Coral Labs Lastest Kalk Reactor

[Gouldian]

Ever since I given up of Seahorses and Ventured into Reef Tank, I have always struggled with maintaining constant parameters in order for my livestocks to thrives.

The very first equipemt I invested to maintain the params was a Tubby. When I got it, I was very impressed by the quality of its finishing and also the inner components which was told by CM - is manufactured for military use.

I have since used the tubby for 1 years plus and never have the tubby failed me! There was only once where by my overflow stucked and causes the float switch to be submerge for a long period resulting a failure to one float switch. But it was quickly diagnosed and replaced by CM within the week.

With this confidence in thisCoral Labs product, I started to save up for their Lastest Kalk Reactor. I am very fortunate to be the 3rd person to received the very First Magnetic Stirrer in Singapore!

Upon receiveing, the following thoughts came to my mind: Clean-cut, Well thought and Solid contruction.

Herewith is the picture of the reactor next to my fresh water tub.

[Gouldian]

Here is the reactor when it is on "Standby" mode, noticed the kalk settling at the bottom of the reactor. I have put in 4 teaspoon of Kalkwasser.

Also, noticed the view of the solution inside the Reactor that Acrylics offers VS PVC.

[Gouldian]

Here's the top view of the reactor.

[Gouldian]

Here's the answer to backflow of Kalk into the freshwater tub.

[Gouldian]

Now comes the best part of this Reactor!

Noticed when the reactor is in action, the cloudy kalk solution will not rise beyond 3/4 height of the Reactor - this will ensure that only the clear solution is dose into the tank rather than the milky solution which will cause ionic imbalance.

Also, another "killer application" Coral Labs has installed is a "built-in" timer! No to waste $20 to get a external timer and program it to turn on & off! I heard from the people in Coral Labs that they have program it to run 1.5 mins per hour and from my observation, it is sufficient to ensure that the kalk is thoroughly mixed.

Another point to note is that there is another manual switch (The red botton) that offers the option to start the stirrer as and when I wish! (talk about control)

[Gouldian]

My final verdict is that I am very satisfied with both the Tubby and the Kalk Reactor that Coral Labs carries and have also heard tons of great feedbacks on their other products such as FR and even Chiller!

I would like to end by borrowing their tagline, "For Excellence Corralines Growth and Prosphate Free Water".

Here is my recent growth (Corallines).

[Gouldian]

Also, I forgot to add, the consumption of electricity is surprisingly low. I was told that it only consume 3w only! Now which external pump can beat that!

[Tigger]

what abt maintenance? I mean as the residue keep on accumulate at the bottom.

[firestream]

price point ?

[Gouldian]

what abt maintenance? I mean as the residue keep on accumulate at the bottom.

The only maintenance is to top up Kalk when the residue get lesser and lesser.

[Gouldian]

price point ?

Price-wise, I am not able to compare cuz currently I only know Coral Labs carries a Kalk Reactor with Magnetic Stirrer.

However, if you are talking about Price as compared to the benefits and the quality of the product - I am honestly says that it far exceeds my expectations.

[williammuk]

Hi. Just for my own reference, could you kindly let me know what is the the calcium at the output. Thanks.

[Gouldian]

Hi. Just for my own reference, could you kindly let me know what is the the calcium at the output. Thanks.

I dun quite understand your question.

Do you want me to measure the Calcium level from the output of the Reactor? I have not done so thus no info at the moment. But is is that important? Could you enlighten me with the reason?

[williammuk]

I dun quite understand your question.

Do you want me to measure the Calcium level from the output of the Reactor? I have not done so thus no info at the moment. But is is that important? Could you enlighten me with the reason?

Yes. I would like to know the Calcium level at the output of the reactor.

I imagine the level should be sufficiently high so that it is able to (as far as possible) sustain/maintain the level of Ca in the reef. I do understand that depending on the rate of utilisation of Ca in the reef, the amount of Ca that can be supplied to the reef via water top-up (due to evaporation) may not be sufficient.

I just want to have a reference from other Kalk Reactor users what level of Ca (from the output) can I expect to see from my own.

The other "problem" I have is that I don't know how to determine the maintenance schedule. Any advise?

Thanks.

[Gouldian]

Yes. I would like to know the Calcium level at the output of the reactor.

I imagine the level should be sufficiently high so that it is able to (as far as possible) sustain/maintain the level of Ca in the reef. I do understand that depending on the rate of utilisation of Ca in the reef, the amount of Ca that can be supplied to the reef via water top-up (due to evaporation) may not be sufficient.

I just want to have a reference from other Kalk Reactor users what level of Ca (from the output) can I expect to see from my own.

The other "problem" I have is that I don't know how to determine the maintenance schedule. Any advise?

Thanks.

As for the measurement, I can do a calcium test this weekend.

But I feel that it will not be any difference from mixing a kalk solution, waiting for it to settle and taking test from the clear solution. As such, whatever the reading is, it is due to the Kalkwasser rather than the reactor right? Correct me if I am wrong.

[Gouldian]

Just did a check on some of the pumps commonly used for Kalk Reactor and below are the electrical consumptions:

Eheim 1250 - 28w

Oceanrunner 1200 - 25w

Quiet One 1200 - 25.5w

Magnetic Stirrer - 3w

[Lin]

juz wondering if those Coralline starts growing on the wall?

