Ca reactor help please

[JurisHP]

This is going to be a little detailed, so hopefully I am giving enough info for people to give input:

I have a GEO CR618 Reactor with ARM extra coarse media and Brightwell Mg in the reactor as well.

I have a Aquariumplants CarbonDoser hooked-up to my CO2 canister.

The CarbonDoser is set to 11 psi and 8 seconds/bubble.

The effluent flow is a steady drip (not stream) at 36 ml/minute.

I have a Trident that at the moment is controlling my reactor.

The pH of my reactor is reading 6.45.

I have Apex controlling my doser with this programming (pH control.....NOT Advanced programming:

High value: 6.50
Low value: 6.45

I have a Neptune DOS for 2-part dosing of Ca and KH.

In order to keep my KH and Ca levels stable, the Trident is telling my DOS to dose quite a bit....I am going through Alk buffer like it's water.

I of course want my reactor to maintain the Ca/KH and to only need the buffers occasionally, but that's not happening.

Thoughts?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Give this a read:
http://reef.diesyst.com/reactor/reactor.html
Personally I would get the reactor dialed in before relying on the Trident.
Then I know it is right.

 

[solitude127]

How big is the tank? A lot of SPS? Do you know what you Alk consumption is per day? When was the last time your ph probe in your reactor calibrated?

 

[JurisHP]

Tank is 180g....a few SPS but mostly LPS and softies and a huge Maxima clam. pH probe calibrated recently. Not sure what my Alk consumption is.

 

[solitude127]

you might need to bring the ph down in the reactor to 6.3 to get some of the media to melt. IIRC, ARM media has a lower melting point then TLF Reborn.

 

[dadnjesse]

You need to check the Alkalinity of the Effluent coming out of the reactor, it should be at least 20 dkh. If its lower then lower the PH in the reactor. You can then adjust the effluent rate to your tank.