Calcium reactor questions

[reefman77]

I know that CO2 lowers the PH of the water before it go's through the calcium reactor. but does the PH of the water somehow rise before it is added back to the tank. If it dosent, wont your PH in your system become to low? How do you raise the PH back to acceptable range?

The other question is, what are some good brands of calcium reactors that are low priced but decent quality?

 

[reefman77]

bump

 

[jpfelix]

lower ph dissolves the media, raising ca and alk. the alk brings up ph, a little. that's kind of it. for further reading check rhf's articles in the chemistry forum.

 

[TCU Reefer]

Some drip kalk or run a kalk reactor in conjunction w/ their Ca reactor just for this reason. If your pH gets too low from the reactor, kalk will help maintain your pH.

 

[Herpervet]

Some folks run a second chamber and the effluent ph is higher from what I understand.

I have no experience running it like that so I'll limit my comments to single chamber reactors.

You want the effluent ph to be fairly low (6.5 to 6.9) to get really concentrated effluent (high calcium and alkalinity).

Drip into a refugium and the macro algae will grow like crazy on the residual CO2 and it will also stabalize the ph.

Watch your ph monitor and shoot for 8.2 to 8.4. Over time the ph will actually rise as your alkalinity (buffering capacity) increases.

 

[mrcool]

my experience with my reactor is that your PH will drop without addition of kalk its high PH helps offset the low PH coming from your reactor also will keep ca levels up a reactor will keep alk steady but cannot over time maintain proper ca levels at least for me.

 

[reefman77]

If im using a PH monitor, where do I place the probe? do I watch the ph of the main system or the reactor

 

[Herpervet]

I watch the main system and spot check the effluent. Let it drip into a cup and check it periodically. Once you get it dialed in and the CO2 rate is constant, effluent is constant you don't really need to check all that often.

Some folks put a ph probe in the reactor through the lid. I think some come with the fitting already. I don't think you really need it but it is nice to simply glance at the monitor and know things are ok.

The main issue I run into is the need to watch the effluent rate on some reactors(both Korallin and Precision Marine in my experience but they may all be this way) because the effluent line will clog with salt deposits and sometimes in a matter of just a day or two the drip will slow or even stop. This seems to happen esp when using slow drip rates.

So for me its better to run a higher drip rate although you will use more CO2 as a result.

If you are running a fairly fast effluent rate its hard to count drips and on my larger system its a steady stream. In this case it's better to use a cup and let it fill over 5 or 10 minutes and measure how much effluent is produced over that time. Then calculate in ml per minute what the rate is.

Keep a chart of the effluent rate vs CO2 bubble rate and where the alkalinity is on a regular basis and adjust the rate up or down so that you alk is around 9 or 10 dkh and steady. (9-10 is arbitrary as natural sea water is lower but it works for many folks)

The chart will come in handy sometimes as a point of reference. As your corals and corallin algae grow you will have to increase the effluent and bubble count to keep up.


Cheers,

Pete