Anybody Gravity Feed Their Kalk Reactors??

[sdesi2005]

Thinking about setting up a kalk reactor, but have heard so many horror stories about the float switch getting stuck leading to disaster. I was thinking about using a pump on a timer or one of those hospital pumps.

Recently I've been thinking about gravity feeding water into the kalk reactor. I would set up a container with a float switch which would hold about 5 Gallons of RODI, from there it could drip into the kalk reactor. I was thinking of using an IV hose with the clamp to control the speed of the drip. Would this provide enough pressure to push the water into the kalk reactor and force the saturated water back out?

 

[JohnK]

I have my kalk reactor set up with gravity feed from a RO resivor.

The output from the kalk reactor is controlled by a peristaltic pump on a timer. When the timer turns on (12x / day) the pump pumps the water up from the reactor and drips into the top of an overflow. As the pump pulls water out of the reactor, the gravity feed keeps the reactor full.

The stir pump on the reactor is set to run a few timer a day, right after a drip cycle finishes. This way the kalk stays saturated, but the just mixed kalk paste has a chance to settle before another drip cycle starts. Also the kalk drip cycles are set a few minutes longer at night to offset day / night PH swing.

This sort of set up needs a seperate RO auto top off to keep things consistent (or a dilligent reefkeeper keeping up with manual top off). I have the kalk making up about 80-90% of the daily evaporation, with the other 10-20% covered by a float valve in the sump that's fed by the same RO resivor that feeds the kalk reactor.

You can also run the same set up on the reactor, but with a float switch to control the pump, but I like the timer because it eliminates the risk of kalk overdose if the switch fails or something leaks causing excessive top off (In the case of a leak, the tank would still get diluted but not get spiked with a Kalk overdose).

Edit;
"I was thinking of using an IV hose with the clamp to control the speed of the drip. Would this provide enough pressure to push the water into the kalk reactor and force the saturated water back out?"

I'm sure you could rig something like that up, but I would be very worried about it not being able to maintain a consistent enough drip rate to be safe. Even if you got it dailed in just right in the first place, my guess would be that the IV hose would constantly be getting clogged - at the very least requiring constant cleaning and adjustment.

 

[sdesi2005]

What type of peristaltic pump are you using?

Do you have any pictures of the setup? I'm more of a visual learner.

 

[JohnK]

I use the aquamedic SP 3000 for a pump. It's under $100. I have heard of reliability problems with this pump, but mine's been working great for 2-3 yrs. There are other, better peristaltic pumps but they get pricey. If you shop around be aware that some won't stay on after the power its turned off (timer or poweroutage), but instead need a button to be pushed.

I'll try to put up a couple of pics tonight.