Pump for moving water through a kalk reactor?

[Spar]

What pump do you all use to move water through a kalk reactor? I know it needs to go through relatively slow (fast drip). I assume whatever is used that a ball/gate valve on the output will be necessary.

 

[JustAnotherNanoTank]

Usually constant duty dosing pumps. Like the kamoer fx-stp pump.

 

[twistedfinn967]

I guess it depends on the reactor. Do you have an ATO you can hook into?

 

[dwest]

What pump do you all use to move water through a kalk reactor? I know it needs to go through relatively slow (fast drip). I assume whatever is used that a ball/gate valve on the output will be necessary.

I use a spectrapure liter meter 3.

 

[Montiman]

I use a Milwaukee peristaltic connected to an Apex for control

 

[Water Dog]

For a kalk reactor/stirrer use a “higher volume” peristaltic dosing dosing pump preferably controlled by a timed outlet on a controller. Make sure to program your pump to dispense less than your evaporation rate.

1) Spectrapure Litermeter Basic dosing pump LM3-MPM fairly high volume at 150 ml/min. Extremely well built and bombproof. Probable one of the best built peristaltic pumps in the hobby as it comes with a 5 year warranty. Because of the higher volume it pumps, it may be suitable for larger tanks with a higher demand.

2) Avast Marine peristaltic pump. Lower volume at 25 ml/min. Pretty well built, but because of the relatively lower volume, it may be more suitable for smaller tanks.

3) BRS 50 ml/min peristaltic pump. Decent middle ground in terms of volume pumped, however, you should plan to replace it annually as it uses plastic gears that will strip under heavy use. This is basically a disposable pump.

 

[Spar]

For a kalk reactor/stirrer use a “higher volume” peristaltic dosing dosing pump preferably controlled by a timed outlet on a controller. Make sure to program your pump to dispense less than your evaporation rate.

1) Spectrapure Litermeter Basic dosing pump LM3-MPM fairly high volume at 150 ml/min. Extremely well built and bombproof. Probable one of the best built peristaltic pumps in the hobby as it comes with a 5 year warranty. Because of the higher volume it pumps, it may be suitable for larger tanks with a higher demand.

My gut hurts after seeing the price tag! But, I don't think dosing kalk should be something to risk with subpar equipment, so I will order this. Given my 400g volume the 150ml/min one sounds a better option.

Any advice on what % of evap I should aim for? Somewhere in the 75% range? or should I try to almost-equal it so as much evap as possible is covered by kalk water?

 

[Water Dog]

PM sent on a possible used option for you...

How stocked is your tank? I would start with 50% of your evaporation rate and measure your Alk daily to dial it in. It will really depend on your Alk consumption rate.

Will you be using an Apex to control the dosing pump? If so, be sure to first measure the actual volume pumped in a measuring cup over 10 minutes an then divide by 10 to get an actual picture of what the flow rate is in ml/min. Then use this nifty Apex dosing calculator to spread the dosage throughout the day...

https://www.reeftronics.net/adpg/dosingcalc.php

 

[menglish]

I’ve been battling this saw issue with my Avast K1 stirr. Was trying to use my Apex pmup via my ATO but it was overflowing te reactor. Now I’m testing the ice cap dosing pump at a rate of 90mls an hour.
Has anyone used this pump
What are you doing?

 

[Water Dog]

The PMUP would be a bad choice for this application as the flow rate is too high and not consistent when controlling through a timed outlet. That’s why a peristaltic pump is a better choice here, as it pumps a very precise volume over a timed interval.

 

[menglish]

I found that out the hard way.
Water on the floor

 

[Spar]

How stocked is your tank? I would start with 50% of your evaporation rate and measure your Alk daily to dial it in. It will really depend on your Alk consumption rate.

Will you be using an Apex to control the dosing pump? If so, be sure to first measure the actual volume pumped in a measuring cup over 10 minutes an then divide by 10 to get an actual picture of what the flow rate is in ml/min. Then use this nifty Apex dosing calculator to spread the dosage throughout the day...

https://www.reeftronics.net/adpg/dosingcalc.php

I also dose 2-part via the Apex DOS and Trident. And yes will be using the Apex to control the dosing pump. The good part is I can control the dosing pump to stop if Alk does start to go too high.

Right now all I have growing is coralline, no coral. So I will start with 50% of evap and if Alk starts to go up I will dial it back.

My main reason for my inclusion of the kalk reactor is to bump my pH up. It is consisently staying between 7.6-7.7 these days. Think that even with 50% kalk topoff I should see a noticeable increase in pH? (seems logical that it would)

 

[AZRipp]

I use a Normally Closed solenoid and valve tapped into my RODI system that is controlled via my Apex to dose through the night at set times to stabilize pH.

 

[Spar]

I suppose I should be asking a deeper question here as I haven't used kalk in almost 15 years. Should I be able to maintain Alk at around 8.5 dKH just with Kalk, i.e. not using my 2-part at all? Will this hold true even when I get heavily stocked with SPS? In the past when I had a heavily stocked SPS tank I managed just fine solely with 2-part.

 

[Water Dog]

In a fully stocked SPS tank, you will get to a point where kalkwasser alone won’t be able to keep up as it’s use is tied to your evaporation rate, thereby limiting how much saturated kalk solution you can use. That’s when you can kick in with the 2 part dosing to make up the difference.

 

[Spar]

In a fully stocked SPS tank, you will get to a point where kalkwasser alone won’t be able to keep up as it’s use is tied to your evaporation rate, thereby limiting how much saturated kalk solution you can use. That’s when you can kick in with the 2 part dosing to make up the difference.

Thanks. What about calcium levels with Kalk? Am I likely needed to dose 2-part in the meantime with that? I guess I will find all this out on my own once I get the pump running anyway. I will begin by discontinuing the 2-part and see how things change

 

[Water Dog]

What’s great about kalkwasser is that it is balanced solution for both Alk and Ca.

 

[Spar]

What’s great about kalkwasser is that it is balanced solution for both Alk and Ca.

So what you are telling me is my expensive new DOS is now obsolete (for now anyway)

 

[Water Dog]

Once you have a fully stocked 400 gallon SPS tank, your DOS will be back up and running in no time!

 

[Spar]

Once you have a fully stocked 400 gallon SPS tank, your DOS will be back up and running in no time!

Ya I used to run 2-part and a calc reactor to provide enough for my tank. I had a tank crash (well, the glass fell off... I suppose it was a crash of a kind) a few years back and lost everything. Greatly miss those days!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/axrH72hCBoLFtrHG8