Help with kalk/ato resevoir float material choice

[FiReC]

http://reefme.com/ato.jpg

I added kalk to my top off recently to find my ato pulling the kalk from the bottom of the container and dumping it into the tank. I would like to float the tubing to keep it pulling water from about .5 inch below the surface.
Any ideas what I could use to float the tubing to keep it from pulling from the bottom? I was thinking cut up a Styrofoam cooler into a nice disc? Is that stuff safe to be in a reef? What about at high PH from the kalk?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[yukondave]

Styro would be good, but the problem with this design is you have to be sure the it never floats to low to start sucking straight Kalk. I would mount the intake about an inch or two above the bottom of the holding tank. so that it will run dry before sucking kalk.

Better yet build a DIY Reactor :idea:

[FiReC]

if i mount it ill definitely have to kick off the ato during refill/rekalk to let it settle.. I figured with a float i could pull clear water pretty quickly after refill-rekalk/stirring.
I was trying to avoid adding any more equipment.. my solana stand is getting full :)

good point on sucking straight kalk.. I would need little legs on the bottom of the float to prevent it from going all the way down.

[Zebodog]

I use a rigid plastic tube that stops about an inch from the bottom of the container. I run airline hose down the tube so it extends .25 - .5 inch out from the plastic tube and connect this to my aqualifters.

[gibson981]

How big is that top off resevoir? Also, how much evap per day? I have a 90 gallon display that evaps about 4 gallons in a 24 hour period. I use an aqua lifter zip tied to some plumbing above my return section. The resevoir is a 5 gallon water jug (smaller footprint than a rubbermaid tub) with a hole drilled in the cap just big enough to jam a piece of 1/4 inch rigid tube through to the bottom. Then it goes through a GEO kalk reactor (I forget the size as I am at work right now, but the footprint is not very big). I actually have this outside my stand in a corner of the room and hidden by furniture and my stand. If you get creative with your space limitations you can get a kalk reactor in there. The kalk reactor will be much safer than just putting kalk in your top off resevoir. In my earliest noob stages, I crashed a tank one night using kalk in a rubbermaid tub. I woke up in the morning and the tank looked like milk and everything was dead.

[yukondave]

I used a Kingsford Charcoal Kaddy and drilled the top/installed a JG bulkhead and hung a pickup line from it using RODI water line inside the holding tank and air line outside. The aqualifter worked ok for a while but eventually that small airline gets plugged up and needs replaced. I ended up changing mine to a MJ 400 on a raised platform inside the container and used RODI line out of it.
That Kaddy makes a great holding tank though- the footprint is small and the plastic is grade 5 so it can hold up to the Kalk.

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp237/yukon659/55%20Gallon%20Reef/100_5998.jpg

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp237/yukon659/55%20Gallon%20Reef/100_5996.jpg
http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp237/yukon659/55%20Gallon%20Reef/100_5997.jpg