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Another Kalk reactor
- Thread starter Liam
- Start date
OP
OP
Liam
letting it grow
sorry the pic is a little dark but the black thing at the bottom is a magnetic stirrer which comes on 4 times a day.
The line the unit is plumbed into is my auto top off feed,if you notice there is a ball valve between the two conections.The connection on the right is the feed and the one on the left is the output.When my auto top off pump gets the signal from the float switches in the sump the pump turns on and fills into the sump.The ball valve can be adjusted to create a slow flow through the reactor and the back into the main line where it joins in with the water going to the sump.
Kinda difficult to explain but it works(so far anyway
)
The line the unit is plumbed into is my auto top off feed,if you notice there is a ball valve between the two conections.The connection on the right is the feed and the one on the left is the output.When my auto top off pump gets the signal from the float switches in the sump the pump turns on and fills into the sump.The ball valve can be adjusted to create a slow flow through the reactor and the back into the main line where it joins in with the water going to the sump.
Kinda difficult to explain but it works(so far anyway
)anutha newby
Non-member
nice work!
what's it made of? looks like acrylic pipe and PVC?
if so, what type of glue did you use for the acrylic to pvc?
what's it made of? looks like acrylic pipe and PVC?
if so, what type of glue did you use for the acrylic to pvc?
NateHanson
Non-member
In my experience PVC and acrylic can be bonded very well with Weld-on 16.
Very nice looking project Liam. Why don't you want all your top-off water to be Kalk? In other words why not keep the ball valve completely closed?
Nate
Very nice looking project Liam. Why don't you want all your top-off water to be Kalk? In other words why not keep the ball valve completely closed?
Nate
NateHanson
Non-member
also, where'd you get the stirplate, and what did it cost?
NateHanson
Non-member
Sounds like you need a higher head/lower flow pump for your top off. What if you put a ball valve after the pump to decrease the flow rate without decreasing the head pressure output from the top-off pump?
It just seems like much of the benefit of Kalk top-off is lost if you only saturate a small fraction of your total top-off.
Nate
It just seems like much of the benefit of Kalk top-off is lost if you only saturate a small fraction of your total top-off.
Nate
OP
OP
Liam
letting it grow
NateHanson said:
possibly Nate,i will be measuring the ph of my output periodically and maybe try some different things.Do you use a peristaltic type pump in your set up?
Do you find you can keep your throughput volume completely saturated to 12ph with a more continual flow.So far i have found by plumbing it this way the effluent is always fully saturated.Having never used a kalk reactor there are going to be many things to try to make it as effective as possible
r
NateHanson
Non-member
My kalk reactor is gravity fed, and has a float valve in the sump. My RO input is well below the level of the bed of Kalk powder, so the water has to percolate through the wet powder before getting to the top of the reactor where the output are. Mine is also stirred by a powerhead at the top of the reactor twice a day to keep the bed of kalk from settling or caking.
I thought saturated kalk was pH 14? Maybe I'm remembering wrong.
I thought saturated kalk was pH 14? Maybe I'm remembering wrong.
NateHanson
Non-member
Yeah. Why the alarm?
I have a 20g RODI reservoir mounted at ceiling level in my sump room, and that's kept full by a float valve. A bulkhead drains from that into my kalk-reactor, and through another float valve in the sump to top-off the system. The flow is sort of a constant trickle of kalk.
I have a 20g RODI reservoir mounted at ceiling level in my sump room, and that's kept full by a float valve. A bulkhead drains from that into my kalk-reactor, and through another float valve in the sump to top-off the system. The flow is sort of a constant trickle of kalk.
NateHanson
Non-member
I've got a valve inline that is turned down to a trickle, so even if the float valve were to get stuck open, or be completely removed, the sump would take days to overfill. (I've never had a float valve fail - and when I've seen other types fail on friends systems it's always in the closed position. The USplastic.com valves that I use are much better designed than the Kent IME, and they're also 1/4 the price).
I gravity and float valves are safer than an electrically operated pump-fed top-off, because if that fails open it will very quickly spike the ph. Whereas this will take a long time for a failure to become a problem, and because of the long time-frame any changes in chemistry are likely to have minimal effect on the tank even if it goes undetected for a few days.
As an additional safety back-up, I have a solenoid valve on the Kalk line that will close if the water level in the sump or display gets abnormally high (float switch in each). That provides double security (or I should say - it WOULD if I got it installed one of these days.
)
Nate
I gravity and float valves are safer than an electrically operated pump-fed top-off, because if that fails open it will very quickly spike the ph. Whereas this will take a long time for a failure to become a problem, and because of the long time-frame any changes in chemistry are likely to have minimal effect on the tank even if it goes undetected for a few days.
As an additional safety back-up, I have a solenoid valve on the Kalk line that will close if the water level in the sump or display gets abnormally high (float switch in each). That provides double security (or I should say - it WOULD if I got it installed one of these days.
)Nate
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