fatoldsun
NJRC Member
I picked up this Kalk reactor/stirrer from someone on Craigslist - it was for sale but he couldn’t find a couple key parts so he just gave it to me. It took a while to track down what I needed which was basically a 10 micron filter to prevent undissolved kalk in suspension from getting pumped into the system.
Here’s a shot of what I’m trying to describe - a stock image from the .pdf manual (which was also hard to find
Anyway, I decided to chronicle this because I couldn’t find anyone who uses these and I know they are “old” and likely not the favorite given some of the other options out there but this hobby always leads to stuff being reused or recycled so on the chance that someone out there is looking at some point in the future, maybe this will help.
The reactor works by mixing the kalk with RO/Di and relies on an ATO to pump water through the reactor with all top-offs. I believe it’s designed to pump/stir 24-7 but I didn’t trust this so I used my controller to stir from 2AM to 8AM and then my ATO kicks on at midnight and stays on for 2 hours (although it usually takes about 4-5 minutes to hit its mark. The ATO I’m using is Tunze Osomolator – pump and all running from a 10g reservoir pumping up from my basement through the reactor into my return section of my sump. I put 2 check valves to prevent back flow/siphon 1 for tank water back into the reactor and 1 for kalk water back down to my basement reservoir. Everything is just using tube and John Guest fittings picked up at Lowes and/or Home Depot (usually found in ‘plumbing’ with ice maker stuff)
It’s over on the right side - this is just after setting it up:
Set up of the reactor itself is as follows - The manual suggests dissolving 1 cup of Kalk into 2 cups of RO/Di – I tried this and it was a mess. (Oh I should mention that I used BRS kalk I had on hand. Once that it used up I will be moving to Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime….) The reactor has a valve at the bottom to be used as a drain to empty and refresh the kalk supply. After 24 hours it was clogged from all the kalk that settled and I let some of the settled kalk drain out – after a few days, everything cleared up so maybe I needed to be more patient. Next time I will leave the full cup and see what happens.
This is what it looked like just after I mixed it (I ran the stirrer/pump for about 24 hours before I hooked up the ATO – I wanted to see if it would settle first – or how long that would take
This is what it looked like after “the dust settled” and I drained some of this out – like I said I think next time I will let it go longer and be more patient. Also I think a food-grade like Mrs. Wages will dissolve better
This is what the filter looks like after the undissolved kalk collected on 10 micron filter – this shot is after about 24 hours
…and here’s a close up – it looks kind of prehistoric
More to follow…
Here’s a shot of what I’m trying to describe - a stock image from the .pdf manual (which was also hard to find
Anyway, I decided to chronicle this because I couldn’t find anyone who uses these and I know they are “old” and likely not the favorite given some of the other options out there but this hobby always leads to stuff being reused or recycled so on the chance that someone out there is looking at some point in the future, maybe this will help.
The reactor works by mixing the kalk with RO/Di and relies on an ATO to pump water through the reactor with all top-offs. I believe it’s designed to pump/stir 24-7 but I didn’t trust this so I used my controller to stir from 2AM to 8AM and then my ATO kicks on at midnight and stays on for 2 hours (although it usually takes about 4-5 minutes to hit its mark. The ATO I’m using is Tunze Osomolator – pump and all running from a 10g reservoir pumping up from my basement through the reactor into my return section of my sump. I put 2 check valves to prevent back flow/siphon 1 for tank water back into the reactor and 1 for kalk water back down to my basement reservoir. Everything is just using tube and John Guest fittings picked up at Lowes and/or Home Depot (usually found in ‘plumbing’ with ice maker stuff)
It’s over on the right side - this is just after setting it up:
Set up of the reactor itself is as follows - The manual suggests dissolving 1 cup of Kalk into 2 cups of RO/Di – I tried this and it was a mess. (Oh I should mention that I used BRS kalk I had on hand. Once that it used up I will be moving to Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime….) The reactor has a valve at the bottom to be used as a drain to empty and refresh the kalk supply. After 24 hours it was clogged from all the kalk that settled and I let some of the settled kalk drain out – after a few days, everything cleared up so maybe I needed to be more patient. Next time I will leave the full cup and see what happens.
This is what it looked like just after I mixed it (I ran the stirrer/pump for about 24 hours before I hooked up the ATO – I wanted to see if it would settle first – or how long that would take
This is what it looked like after “the dust settled” and I drained some of this out – like I said I think next time I will let it go longer and be more patient. Also I think a food-grade like Mrs. Wages will dissolve better
This is what the filter looks like after the undissolved kalk collected on 10 micron filter – this shot is after about 24 hours
…and here’s a close up – it looks kind of prehistoric
More to follow…
-PM if you'd like more info on how I set up the remote reservoir - I can take more pics and I'd be happy to explain in more detail but I think all you're trying to figure now is the head of the tunze pump - hopefully that "gobbly-goop" i found helps answer for your situation.