Help with Kalkreactor maintenance

[surgeonfish]

I bought a Precision Marine Kalkreactor KR620 one month ago and put 2 cups kalk powder in. I hooked it up to my auto top-off system. My calcium was starting to drift down the past week (from 457 to 407 ppm). Despite there still being 1" of white ppt in the reactor, the calcium in the top-off effluent was only 2 ppm!

What is remaining in the reactor if no more calcium is left?
How often do you add Kalk to the reactor? I am assuming that you don't wait until the reactor is empty (i.e. no white ppt left). How often to you clean out your reactors and remove the white ppt?
Thanks

[Chin_Lee]

Shane
does "ppt" refer to precipitate? IF so, i'm experiencing the same thing although I did not test the level of CA in my effluent.
When I add too much powder, I find the power precipitates into a fluffy material which I would then have to siphon out and add more kalk.

Does anybody else experience this precipitating of their kalk powder in their kalk reactors?

[michika]

I get a packing of the kalk powder at the bottom of my reactor. I need to shake it up every few days to ensure it does its job.

Chin, can you describe the fluffy material? Still white/off-white, looks like it would be soft like say whipped cream?

[surgeonfish]

Chin
ppt does refer to precipitate (back to my old chemistry days). I would check your effluent. I almost fell over backwards when I found my Ca was only 2 ppm with what I thought was lots of kalk in the reactor.

The Maxi-Jet 400 completely mixes up the Kalk so it does not get compacted on the bottom. The white material on the bottom is not fluffy, it looks the same as the 2 cups of kalk I just added again.

p.s. Adding the kalk really makes your protein skimmer work better. I had to adjust it as the lid was blown off overnight after adding the kelp. I think that even if I go to a fish only setup I will keep using Kalk just because it makes the skimmer work so much better. Anyone heard of this?

[surgeonfish]

Catherine
What kind of kalkreactor are you using?

[michika]

A DIY reactor, its a phosban reactor, which I've adjusted a bit. Its been working well, but does require the odd shakeup.

This is what it looks like:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b286/michika/DSCF0072-1.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b286/michika/DSCF0078-1.jpg

[fkshiu]

Hey, michika, that's a clone of my kalk reactor! Except I've got my osmolator attached instead of the maxijet. :)

[michika]

:D It works like a charm! Simple, takes up no space, and is low maintenance, just the way I like stuff! It has a calcium reactor sister on the way in the near future too.

[surgeonfish]

Catherine
Does the Maxi-Jet mix the kalk or is it just used for pumping the effluent out of the phosban reactor? Do you have it on a timer? I also have mine connected to the Tunze osmolator (works great).

[michika]

The maxijet just pumps the effluent, hence my need to mix it up. I have it on a drip system, so it doubles as my top-off. I'm told that I could add on a second pump to mix the kalk, but it requires drilling the reactor, and frankly powertools and I aren't a good mix. No need for a timer as it only moves about 1-2g per day, and no risk of flooding the system because I don't keep enough water in the bucket for that.

Any photos of your reactor with the Tunze osmolator?

[Chin_Lee]

I get a packing of the kalk powder at the bottom of my reactor. I need to shake it up every few days to ensure it does its job.

Chin, can you describe the fluffy material? Still white/off-white, looks like it would be soft like say whipped cream?

the fluffy material looks like white cotton or the pulp of the lemon in real lemonade. Its off-white in color and translucent. Whenever it changes to this form, I siphon it out of the bottom of my reactor and add new kalk.

My reactor is a DIY which is basically the same as the OA's kalk reactor. The effluent is always above the water line so there is no backflow nor chance of saltwater contamination. The freshwater source is RO/DI at 0 TDS reading. And for kalk, I'm currently using Chem-master's kalk.

[michika]

I use the same kalk as well. I've never heard of the fuffies, so I'm sorry I can't even begin to guess what it is.

Do you see a visual difference in your system when your reactor developes the fluffies?