in the reactor will only hold so much alk/cal .
What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Yes I agree...I misunderstood what you were saying. You were giving the how to calculate not necessarily the answer. Plus I was talking tablspoons and you were teaspoons. my bad

I have that article and a couple others of his book marked....great references.

In my case I use 6 tablespoons in my 2 gal reactor every 2 weeks....that 18 teaspoons. In those 2 weeks 20 gal of RO/DI are pushed into the reactor pushing out the mix. That is good for my current tank apparently as my calc is pegged at 450.

 

[Troylee]

Start on the low side 1 spoon per gallon and see where it goes first... It's very easy to spike and knock your sps out...

 

[AcroholicReefer]

I turn my mixing pump (eheim 1250) on for 10 minutes every 3 hours. This has always been a good time for me so I have just stuck with it.

Keep in mind that in order to run a fail proof kalk reactor, you need to hook up the dosing pump to a pH monitor and a float valve. If you have that set up, you can safely run your kalk reactor as your ATO.

You will want to add additional kalk to the reactor when you are not able to keep your pH at your desired level, which for most of us is at 8.3. About once every 3 months, I will empty my kalk reactor completely and replace it with new kalk. This really depends on the quality of kalk that you are using. I use BRS, which is defiantly not the purest and is why I have to change my kalk out completely every few months. You'll know that it is time to do when you see the kalk start turning dark in your reactor and you are having trouble keeping your pH raised.

If your pH is high and you are not able to add enough ATO water to keep your salinity stable 24/7, turn your mixing pump down until you get the timing right.