Kalk stirrer installation with ACIII

[FishWife]

We have a DIY calcium reactor, and we bought a Grey Seas Kalk Stirrer (used) and will have an ACIII to plug these into. We have our fish room with a 'fuge tank up high:

 

The plan is to purchase two solenoid valves and use gravity to flow through the kalk stirrer and calc reactor.

 

Question #1: Is there any potential problem with gravity-fed, solenoid controlled, ACIII operated system versus dosing meters/pumps?

 

Question #2: With the ACIII, we will have two pH probes. We understand that the kalk stirrer will raise pH and the calc reactor will lower it. How do we use the combination of the kalk stirrer/calc. reactor/AC III together to maintain proper balances? Anyone have settings to share?

 

Question $3: We've been running the CA reactor for months and doing 2-part dosing. Our CA today is at about 350 ppm. How do we bring this new system online slowly so as not to shock the system?

 

Question #4: Are there any safeguards to consider in physical terms when setting up kalk stirrers? I've read about overdoses... how do these generally happen, and how do we best guard against them?

 

THANKS as always!

[wreck]

1. If the solenoid fails to close with a gravity feed then there is a potential for an over dose or major overflow depending on the size of the reservoir.

2 & 3. I don't use a CA reactor so I can't give any input here, but I thought with a CA reactor properly sized and setup there is no need for the addition of two-part. It looks like your CA reactor setup settings or something needs to be tweaked.

4.I do run a Kalk reactor that is fed by an aqualifter with an auto top off, all top off goes through Kalk reactor but I only dose it during the night otherwise my Ph goes too high and I don't have a controller. If I had a controller I would probably set it up to turn off the aqualifter, which is switched by the ATO, if the tank Ph goes too high like 8.6 or so. If you setup the Kalk reactor in way that it cannot start a siphon from the top off reservior and it can be shut off if the Ph goes too high like with a controller to turn off the feed pump you'll eliminate some possibilities of a Kalk overdose. I think most Kalk overdoses are caused by a siphon that gets started somehow and by faulty ATO switches.

[FishWife]

1. If the solenoid fails to close with a gravity feed then there is a potential for an over dose or major overflow depending on the size of the reservoir.

 

So, use a dosing pump, right? Any suggested makes that are more reliable? We've read enough horror stories about kalk overdoses to make us cautious.

 

THX for the reply, btw!

[Big Country]

I use a aquamedic SP3000 dosing pump hooked up to my ATO switch to put water through my kalk stirrer. One of the good things about this pump is it only does like .75 gal/hr, bad thing is that it won't work with all ATO systems since some cut off after 15 minutes as a safety feature and need to be reset to come on again. Don't know anything about a Ca reactor at this point, that will probably be one of my next adventures.

[Brian Ward]

 

So, use a dosing pump, right? Any suggested makes that are more reliable? We've read enough horror stories about kalk overdoses to make us cautious.

 

THX for the reply, btw!

 

The aqualifter that came with Dan's kalk stirrer is a low-grade dosing pump. It pumps 2.5 gph. The nice thing about that one is that it will lift water that is stored below it.

 

I don't fully understand your current setup - the calcium reactor should be fed with tank water, the kalk stirrer with top off water. You can either setup a standard auto topoff system or use a timer in the ACIII to add the topoff water. If you use the timer method, be sure to check that your evaporation rate and addition of topoff water is consistent. Also, I found that the DC8 doesn't turn off the AquaLifter pumps like it's supposed to unless you use one of the far right outlets (#4 or #8). I would also set a pH monitor in your ACIII program to turn off the topoff if the pH gets too high. This will be just a safety check - since you're running a calcium reactor, the CO2 will drag your pH down and you'll probably never see a "too high" situation.

[FishWife]

The aqualifter that came with Dan's kalk stirrer is a low-grade dosing pump. It pumps 2.5 gph. The nice thing about that one is that it will lift water that is stored below it.

 

I don't fully understand your current setup - the calcium reactor should be fed with tank water, the kalk stirrer with top off water. You can either setup a standard auto topoff system or use a timer in the ACIII to add the topoff water. If you use the timer method, be sure to check that your evaporation rate and addition of topoff water is consistent. Also, I found that the DC8 doesn't turn off the AquaLifter pumps like it's supposed to unless you use one of the far right outlets (#4 or #8). I would also set a pH monitor in your ACIII program to turn off the topoff if the pH gets too high. This will be just a safety check - since you're running a calcium reactor, the CO2 will drag your pH down and you'll probably never see a "too high" situation.

 

THANKS! That's really helpful!