ITo begin documenting my new kalkwasser reactor, here are some pictures and description. A buddy of mine, Gary, and I built one for my tank and one for his #2 tank.
Picture 1. Dry fitting of PVC parts. The bottom PVC is about 2.5 feet tall. The upper portion is about 1 ft tall. We wanted to see the upper area to see how clear the mixed kalkwasser was, so we used some acrylic tubing that we had.
Picture 2. Close up of parts. Various lengths of PVC and CPVC pipe, elbows, unions, caps and access pieces, clear acrylic, nipples for water input and output, pump, etc. The clear acrylic tubing is optional.
Picture 3&4. Close up of access cap with tapped holes for nipples. We happened to have these around nipples around so that is what we used. Picture 4 has the nipples installed. These were glued in once placed as needed.
Picture 5. All pipes, elbows, upper acrylic sections, access cap assemblies. [b]An integral design of this reactor is to draw the recirculating fluid from the top and pump it toward the bottom where the kalk is located. Some of the other designs only recirculated the bottom of the reservoir.
Remaining work for tomorrow: Glue upper acrylic assembly to lower PVC. Attach pump using vinyl tubing to recirculation pipes.
Total bill for 2 kalkwasser reactors:
PVC (lowe's parts) ~ $37
misc parts (nipples)~ $ 5
pumps(2) (Maxijet MJ400)$26
Other miscellaneous parts such as acrylic tubing, vinyl tubing, PVC glue, cleaner, teflon tape, tools, taps, etc. were already on hand. Another $30 or so.
Grand total for each reactor: (37+5+26)/2 = approximately $34
This does require an input pump. You can use a float switch attached to another Maxijet with float switch, a Reef Filler, Liter Meter, Peristaltic doser, etc. which would run anywhere from around $15 to $200, depending on how sophisticated you wanted to be.
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