This is a cool little Kalkwasser doser that works with your top off to dose Kalkwasser (calcium hydroxide). I first saw the idea on RC in the DIY kalk reactor idea (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=938048&perpage=25&pagenumber=2)thread. Kudos to JustOneMoreTank for the great pics and explanation.

Here is a pic of how I setup mine
http://samsreef.com/images/zoom/MDLEVI/diy-kalk.jpg

The Kalk doser works by pumping RO water through the bottom of small holes in a tube inside the filter. The water rises up through the Kalk and mixes it each time water is pumped through. RO water can be supplied from a top off bucket with a float switch activating a feed pump or from your RO filter with a float valve. This design works best as part of evaporation makeup but could likely be adapted for use with a pH controller for more aggressive dosing on larger reefs. You can also run this system with a continuous drip by gravity feed for a constant supply of calcium.

Here is the parts list and a best estimate on the prices.

Reactor Parts
GE Smartwater Household Filter GXWH20F $30.00

1/4 Pex Pipe $2.00

(2) 3/4 x 1/2 Reducing Bushing MIP $1.30

(2) 1/2 MIP x 1/4 Speed Fitting $5.00

1/4 Inline Valve $6.50

10' 1/4 OD Vinyl tubing $2.00

ATO Parts
JBJ ATO $85.00

Aqua Lifter Pump $10.00

5G Bucket (Free - extra salt bucket will do)

Timer $7.00

Total: $148.80

:photo:

DIY Kalk Doser Video (http://www.samsreef.com/images/diy-kalk.wmv) (10.3MB .wmv 1:40)

:shades:

wow sammy, thanks for that video, really insightfull on how that actually works....time to build one! lol. Do you ever find that you need to shake the kalk bottle or do you not care, lol. And how often do you fill that with new kalk? Thanks.

Sammy33 and JustOneMoreTank...

Gentlemen, Thank you both. This may be the best, easiest, cheapest, thread I have ever read.

I had read the DIY thread on creating a calcium reacter with these filters and had purchased one to do it. But with the CO2 tank and bubbler, it was a lot more complicated and expensive.

This is simply marvelous.

Best possible regards,

johnny

Hey no problem everyone. And a big Thank You to Sammy for putting this up. I have just been super busy with work and the holidays and have not been on the computer much when I do make it home. I have a few pictures and would like to try and type out a step by step. There are several options on how you might want to run the "reactor" so it is very customizable depending on how much money you want to spend or what equipment you might already have. I promise to try and get some pictures up sometime kinda soon. :) Happy Reefing and Merry Christmas! :)

We should start a group DIY thread and make this a online project. Great idea.

Why do you need a timer in combination with the ATO? Seems redundant, no?

Why do you need a timer in combination with the ATO? Seems redundant, no?

Dosing the Kalkwasser can raise your pH. The effluent from the doser comes out at around 11 pH. Most tanks naturally dip a bit in pH at night after the lights go out. By using the timer to turn on the ATO/Kalk doser at night you can counter the pH dip with the Kalk additions.

This is optional. You can just run it all day if you would prefer (watch your pH though). It depends on your reef setup. If you have a refugium on reverse lighting it may not matter as much. If you have a high calcium demand then it may be beneficial to dose 24/7.

wow sammy, thanks for that video, really insightfull on how that actually works....time to build one! lol. Do you ever find that you need to shake the kalk bottle or do you not care, lol. And how often do you fill that with new kalk? Thanks.

Thanks for the compliments on the video.

I have heard that the water will channel through after a period of time (weeks I guess) and that the canister needs a good bump to get it started again. This seems to be more common when the Kalk gets low.

Refills are probably at least once a month. I filled this one up with about 3" of Kalk and will probably need to refill when it gets down to 2" or less. The Kalk level has dropped about a 1/4" in almost a week.

awesome, thanks for that info on how much to fill.

Sammy that is a great video!
What container is that for your Kalk solution?

GE Smartwater Household Filter GXWH20F $30.00, as stated in the parts list above, I believe you can get that at HD

Kevin -
You can also use an extra filter canister like you would use on an RO/DI unit for the sediment or carbon block. I got the GE filter and most all the other parts at the big orange box.

