How long does a Ca reactor take to raise levels??

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mhurley

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I've had my reactor set up and running for about 2 or 3 weeks now and I tested my calcium today with my Sailfert kit and it's at 340 ppm. Alk is pegged at 3.4 meq/l. Ca doesn't seem to be moving up too quickly at all....
pH of effluent is 6.6
Kh of effluent is about 23 kH
Ca of effluent is off the sailfert charts, appears to be around 510 ppm. (which doesn't seem right logically...)
My Ca was around this level before I started this reactor (BTW, it's Bob Odenwellers dual chamber reactor with 15 pounds of media in it). How long does this process take?

Mike
 
Mike--It will depend a little bit on the size of your tank. Mine took a month or more to really come up. If those readings of your effulent are correct, it will get there. In the meantime, 340 isn't low enough to hurt anything in the short term.
Good luck

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Larry M

My Personal Site, Northern Reef
 
Thanks Larry. It's a 120 BTW.
Somebody on another board said that reactors aren't good for raising Ca, just maintaining it....Is this true, I did not get that impression?

Mike
 
I think it depends a lot on the situation. On a tank your size, for example, if you were running a smaller reactor like the Knop C, had a lot of calcium-hungry animals--it might take forever to raise it with the reactor alone. For someone who has a smaller tank with a lot of softies, it won't take as long.
Another option you could consider is using Turbo-calc to raise it up. Before I did that, I would contact Bob and get his input. He has posted here before, I think.

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Larry M

My Personal Site, Northern Reef
 
I tend to try and keep my reactor settings constant once I match the reactor production rate to the tank consumption rate. I agree that they're really not well suited to do much more than relenish the daily alk and Ca consumption. Concentrated 2 part supplements are often better suited for making quick changes.

You've got to keep in mind that it can only produce a product enriched in a stoichiometric ratio of ions; in other words, the ratio of Ca++ to alk ions will essentially always be equal regardless of the total value. So you can't increase one tank concentration level without a proportional increase in the other, when you are using the reactor.

It sounds like your reactor is working properly, and you are just a bit deficient in Ca++, relative to the total alk level. At 3.4 meq/L, your Ca should be up around 450 ppm. I'd use CaCl2 or a liquid Ca supplement to boost your Ca level up. Since it's so hard to make an adjustment on a reactor and see the effect, I'd leave it alone if it already matches the tank consumption rate and perform your shorty term adjustments by hand.

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http://members.xoom.com/FriscoReef/
 
Mike,
If you haven't already done so, you should verify that the calcium reading is correct. I was using Salifert calcium test & never could get the calcium level about abut 390 (per the Salifert). I purchased a La Motte test kit & it reads about 50 ppm higher.

One review I read on the web (sorry don't remember where), that tested many calcium kits, found that the Salifert calcium kit was least consistent among those tested, and the La Motte was most consistent and most accurate.

You may find that your calcium level is actually higher.
Brittlestar
 
Hi Mike,
I bought one of Bobs reef reactors a month ago.I had no problem raising my alk from 3meq/l to 5.5 meq/l in a span of a week.You could probably increase the effluent rate and the Co2 rate a little more.Just keep an eye on your tanks ph level and alk level.Some will guage theirs by the ph of the effluent.The way I guage it is by the other parameters like alk,Ca,and ph.

Overall I love the unit great reactors.

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