Dump the Kalk reactor, get a Calc reacter and use Caribsea ARM media. You will not need to run the effluent through phosban or anything like that not that a phosphate remover in the sump wouldn't be useful for other reasons.
I have a Koralin 1501 reacter and the setup is fairly simple although you do need to spend some time tuning it initially. I will try and explain how it works in simple terms although I may fail...
The reacter is a large tube filled with water and the media with a pump on top. The pump takes water in from near the top of the tube and pumps it down a shaft to the bottom where it then rises up through the media. The input and output both also have an airline tube coming off of them, the input goes in the tank to bring in new water and the output tube can go in the sump. The output tube has a valve to control the flow to a drip rate, mine runs between 40 and 60 drips per minute usually.
Finally, the part that makes the thing work is a third airline tube entering the inlet side carrying CO2. You adjust the CO2 bubble rate to match your drip rate based on a formula in the instructions and it acidifies the water lowering the PH below 7.5 which allows it to disolve the calcium and other beneficial elements (the stuff is made out of coral skeletons so surprise surprise it contains the elements living corals need to make new skeletons). You can measure the PH of the drip water to make sure it is working OK, but it will be. Despite rumors to the contrary, this machine tends to stabilize the PH in a tank not lower it because if you have good aeration the excess CO2 goes into the air and the calcium and alk values in your tank are raised. In fact the my bigest beef with a Kalk system is it tends to raise PH too high and cause calcium to precipitate out, the opposite of what you want it to do.
The only tricky part is setting the bubble rate just right. Too high and excess CO2 will collect inside the reacter, too low and it is not working efficiently. Also, this is a long term stabilizing device, it will not correct Ca and Alk levels in your tank overnight or even in a couple days if they are way out of whack. It also will not work if your Kalk reactor causes even localized areas of high PH and precipitates out the Ca your trying to put in. For this reason, I would dump the Kalk device at least temporarily and use a 2 part additive to get your levels close and then let the Calc reactor maintain them. The Calc media will last 3-6 months usually and the C02 tank lasts me over a year, so once setup it is an incredibly low cost low maintenance item to run.
In short if your after stable water conditions, there is nothing better then a Calc reactor for maintaining trace elements Ca and Alk as well as PH.
m-fine
I have a Koralin 1501 reacter and the setup is fairly simple although you do need to spend some time tuning it initially. I will try and explain how it works in simple terms although I may fail...
The reacter is a large tube filled with water and the media with a pump on top. The pump takes water in from near the top of the tube and pumps it down a shaft to the bottom where it then rises up through the media. The input and output both also have an airline tube coming off of them, the input goes in the tank to bring in new water and the output tube can go in the sump. The output tube has a valve to control the flow to a drip rate, mine runs between 40 and 60 drips per minute usually.
Finally, the part that makes the thing work is a third airline tube entering the inlet side carrying CO2. You adjust the CO2 bubble rate to match your drip rate based on a formula in the instructions and it acidifies the water lowering the PH below 7.5 which allows it to disolve the calcium and other beneficial elements (the stuff is made out of coral skeletons so surprise surprise it contains the elements living corals need to make new skeletons). You can measure the PH of the drip water to make sure it is working OK, but it will be. Despite rumors to the contrary, this machine tends to stabilize the PH in a tank not lower it because if you have good aeration the excess CO2 goes into the air and the calcium and alk values in your tank are raised. In fact the my bigest beef with a Kalk system is it tends to raise PH too high and cause calcium to precipitate out, the opposite of what you want it to do.
The only tricky part is setting the bubble rate just right. Too high and excess CO2 will collect inside the reacter, too low and it is not working efficiently. Also, this is a long term stabilizing device, it will not correct Ca and Alk levels in your tank overnight or even in a couple days if they are way out of whack. It also will not work if your Kalk reactor causes even localized areas of high PH and precipitates out the Ca your trying to put in. For this reason, I would dump the Kalk device at least temporarily and use a 2 part additive to get your levels close and then let the Calc reactor maintain them. The Calc media will last 3-6 months usually and the C02 tank lasts me over a year, so once setup it is an incredibly low cost low maintenance item to run.
In short if your after stable water conditions, there is nothing better then a Calc reactor for maintaining trace elements Ca and Alk as well as PH.
m-fine
the HA went bye bye. Justa thought.
