DIY Kalk stirrer

[Ron Popeil]

has anyone made their own kalkwasser reactors? im considering making myself one and would like to see what has been used and how it was done.

 

thanks!

[andy]

Here's mine. Cast acrylic tube for the body; Eheim 1048 recirc. Pretty straightforward build.

 

[Ron Popeil]

very nice. how tall is it? i was thinking of using an old crappy skimmer body...and maybe a maxijet....

 

thoughts?

[andy]

It's about 20" tall. I had the acrylic for the body left over from my skimmer build; I was saving it for a Ca Reactor but it turns out that just kalk meets my current tank needs.

 

I think an old skimmer body with an MJ would work just fine, if you can get it watertight. They're really simple.

[siskiou]

I have a bucket, with a powerhead set to "stir" 3x a day.

[andy]

Yeah, that'll work too.

 

I got tired of adding kalk to the top-off water every few days, so switched to a reactor.

[siskiou]

How often do you have to add Kalk to your reactor?

And what are the dimensions of it?

[andy]

About 20" tall, 6" diameter. It holds about 2.5 gals of water, and a lot of kalk. It's been running for about 8 weeks now, and has used about 1/3 the kalk so I guess that's 6 months worth.

[siskiou]

Thanks!

 

I might build one sometime, since it looks pretty much identical to the nitrate reactor I built, and that was fairly easy and cheap. I won't be able to do it with acrylic, but I guess pvc would work, apart from not being able to see how much kalk is left.

[Smann]

Did the same had a old skimmer that already had the two holes threaded so I mounted a small pond pump also had the large return hole at the bottom to use as a fill so I dont have to take off the top to add kalk