Topoff

[paenian]

Why does one need a kalk reactor? I was thinking of installing an in-line kalk unit to my topoff, using an aqualifter (i.e. truly slow pump) to pump water through the bottom of some sort of bottle, letting the top drip into the sump. So it'd be a slow flow through the 'reactor' - not enough to tumble, but the water will sit there between pumping periods - would that use the kalk efficiently?

 

Also, if you've got an aqualifter for sale let me know.

 

Paul

Edited December 24, 2008 by paenian

[Origami]

Why does one need a kalk reactor? I was thinking of installing an in-line kalk unit to my topoff, using an aqualifter (i.e. truly slow pump) to pump water through the bottom of some sort of bottle, letting the top drip into the sump. So it'd be a slow flow through the 'reactor' - not enough to tumble, but the water will sit there between pumping periods - would that use the kalk efficiently?

 

Also, if you've got an aqualifter for sale let me know.

 

Paul

This is the basic principle of most kalk reactors except that you're leaving out one critical function. In order to ensure saturation of the effluent with calcium hydroxide, you should periodically stir the kalk powder at the bottom of the bottle. That's the reason that most kalk stirrers have either a power head, stirring bar, or stirring rod implemented in them. Without it, you really can't control the amount of kalk you're delivering over time. One other item of note, and you may have it covered already, if air is allowed to contact the effluent for any length of time, carbon dioxide will react with the saturated solution to form a skin of calcium carbonate. Therefore, if you've got an open-topped container, you want to take your effluent from below this crust line.

[paenian]

This is the basic principle of most kalk reactors except that you're leaving out one critical function. In order to ensure saturation of the effluent with calcium hydroxide, you should periodically stir the kalk powder at the bottom of the bottle. That's the reason that most kalk stirrers have either a power head, stirring bar, or stirring rod implemented in them. Without it, you really can't control the amount of kalk you're delivering over time. One other item of note, and you may have it covered already, if air is allowed to contact the effluent for any length of time, carbon dioxide will react with the saturated solution to form a skin of calcium carbonate. Therefore, if you've got an open-topped container, you want to take your effluent from below this crust line.

 

Hmm... maybe a powerhead with bernoulli-style injection and some one-way valves... I'm trying to get away with only one pump for the thing.

 

Is it bad to add cloudy water? I figure a sealed reactor would decrease my crust & precipitate - it's a pain in the rear.

 

Paul

[Origami]

Hmm... maybe a powerhead with bernoulli-style injection and some one-way valves... I'm trying to get away with only one pump for the thing.

 

Is it bad to add cloudy water? I figure a sealed reactor would decrease my crust & precipitate - it's a pain in the rear.

 

Paul

 

Cloudy water could be a problem. First off, you would have no idea of how much you were actually delivering to the system. In the case of saturated kalkwasser, the alk content is about 40 meq/l or around 14 dKH and you can ultimately control how much you deliver to the system by regulating how much of the saturated effluent you deliver on a daily basis. On the other hand, if the water is cloudy with particulate CaOH, you really don't have that control on how much you deliver to your system and could, unintentionally overdose your system. It's just the other side of the "not stirring" problem, but in this case with potentially more severe consequences.

 

Have you looked at some of the DIY kalk stirrer designs on the web that use either an externally mounted powerhead (in sort of a recirculating configuration) or an internally mounted powerhead running on short bursts from a timer?

 

Another way to do this is, if you don't have that much top off, just to give the kalkwasser jug a quick shake a couple times a day to help the solution maintain saturation while minimizing particulates in suspension.