Ca. Reactor issues

[chrowski]

Hey all,
I'm still getting the hang of my 1st Ca. reactor. But it was running fine for a couple days, then the bubbles in the bubble counter went away and were replaced by loads of microbubbles. I left the reactor running and turned off the CO2 supply. Does anyone know what could've caused this. Also, it looked like bubbles were temporarily forming @ my effulent flow drip site every time I tried to take the pH. Could it have been excess CO2? I was @ about 50-60 bubbles per minute because my effulent is not dripping but rather a flow b/c my pump doesn't seem to be able to handle the load of a consisent drip too well. Any advice is appreciated.

Also, to all you 2-part die hards out there. I'm glad you enjoy your two-part methods, I really am. But please don't try to turn this thread into a Ca. Reactor bashing thread b/c it's happened to me before and it really disrupts the educational purposes of the thread in the first place.

 

[chrowski]

bumpppppp

 

[BrokeColoReefer]

are you running a pH controller on the actual reactor? what make and model is the reactor? what is the effluent pH?

 

[chrowski]

No, I have a pH monitor on the display which I take off to measure the effulent. the effulent pH wasn't horrible, it was about 6.5 but the microbubbles bother me b/c that's not how the reactor is supposed to be working. I turned back on my microbubble-CO2-flow today and I guess I'm just going to have to deal with it and go strickly by pH, not bubbles. The reactor is an MRC nano reactor-single chamber fed by an aquaclear powerhead.

 

[RWillieK]

your pH should be more like 12, not 6.5

Robbie

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11084601#post11084601 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RWillieK
your pH should be more like 12, not 6.5

Robbie

Nope....

effluent pH of a single stage reactor if using something like ARM media is fine at 6.5

I think you're thinking of alkalinity

 

[ReefDent]

Or maybe pH of effluent of kalk reactor...

James

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11085845#post11085845 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefDent
Or maybe pH of effluent of kalk reactor...

James

No.

See my statement above.

Alkalinity of effluent can be anywhere from just above the tank's dKH to over 25-30 dKH, or more.

A pH of 12 is impossible in either the tank or the effluent.

 

[ReefDent]

I was referring to Robbie's post, not the initial post.

For a calcium carbonate reactor, yes. I run my calcium carbonate (dead coral/ aragonite) reactor at a pH of 6.7.

For a calcium hydroxide (limewater) reactor, no. I just measured the pH of my kalk reactor and the pH was 12.3.

see this link:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2003/chem.htm

James

 

[chrowski]

so can anyone even take a stab @ why I'm having microbubbles instead of normal ones? Should I perhaps take my bubble counter off and see if, in the two weeks it was running, somehow got clogged?

 

[ReefDent]

I'd try and blow it wide open with the CO2 for a few seconds, then crank it down and see if that fixes the problem. Is this a bubble counter attached to the regulator or the reactor?

James

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11086126#post11086126 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefDent
I was referring to Robbie's post, not the initial post.

Oh, I see now. Without using the quote feature, your post was a bit confusing....

 

[ReefDent]

No prob- I still haven't started using that feature yet. Give me time- I just started posting digital pictures!!!

James

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11093296#post11093296 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefDent
I just started posting digital pictures!!!