The main trick to getting this to work is to run the water through the unit reversed using the output as the input. This way the water will flow down through the tube and through the Kalk and then out through the top.

If you have a larger tank you can also use the big 20" filters. The 10" unit I have works well as my frag tank are only about 75 gallons total. The other cool thing about the GE filter is that it has a bypass valve. The bypass comes in handy if you want to take the Kalk out of the loop and just do top off. This is nice for when I forget to fill my top off bucket or when I refill the Kalk. This gives time to top off the tank while the Kalk settles.

This is an awesome thread. Thanks guys!!!

-Andy

hey sammy, how tall is that filter housing? err, nevermind, just read your post a few up, lol.

I like the idea of runing two of these, first one kalk, and have that run into a carbon/filter block, get a lil more reaction time and that will also make sure that no kalk sediment gets into the tank.

alrighty all, I did a lil searchin for these filter canisters, here is a guy on ebay that is selling the clear ones for a great price!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Clear-3-4-Inch-Water-Filter-Housing-2-R-O-Aquarium_W0QQitemZ160044589893QQcmdZViewItem

this auction is for 2 canisters, I plan on running another after the kalk which will have a bag-o-carbon, or whatever I feel necessary to put in there.....like a misbehaving fish for example, lol j/k.....or am I????? Bwa hahahahahaha. Ok, anyways, you can click on his store and he has all kinds of other housings, ranging from 3/4 inlets to 1/4. I tried searchin for the GE ones, and I'm pretty sure you can buy them at home depot, lowes or whatever hardware store but i liked the bypass idea that they had, then I thought you can still run a bypass on these, just get a Y adapter and have 1/4" valve on the kalk or water line....tadaaa, got your bypass.... I know not as pretty as the GE ones, but it'll work. Hope this helps.

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php)
Randy Holmes-Farley (2005)

Calcium hydroxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_hydroxide)
Wikipedia

Limewater (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_water)
Wikipedia

The Degradation of Limewater in Air (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rhf/feature/index.php)
Randy Holmes-Farley (2003)

Great thread guys and thank you for taking the time to do this. We should create a DIY thread like Sprayin70 recommended.

just a noob question pertaining to doseing kalkwasser.

I once had a float valve stick open because of buildup. Is there someway to prevent this? I was thinking of making an auto-topoff system, or buying one, but I'm wondering if the solnoid is going to get stuck open as well.

Thoughts?

If You are going to use a solenoid put the kalk reactor after the solenoid and only fresh ro will flow through the solenoid.

Ok, there is where my confusion was/is. When I was dosing Kalk, I was making the solution, and using it specifically for my top-off water. It was constantly dosing it though a float, which is why/where the buildup occured, and why my floor became wet :D

Seems like the proper way to do it is with a dosing pump, 1 drip every 3-4 seconds.

I'm more confused now after re-reading some other posts.

Are you guys dosing kalkwasser AS your top-off? My float valve ended up getting stuck open because of CA deposits on the float valve, causeing it to stick open = freshwater flood.

If you are using a dosing pump that only drips every 3-4 seconds, are you still needing to top-off the system with RO?

I'm trying to aviod the flood, which automatically dosing kalk. I do not want to dose the kalk through a float valve anymore. What are my options?

Dang, no edit, sorry!

Seems like using a pump-type system would prevent the flood due to a hanging open float valve. Has anyone used a dosing pump with a float switch to do the top off, instead of the powerhead coming on and off, on and off, on and off..etc...

Figured it out! LOL...you guys are going to hate me for the dumb questions.

Use a DIY kalk reactor, drip like normal into sump with a float valve for top off. Run a solnoid in front of the RO feed into the kalk, and rig up a electronic float switch to provide backup cut off if the float VALVE gets stuck.

I suppose you could get FANCY, and run 2 lines to 2 different float switches. Use 2 solnoids one as above, one on a straight RO line. Then you could use a pH controller to regulate which feed the sump sees, depending on the pH of the tank.

WOw....I think I need to get out more or something.

Figured it out! LOL...you guys are going to hate me for the dumb questions.

Use a DIY kalk reactor, drip like normal into sump with a float valve for top off. Run a solnoid in front of the RO feed into the kalk, and rig up a electronic float switch to provide backup cut off if the float VALVE gets stuck.

