Chamber draining in calcium reactor

[Oakie]

Over the past 3 weeks or so, the main chamber in a MTC calcium reactor has drained down. Usually the water level is right to the top - a few weeks back it was down about 6". Filled it and just yesterday, the chamber was down about 4". Checked the intake and there's nothing blocking it. The little giant pump is new, about 4 months old.

???

 

[sjames]

is your co2 recirc clogged or something that causeing a buildup of co2 in the reactor ?

 

[Oakie]

the little white flexible hose that comes out of the bubble counter chamber and back into the main chamber?

PH out of the reactor is steady at 6.5

 

[Oakie]

how can I tell if my co2 recirc is clogged?

 

[Roy G. Biv]

I have the Procal. I am still new at this but there are 2 things I can think of.

1 there is a float valve at the top of the chamber that when it drops, it releases the excess co2 through the red hose could be stuck closed.
2 The red hose may be clogged. Put it under water and see if there are bubbles.

 

[Oakie]

Thanks!!!!

I think that did the trick.

I don't understand the purpose of the red hose then - why let the CO2 out? Why does some water drip out of there from time ti time?

 

[Oakie]

well, spoke to soon!!!

the chamber filled up and then over the past day or so, is down about an inch. going to see if it repeats or see if it keeps draining. The red hose is clean as a whistle.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

That red hose is to vent the excess co2 to prevent what is happening to you. Do you have the hinge dookickey in in the top of the first chamber? Thats the second place I would look. If you shut off the co2 for a day, the water may loosen up any salt creep on it.

 

[Oakie]

Well, still not having much luck. Got home yesterday and the whole chamber was drained....not sure how long the pump was running that way.

anyway, cleaned out the red hose again, took the top off the reactor and cleaned the "floaty" thing and the small hole that vents out the CO2. Looked good for a while - the unit even primed itself full from being down about half an inch. Thought I had it licked!.

That was around 11 pm last night, today at 3 pm, the chamber is down about 1/2".

Does the level in the chamber fluctuate at all - or is always consistent?

Any other suggestions/ideas appreciated.

 

[snorvich]

What do you have the flow set at with their flowmeter? How many bubbles per second? I have two of these reactors.

 

[Oakie]

just a bit more than 1 per second.....75/minute. PH out is 6.6. Have run it on a much faster bubble count over the past few years. It's just been over the past year or so that I started playing around with bubble count and effluent flow.

by the way, the chamber which was down about 1/2" a half hour or so ago, has now primed itself back to being completely full.

I started playing around because my calcium dropped to about 370 a year or so ago and I've not been able to get it back over to the 400 mark where it was for about 3 years.