Yes, it is very similar to our ozone reactor. We are very happy with how that design works. When we were deciding how/if to reintroduce our calcium reactor, we thought that using the ozone design made sense. What I like about the newer designs out there is the concept of using a diffusion chamber to help force CO2 into solution, and the auto-leveling feature that adds CO2 as the water level rises. But those designs are also very complex, and hence, quite expensive. So, I figured, why not use the media itself as the diffusion chamber, and make it work like the ozone reactor- rain down water over the media in an atmosphere of CO2 (or ozonated air). The result is a very efficient means of dissolving CaCO3. I've tested effluent alkalinity at over 60 dKH in that little chamber. The Sicce pump only draws maybe a third of typical calcium reactor recirc pumps' wattage.
It is a bit unconventional. You don't purge it- the reactor forms an atmosphere of CO2 over time, depending on how hard you run it. It is designed to operate mostly empty of water, with the shower head top diffusing the water over the media. Calibrating the probe isn't too bad- just let the water drain out the bottom and pull the probe. You shouldn't need to do this all that often anyway.
There is a bubble counter, but that's mostly just for sanity checking the CO2 input rate. It's designed to work with a CO2 controller, since so many people that use calcium reactors have a means of pH control already. So, no need to try to set a bubble rate (but you could, with a quality regulator). Just set a target pH, since the effluent rate is always the same. At first, I wanted to make it more like the DaStaCo with the automatic CO2 input, but after running it like this based on pH, it became evident that it wasn't necessary, and just added complexity (and therefore, cost) to the system.
It is 7x7 unless you add the second chamber, which makes it 12x7. It can be in-sump or external.
A kalk reactor and calcium reactor actually work perfectly together. They both add calcium and carbonate alkalinity in balanced amounts. The kalk will help offset any drop in pH from the Ca reactor. Although since we focus on high-alkalinity, low pH effluent at a low flowrate, this effect is mitigated. Compared to high flowrate, lower alkalinity and somewhat higher pH effluent that many calcium reactors are designed for.
Pricing isn't decided yet, but it should be close to our
Ozone reactor.