I suppose you could get FANCY, and run 2 lines to 2 different float switches. Use 2 solnoids one as above, one on a straight RO line. Then you could use a pH controller to regulate which feed the sump sees, depending on the pH of the tank.

WOw....I think I need to get out more or something.

The JBJ ATO has the two float switches with one for the sump to dose top-off and one for the reservoir as a fail-safe to turn the system off if the reservoir is empty. The controller for the ATO also has a fail-safe that turns the system off if runs for more than 14 minutes. This is so you don't dose 5 gallons of top-off (Kalk) all at once.

So using the ATO with the Kalk Doser is pretty safe. I feel fairly confident that I will not overdose my tank...hopefully. :unsure:

man its sooo great to not have to add ph buffer to my tank now, this kalk reactor is sooooo easy to make and it works so amazing! I have also noticed that kroger sells ms wadges pickeling lime!!!! Well at least the one on 26th and peachtree in buckhead does. Check in the fresh veggie area, mine was under the onions.

I have also found Mrs. Wedges at Piggly Wiggly....go figure!:D

Well...I have been quite impressed with this little Kalk doser. After using for almost 2 months it has done a good job keeping up with the calcium demands on my frag tanks. This is a 75g system with about 18 or so small SPS colonies, a Crocea clam and a bunch of softies. My calcium and alkalinity before the doser was always a bit low around 350ppm ca and 7dKH for Alk. Now the test are always around 420ppm ca and 9dKH for Alk. :thumbs:

I have kept the doser about a 3rd full of Kalkwasser and have had to fill it about once a month to keep the performance up. If the Kalk level drops to low it just reverts back to topoff only with minimal calcium additions.

I did find the timer handy for spreading the dosing out overnight. I have the timer set to come on right about when the lights are going out with 15 min intervals. This keeps the pH a steady 8.3 and constant...makin' me happy. :)

Thanks Sammy! I made one of these about 2 weeks ago and I'm loving it. It has definitely made a huge improvement in keeping my alk and calc in check. Thanks again!

- Andy

Hey Sammy!
Glad that the Kalk doser is still working so well. I have been having some issues with my little set up. I basically had mine running from a 20g long tank as the holding tank and fed by one of those expensive medical dosing pumps. Well the medical Reef Dosing Pump is failing. It is getting super weak and can hardly turn at all even with out the rubber tube around the spinning drum part. I need to call the owner of the company and see if he has any suggestions. Or I may try and fix it more like how you are running it with the ATO controller.

Hey Sammy!
Glad that the Kalk doser is still working so well. I have been having some issues with my little set up. I basically had mine running from a 20g long tank as the holding tank and fed by one of those expensive medical dosing pumps. Well the medical Reef Dosing Pump is failing. It is getting super weak and can hardly turn at all even with out the rubber tube around the spinning drum part. I need to call the owner of the company and see if he has any suggestions. Or I may try and fix it more like how you are running it with the ATO controller.

Is the rubber tube replacable on your pump? I know those santoprene hoses have a life span of a few years (or less).

I am using a cheapo Aqua Lifter pump from Oscar Tominaga. I am contemplating an upgrade to peristaltic pump. The Aqua Lifter does OK but the dosing rate is a bit too slow.

Yes the peristaltic pump has a replacable hose. I had a problem with this before and the owner of Reef Dosing Pumps could not figure it out. I sent one or two pumps back to him. It just seemed like the pump would get too tired to spin with the rubber hose on it. He said I was probly putting the hose around the drum too tight and it was too much stress on the motor. I cant figure out any way to do it any less tight. He never commented on the pump or two that I sent back? Anyway he ended up sending me two pieces of clear really soft rubbery hose that is an "upgrade" hose. It worked really well until now. The unit will only rotate around very slowly once or twice without the hose on the drum. I promise it is like the pump motor is too tired or weak to spin even without anything on it. ???
I may have to switch to the AquaLifter pump as well. :(

I think I have it, but how do you control the amount of calc you are dosing per day if you are running your topoff through the "reactor"? Lets say you need to double up on the calc but your topoff remains constant or the reverse your topoff goes up due to weather but your calc demands remain the same. Do you run direct from the topoff to sump and then another set of tubes going from topoff to reactor to sump? I am sure it is something I am just not getting.

