diy kalk stirrer

floridabob

floridabob

Member
hi ,
just finished my diy kalk stirrer, 24 inches tall 6" round pvc
and holds 1.5 gallons of water, fed by auto top off.
can anybody tell me, how much Mrs wags pickling lime
to put in ???, i evap. around 1.5 gallons a day.
also should i put stirrer on a timer with the same
P.M. cycle as fuge lights so it fills only at night when
main lights are off?
thanks floridabob
 
ameno

ameno

Active Member
I built one, that sounds sim. to what you have, I don't know if this is the best way to do it, but what I do is have a timer to turn the stirrer pump on three times a day for about three min. also a timer set to turn off my auto top off for 30 min. during the stirr. that gives the kalk a chance to resettle before topping off, and as of now I add 5 tsp. of Kalk a week. Like I said I don't know if this is the best to get the most out of the unit, but at the end of the 7 days the ph inside was around 11.5.
 
floridabob

floridabob

Member
hi Ameno
got the design from Randy & Stacy website.
thanks for the info.
I new that i had to stager stir from fill
just didnt know how much pickling lime to put in without
nukeing my tank should i start with a little less @first
being i never dosed before and work up to what u said?
just a little nervous
thanks again
fl,bob
 
ameno

ameno

Active Member
you could do that, maybe start with three tsp. and check the ph of the reactor after about four days and see if it's staying up.You should also notice your ph drop off a bit in your tank when the kalk starts to get depleted. I have a ph controller set-up with mine so that if the tank ph goes above 8.4 it kicks out from the reactor and just tops off with kalk water. just for a safety precaution. I would recommend having a ph monotor set up for your tank so you can keep an eye on it better.
 
ameno

ameno

Active Member
BTW: I think as long as the kalk has time to settle before dosing you will not nuke your tank, the ph of the kalk solution should not exceed a ph of 12. so the more you put in the longer it maintains it's ph. But then I'm not going to test this theory by dumping a whole bunch at one time.
 
floridabob

floridabob

Member
ok thanks
so if i drill a hole in the top flange and put a pinpoint monitor permantly
through the top, the ph should read 11 or so? all the time?
 
ameno

ameno

Active Member
for totally saturated solution, and that's what you want, it should read 12ph, as it depletes it will start to drop off. I was saying use the monotor in your tank just to be sure it doesn't raise you tank ph to high, and just check the ph in the reactor to see how long it holds with the amount of kalk you use, after a while you'll be able to tell how many days you can go before you have to add more kalk. The ideal set-up would be to be able to check the ph of the solution as it comes out of the reactor and add kalk when it starts to drop in ph. but I haven't done that with mine, it would require another ph monitor.
 
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