New 90 Gal Build

I'll take a look at this controller.

By the way Rocketmandb you must have one hell of a system. Do you have pics of your tank and setup anywhere on this site. Also here are some pics of what I have so far

 

All a kalk reactor is is a chamber for keeping the kalkwasser in that also stirs it to keep it saturated. The way it works is:

- You drop a bunch of Kalk powder (I use Brightwell's Kalk +2) into the reactor, which you've filled with RO/DI water.

- You set the stirring pump to run a few times during the day. This makes sure the water in the reactor is always saturated.

- You hook a dosing pump from your RO/DI fresh water make up tank - the same you use for your ATO (more on this below) - to the input on the reactor.

- You set a timer to run the dosing pump periodically. Some people run their top off through it. I'm not a fan of that because that can be a significant amount and I like a finer control. That's why I run it from a dosing pump. The dosing pump puts fresh water into the reactor which then flushes kalk-saturated water out through the output tube, which goes into your sump.

This is a very simple and relatively maintenance-free way of dosing kalk. I drop a large amount of powder in maybe once a month, if that. That's it.

I've got a link in my signature to a DIY kalk reactor I made that works like a champ - just not a pretty champ

Now, you mentioned something that gave me a little pause when you asked about needing a fresh water tank to supply this. Are you going to have a fresh water tank for your top-offs or are you going to go straight from the RO/DI filter? If it's the latter then you may want to think twice. RO/DI filters are not meant to run on short time increments as they release impurities for the first few seconds of operation. Not an issue if you're filling a large make up water reservoir, but in an ATO operation, if all they run is for a few seconds at a time, they are always putting in more impurities. Additionally, a straight ATO connection from an RO/DI can fail and can flood your tank with fresh water. If an ATO from a reservoir fails, all you "flood" is the amount that's in the reservoir. Still not good, but better than the alternative.

I love this thing and the fact that you can look at it while you're gone, set up email and text alerts, etc. is a wonderful thing.

Here's the link to my build thread:

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-of...w-dual-175g-bullnose-build-thread-100463.html

This looks good.

Question: is the chamber on the left hand side, where you have rock, full or does water trickle through?

If it's full, you could consider putting a light on it and use it to grow Chaeto as a way do do nutrient export.

 

Did you look at the UV link? What do you think?

 

I can't find dosage information, but from what I'm reading it appears that it will do well as an anti-algal assistant, but would not kill parasites. Still very much worth running, just not as something that will help the fish.

 

Ok. Thanks for looking at this for me. I will see if I have any additional info on dosing that may have come with the unit. In either case I will look at other alternative like the one you mentioned.

 

Rocketmandb I just decided on the controller and I went with the Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper v2

 

I've never used it, but have heard good things.

 

I heard really good things about it as well. It's expandable and the additions or expansion pieces aren't expensive. I'm just glad I'm not to far into the project to where it would be impossible to breakdown the sumps to install this unit. I'll take pics and post when I'm done. It will probably be this weekend.

 

where are ths pics man all this talk and no pics lmao come one

 

Here are some pics of the custom hood for the 90 ;D









What do you think? Do I have a career as a carpenter?8)