Nilsen (Kalkwasser) Reactor-Twin Cities

[JJGeisler]

Greetings Twin City Reefers,

I've been chasing down the parts to build a Kalkwasser Reactor similar to the one Bill-e did. Bill must have been lucky to get his clear acrylic as cheap as he did. I've checked pricing and stock from several of our plastic vendors in town and this is what I've found: A cut 24" piece of 4 1/2" OD clear cast acrylic is $42, stock lengths at 60" are $51 and 72" is $62. So...... Is any one in the Twin Cities area interested in making their own reactor or need 4 1/2" clear acrylic? Enough for one is $42 but enought for two is about $25 each and three is about $20 each. (plus Jessie's share)

[bill-e]

JJ,

I got it mail order at Aquatic Ecosystems.

Price has gone up, $9.75/ft, sold by the foot. They will even cut it to length for you...something I suggest if you already know what size you are going to make it. Cutting the tubing with a hack saw is slow if you dont want to mess it up. Here's the url, you want the 4.5" OD stuff

http://www.aquaticeco.com/aquatic1v1...rchstring%3Dac rylic%2Btubing%26searchArea%3D1%26exactSearch%3D0% 26orderidentifier%3DID989008018234107316%26itemNam e%3D1%26itemSku%3D1%26keyWord%3D1%26reSort%3D1%26f irstRow%3D1&sourcedoc=&srcquan tity=1

[JJGeisler]

Thanks Bill,

Your sort of a celebrity when it comes to DIY Kalk Reactors! I've done several searches on DIY Reactors and your page comes up over and over plus refernces on other pages to yours!

Thanks for the link! I checked with Aquatic Ecosystems and found the acrylic which is probably where I will get mine if no one else wants some. Even with UPS (can't forget the S&H) it's cheaper than the local cut price, it just takes longer. I can get the 4 1/2" local up to 6' at $9.61 per ft if I want 5'- 6'. I'm a project engineer and we do enough volumn with different vendors that I can get free delivery along with other orders but....6'.

Any thoughts on wether it would make any difference if the center sleeve section that the pump mounts to is moved up towards the middle? My question was if the Kalk mix gets that high during the mixing cycle and if that would help keep the mix out of the impeller?

[bill-e]

I've seen variations with it higher, I really dont know how well it works like that. I always summized that the thing that kept the entire chamber from stiring up when the pump was on was the fact that the intake to the pump, low in the chamber, was causing the circulation pattern to stay low in the chamber.

Something else you might try is to keep the design the way it is, and externally route the plunbing so that the pump is right side up. This might allow the particles in the pump to settle out after the pump is turned off.

I made a hot link to aquatic eco's T5 tubing from the article on my page...so others can find it.

[JJGeisler]

Bill,

Good point about the location of the intake capping the top of the stir process! Makes sence to me!

JJ