[williammuk]

As for the measurement, I can do a calcium test this weekend.

But I feel that it will not be any difference from mixing a kalk solution, waiting for it to settle and taking test from the clear solution. As such, whatever the reading is, it is due to the Kalkwasser rather than the reactor right? Correct me if I am wrong.

That is precisely what I am trying to determine.

For your reference, my KR was filled with 5 heap spoons of Seachem's Kalk. After one week of usage, the Ca reading (from the reactor's output) was at 610ppm using Salifert's testkit.

Please share with me the results of your test. Thank you very much.

So, what's your advise when would be the ideal maintenance interval for the KR?

Or, is it just an approximation to clean it out every two weeks?

[Gouldian]

I imagine the level should be sufficiently high so that it is able to (as far as possible) sustain/maintain the level of Ca in the reef. I do understand that depending on the rate of utilisation of Ca in the reef, the amount of Ca that can be supplied to the reef via water top-up (due to evaporation) may not be sufficient.

I just want to have a reference from other Kalk Reactor users what level of Ca (from the output) can I expect to see from my own.

The other "problem" I have is that I don't know how to determine the maintenance schedule. Any advise?

Thanks.

It is true that the Kalk Reactor will not be suitable for some tank especially those with chiller or low evaporation rate or have high Calcium demands such as SPS/Clams tank.

I myself started by dosing Kalk after lights of and after several months of measuring, noticed that the amount of Kalk I need to top up inorder to maintain params is almost equal to the amount of water evaporated.

So i gather that the Kalk Reactor will be suitable for me. And after having it the pass few days, I must say that my params are still alright although not so constant as per accurately measuring the depleted and topping up exactly the same amount.

[Gouldian]

That is precisely what I am trying to determine.

For your reference, my KR was filled with 5 heap spoons of Seachem's Kalk. After one week of usage, the Ca reading (from the reactor's output) was at 610ppm using Salifert's testkit.

Please share with me the results of your test. Thank you very much.

So, what's your advise when would be the ideal maintenance interval for the KR?

Or, is it just an approximation to clean it out every two weeks?

Sure will test out this evening. In order to be more accurate, I will test it for 1 week and collate the result to be posted here.

In terms of maintanence, I guess, I will just do some form of cleaning to the exterior and top-up kalk whenever necessary.

[Gouldian]

juz wondering if those Coralline starts growing on the wall?

Yup if conditions are right ie. high Kh & Ca, your tank walls will be covered with Coralines.

[Gouldian]

Just realized that there is also another post on the KR. Anyway, here it is CORAL LABS KR

If this is the case, I will not dwell more into the KR here.

[firestream]

can PM me the price ?

[Gouldian]

You can PM Cookiemunster for the price.

[Cookiemunster]

That is precisely what I am trying to determine.

For your reference, my KR was filled with 5 heap spoons of Seachem's Kalk. After one week of usage, the Ca reading (from the reactor's output) was at 610ppm using Salifert's testkit.

Please share with me the results of your test. Thank you very much.

So, what's your advise when would be the ideal maintenance interval for the KR?

Or, is it just an approximation to clean it out every two weeks?

Thanks Gouldian bro for the great review. I just got back from france and still alittle jetlagged.

Hi william,

The amount of calcium or dkh is purely dependent on the brand of kalk you use. You can just measure the dissolved portion of any brand of kalk to determine the calc and dkh levels.

A kalkreactor simple automates the daily adding or dosing of kalkwasser to the tank. There are many benefits of adding kalk. A quick search on the net will list a whole lot of articles written about it.

For fast coralline growth, nothing beats dosing kalkwasser. It also helps to keep nuisance algae in check by precipitating phosphates and its very good at that. However, it was rumored that once dosing of kalk was stopped, phosphates will be released from the sand once again. That seems more of a problem for manual daily dosing where one got lazy and stopped but this would not be a problem for an automated kalk dosing system like the coral labs kalk reactor. Either way, personally I would rather the phosphate stay in the sand controlled with constant kalk dosing rather than let loose in the water without kalk dosing at all.

Other benefits of kalk include

1) buffering of ph at constant 8 to 8.4ph.

2) precipitation of phosphates

3) counterbalancing low ph caused by use of calcium reactors (due to their CO2 needs)

4) better water conditioning

5) excellent coralline growth within weeks. (you'll see the difference)

6) cheap to use

7) sufficient to supply basic calcium and dkh needs for softies or LPS tanks where calcium reactor would be overkill and too expensive.

Even in tanks with low evaporation rates or those using chillers, the use of the coral labs kalk reactor still ensures more kalk is dosed into the tank safely and slowly than with manual dosing. Not forgetting, after a month of manual dosing, it gets very tiring to have to mix kalk daily for dosing. And when no one is around due to work commitments or holidays or reservist etc, it still does the job for you.

Maintainance is only needed about once every 1 to 2 months for washing out all the residue in the KR. And that can be done easily with the removeable base and at your own leisure or time. Its not so stringent to say that maintainance has to be done at some fixed time or so. This is not a military system after all.