Kalk and long distance..

[PaulieReef]

So this might be an odd question and couldn't find out the answer.

I have a fish room about 80 ft away from my tank. I have multiple tubes running from my fish tank, up the wall, through the attic and down into the fish room. Currently there are 3 tubes that run that path. Intake for CarX, Output of CarX and ATO.

Since my need for CA and Alk has increased from my acro increase, my pH has dropped to a range of 7.77-7.95. I know, don't chase numbers, but that is the fun in this hobby for me.

I wanted to add a kalk stirrer in my fish room, after the ATO.

Question is, can that kalk water sit in the tubes for long periods of time with out precipitating out or causing the tubes to deteriorate. In theory, the polyethylene tubing will always have concentrated kalkwasser in it, is that ok?

I do not have much room under my stand anymore and I already have 2x apex bars full, so I can't add it under my stand.

Thanks!

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[MarineandReef Jaron]

You can do this but you will get precipitate. You will have to either periodically replace the tubing or clean it out. I might run some HCl through it periodically as a way of cleaning it. There is also an issue in that most Kalk reactors can not be pressurized and are designed to flow into the tank by gravity.

I think it would be better to keep the stirrer by the tank but feed the stirrer from the RO/DI water in the other room. This will minimize the length of tubing with kalk in it while still allowing you to feed from your remote reservoir.

I know there are spacial concerns but I think this would be best. There are stirrers that can sit in the sump or next to it so I am sure there is a place to put one. If all of your Apex outlets are full I would consider using a DC 24 cable. As long as the motor is compatible it should work. and not take up an outlet to run the stirrer motor.

Neptune Systems DC24 Bare Wire Cable, 10 foot (CBL-DC24-Bare-10)

Neptune Systems DC24 Bare Wire Cable, 10 foot (CBL-DC24-Bare-10)

www.marineandreef.com

 

[Gedxin]

Agreed with M&RJaron, it will 'work' but the kalk precipitate would be immense. Seriously, even with my 2ft tubing it's a significant amount of precipitate I clean/flush out every ~2mo.

 

[IPT]

Why a stirrer? Do you really need that slurry? I for one (and many others) just use the clear saturated water and let the KALK precipitate drop to the bottom of the container. I'm not sure there would a lot (if any) precipitate if you were just pumping the clear saturated water (not super saturated) with the mixed Kalk.

I use a dosing pump set to finite volume that is less than my evaporation rate. That allows me to dose KALK consistently by volume which makes it easier to adjust up or down as needed.

 

[PaulieReef]

Why a stirrer? Do you really need that slurry? I for one (and many others) just use the clear saturated water and let the KALK precipitate drop to the bottom of the container. I'm not sure there would a lot (if any) precipitate if you were just pumping the clear saturated water (not super saturated) with the mixed Kalk.

I use a dosing pump set to finite volume that is less than my evaporation rate. That allows me to dose KALK consistently by volume which makes it easier to adjust up or down as needed.

mostly because lazy and need smaller footprint. Also huge tank so more demand.
380g sitting at around 7.8. Went to bring it up to at least 8 ideally 8.3. Have a dos I was thinking of possibly using to do exactly that to get a more stable PH.