Next question. Could you connect this directly to the RO/DI and use a float switch to do topoff and bypass a holding tank since the canisters are sealed?

Thanks in advance, Cameron.

Cameron, This is just a top off and you are right it is not going to be perfect at keeping the Calcium pegged at just where you want it. This might be too much or little depending on your coral stocking levels.
That said... I have found the Calcium, Alkalinity, pH, salinity, and water level to be much more constant in my system since using this in my system.

I think it is still a great system and much better than mixing calc in the topoff directly. I am going to give it a try since it is cheap enough. I was just wondering if there was some trick to getting more or less calc popping through. If it doesn't work, I have a LiterMeter and I may do something simple like run a top off seperate and then pump topoff water through the system just for dosing. A little more complicated but still simpler than the alternatives.

Do you think you can do a two part formula in two canisters with this system running one canister into the next?

How about this. You can use the ball valves to choke down either the direct flow or the calc flow. Not exactly precision, but it would allow some control over how much is actually dosed. You may only need one ball valve on the straight through after the split.

correct me if I'm wrong, but kalk doesnt really raise calc and alk as well as it does stabalizing it, hence the dripping or topping off. Least thats what I've gathered from it.

glxtrixDosing saturated Kalkwasser will raise Calcium, Alkalinity, and pH of a system that is low or loosing these due to the calcification of the corals in the system. It is commonly used to maintain the parameters at or nearly at the desired level. Randy Holmes Farley has lots of really good articles on it at Reefkeeping.comMy computer at this office cannot cut and paste so here it goes:www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.phpIf that link does not work you can go to reefkeeping.com and search for "What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime"He gets overly technical and into chemistry but you can skim thru those sections and read the meat of the article. :)

Sorry everyone ... the link above is not working because there is not a space at the end before the word "If"

CameronYes you can tweak the amount of Calcium and Alk that you are putting in to the system somewhat. If your Calcium and Alkalinity demands are less than what fully saturated lime water makeup is giving you then just mix less pickling lime powder in the container of RODI water. I think that fully saturated is about 2 teaspoons per gallon and should have a pH of 12+ (check the article that I tried to post the address to but I cannot edit the word if off the end of the address) If you want more Calcium and Alk then you can add Vinegar to the RODI water and this will allow you to add more Kalk powder to the solution. If you need more Calcium still then you need to add Calcium Chloride or a Calcium reactor. Sorry. But this little system should help everyone meet at least some if not all of their tanks Calcium and Alkalinity demand. :) :) Hope this helps everyone. :)

I should have thought about vinegar to dissovle the kalk better. The tank I inherited uses a crazy amount of calcium for its size. I am dosing the max Seachem Calcium recommends right now and it isn't keeping up. The guy before me had a huge bucket to dose kalkwasser, but it doesn't work in my setup so I have been looking for something better that didn't cost an arm and a leg. This is just what I was looking for but wanted to see the "trick" for juicing more calcium if I need it.

Any thoughts on using this setup with a two part solution?

Sure you could... just buy two big jugs of the two part (or better yet you could make some two part yourself Randy Holmes Farley has two recipes on the web). Then use some sort of pump on a timer (like that AquaLifter pump that Sammy is using) you will need two pumps and two timers working seperately. I would recommend dosing it into the sump of course and at alternating times. You are going to want to watch it carefully at least for a month to make sure that you are dosing equal amounts of each into your system. You must have some really good growth if your demand is really high. :) :) :) I wanna see some pictures! :) :)

I have some test batches of his formula and I have a LiterMeter with one pump. I am thinking about picking up another pump for it and going that route, but I haven't gotten that far yet. For now, I am going to try your design with kalkwasser and see how that goes first.

You can see some of the pics at these galleries

http://www.cameroncole.com/cgi-bin/imageGal.cgi?direct=2007-01_Aquarium_28th_Night

http://www.cameroncole.com/cgi-bin/imageGal.cgi?direct=2007-01_Aquarium_29th

http://www.cameroncole.com/cgi-bin/imageGal.cgi?action=view&link=2007-02_Aquarium_03rd&image=HPIM2685.JPG&img=&tt=

I am fighting some diatoms right now, but I hope that is just the tank still breaking in.