Kalk stirrer cloudy?

[beatle]

Last night I put my gargantuan GSA/Avast kalk stirrer online. I evaporate ~2.5 gallons/day on my 120, topped off by a LM3. According to the kalk calc, I should add 2 cups of kalk powder initially, and then every 2 weeks to the reactor. I added the two cups of kalk, then poured in a little more than 2 gallons of RO/DI into the stirrer, put the top on, and plugged it in. I waited a few hours for it to settle down, which it did partially. I then moved my ATO tubing onto the stirrer to dose kalk. I noticed my pH rose relatively quickly (from 8.17 up to 8.29) so I pulled the line off the stirrer and put it back on my tubing holder in the sump.

 

I'm looking at the stirrer and thinking "this is too cloudy." I've seen some reactors where the effluent is almost completely clear. Did I do something wrong, or just jump the gun on getting the stirrer online? Here's a pic from this morning, about 12 hours after I set up the stirrer:

 

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

It should clear up in a day or two, just let it run. Its going to raise your ph too. You can test the ph of the drip to see if its right you would have to ask someone else what its supposed to be at (guessing 12?).

[beatle]

I knew pH would rise, but I wasn't comfortable with the rate at which it was shooting up, possibly due to the fact that I had undissolved kalk powder in the effluent.

 

How about refilling the reactor? According to the calc, I should add 2 cups every 2 weeks given my evaporation rate, but I didn't see anything about having to take the reactor offline for a period of time during refills.

Edited May 8, 2011 by beatle

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

I let mine sit in the reactor for 6 hours before turning it back on. But the pic looks normal, tomorow it should be mostly clear I would guess.

[Jim]

I usually pour the kalk into the water, not the water into the kalk. Seems to clear up faster for me that way.

[overklok]

Just put less kalk in the reactor. The water in the stirrer will never be totally clear.

[DaveS]

What is the ato fill rate? If the water goes into the stirrer too fast, it can kick up powder and cloud up the water in the chamber.

[beatle]

The LM3 is rated for 250ml/min which works out to about 4 gph. That's pretty low. I topoff 9.5 liters per day, split into 150 increments over a 24 hour period. That means each time it tops off the tank, it's providing only about 63 ml of water. I'm pretty sure that's low enough not to kick up sediment at the bottom, especially since the inlet tube doesn't extend all the way down.

 

I might try less kalk next time.

[dandy7200]

Matt, try running your finger on the inside of the kalk reactor to see if it is just powder residue coating the inside of the acrylic chamber.