The Kalk reactor I made was really easy with the right tools and PVC cement. I'd post a pic but I'm on dial up at home so it would take forever. My design uses a mag 2 in a timer to stir the kalk. Inlet at the top and outlet at the bottom so the pump sucks minimal kalk paste.
Basically here's what I did,
1. I used a 3 " closet flange with closed end for the bottom. (Has slotted screw holes at the bottom)
2. 1/2" acrylic base plate, about 12"x5", drilled and tapped 4 holes to match the flange. Use plastic screws from HD to attach the flange to the base plate.
3. carefully drill 1" holes in the clear PVC near the top and near the bottom allowing room for the fittings (flange and reducer). Carefully use PVC cement to glue in 1/2" female thread x 3/4" slip adapter (really 1" OD), let dry at least 24 hr. (This way the criculation tubes and pump are removable so if you make a mistake somewhere you can fix it, and you have the option to change something if you want to)
*I used a 3"x2" adapter to reduce the top size to make it take up less room and save $ in the large unuion fitting. You could just as easily skip step 4
4. use a 3"x2" reducer and cut a short peice of 2" pipe to attach it to a 2" unuion.
5. take a 2" slip cap, drill and tap 2 holes in the top to fit john guest fittings. (I forget the size but I have the tap). Thread in 2, 1/4" john guest ball valves (from HD, about $6 ea). Attach a length of RO tubing to one of these valve fittings on the inside so that it reaches to the bottom of the reactor when assembled. This will be where the RO comes in, the other valve will go out to the top off pump, drawing water from the very top of the reactor so that there is little to no air space inside the reactor.
6. cement the 2" cap with valves onto the other end of the 2" unuion.
7. attach 3/4" slip elbows inside the tube, over the inner ends of the 1/2" female thread x 3/4" slip adapters you cemented into the clear PVC so as to direct the outlet from the pump down near the bottom, and the top facing up near the top.
8. cement the 3" clear tube into the closet flange on the bottom and the 3"x2" reducer at the top. Let cement dry.
9. assemble 1/2" PVC pipes / elbows / 45's to connect the pump however you like.
Operate by connecting the reactor outlet to a peristaltic pump connected to a level sensor or timer (Timer only works If you have a seperate pure RO top off to make up for any difference). connect the stir pump to a digital timer to run for 1 min a few times a day.
This might sound complicated, but after thinking this plan out, I built mine in about 2 hours at the most. I have all the tools needed and would be happy to help you build one just like mine, or similar if you have some different ideas. Late afternoon/early evening sunday is usually good for me if you wanted to build one when you picked up the tubing if you want to go that route. At a quick guess it would cost you 80-100$ for all the PVC parts, the pipe from me, the john guest valves, and the mag pump. You would still need 2 digital timers or one digital timer and a top off sensor set up, and a perastaltic pump.
There are infinate details that could be different, and lots of other designs for simple kalk reactors but this is just what I did that workes really well. The only "special" tools I used were 2 taps, a 1" holesaw, and that's about it. I made mine with a little over 2' of the clear PVC and it seems to be good for a 120 reef.
I can try to post or e-mail some pics from work Mon if your interested in this design.
Either way (if you want help building a reactor or just want some tubing), I'm in sudbury Ma.
I'm around weekday evenings, and can plan to be around weekends, I also work in framingham so I could also meet you at my work if you just want to get some of the tubing.
jk
