euro reef cal 400 reactor

[glenn907s]

So I just hooked up my cal reactor last week and was wanting to know about tweeking the controls . If you open up the flow of the drip return line would that set cal and ph higher or just cal ? And turing down my ph meter makes just my alk go up ? My cal is staying about 420, I would like to be 460, still playing w/ adj for ph meter to get my dkh @9 and getting ready to check ph, my old api kit is hard to tell. the colors are to close for me to tell . So I picked up an elos ph test kit . The elos kits are easy to read just more money. But happy to be able to read the kit .

 

[kgross]

When setting up the reactor, if you are using a pH controller, like I believe you are. Set your pH and leave it alone for the most part. Change the flow rate to increase/decrease the amount of alk/ca being put into the tank.

When setting the flow rate, get it set so that the alk/ca of the tank stays consistent. Don't worry much about what the level is. If you can keep your tank at 420 that is great, use some other calcium source (like 2 part) to bring the ca and alk levels to where you want them, then let the reactor keep them at that level.

Kim

 

[glenn907s]

I have my controller at 6.8 instead of 7.0 my probe is in the reactor. Sounds like I need to test water again I also opened up the flow of water coming out of the reactor thinking it would up my cal and alk levels but I might have dropped my ph ?

 

[kgross]

Your controller should keep the pH inside your reactor stable. 6.8 should be a good starting number.

Now if you increase the flow through the reactor to much, you will put extra CO2 into your tank dropping the pH of the tank.

If you have so much flow through the reactor, that the pH in the tank is dropping and you are not able to keep up with Ca/Alk demand, depending on the media you use, you can drop the pH inside the reactor down. Most people find 6.5 to 6.8 is the range. So you can set your controller down to 6.7, slow down the flow and see what happens to your tank next.

Kim