Korallin Calcium Reactor

Status
Not open for further replies.
only turn off the CO2, let the water continue to flow through the reactor while your gone.

you may want to crank the working psi up to about 20 or 25 and see if you can keep a constant count there.

the bubbles getting trapped are most likely associated with the erratic bubble count and are excessive amounts of CO2 that aren't dissolved in the effluent any longer, the aqua lifter is in most cases more then enough of a pump for these reactors.

kc
 
Will do. I'm also going to contact Precision Marine to see what they say about their neddle valve.

It will be a while before I post results. Thanks for the advice.
 
cdraughon said:
Will do. I'm also going to contact Precision Marine to see what they say about their neddle valve.

It will be a while before I post results. Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...
After reading your posts as well as Dragon's I can see that:
a) Your single stage regulator can not handle such a low pressure. Although some single stage regulators can handle pressures as low as 15 psi they are normaly designed to operate at 40 to 60 psi which is too high for our reactors. The issue is that most suppliers provide the single stage given their lower cost. Try increasing the pressure to 20 psi as Dragon mentions and try to keep the bubble rate at around 10 to 15 and see if the regulator can be more stable at that pressure. Note that you may get a surging effect meaning that the pressure will be fluctuating between around 15 psi when the regulator will open and 20 psi when it will close. This creates a variance in the bubble rate which will increase when the pressure rise, once the gas in the regulator after chamber starts being consumed the pressure will go down so the bubble rate, once the regulator opens the bubble rate will go up again. The trick here is that the total average rate be between say 10 and 20 bpm.

b) Regarding the aqualifter. The pressure it creates in the reactor is neglegible (less than 1 psi) and in any way can affect the CO2 pressure at 10 to 20 psi. If you continue having problems maintaining proper effluent flow I will suggest either trying a maxijet 1200 powerhead.
 
FWIW, I spoke with Precision Marine today, my regulator's dealer. He told me that trying to set the CO2 to 10 BPM whike dripping at 40 pm, may be the a problem. Specifically, by not allowing the effulent to drip faster, the pressure in the reactor is building up and pushing back on the CO2 neddle valve. Since it is set so low, the back pressure may be enough to close it. He indicated that PM does not set their neddle valves at this low a level.

I hear this as the neddle valve may not be as precise as the other brand.

He recommends his customers set their CO2 rate to 1 per second, and the effulent to a "broken stream". At which point, monitor the Ph of the effulent and adjust either variable accordingly.

I'll test when I get home.
 
Just got my Korallin Ca Reactor set up. Yes I have read Dragon slayers write up on it and it helped a ton. but I have a few more questions that Im sure are so basic I should know but just dont

Okay........

1. What should I use as an effluent cup, and how the heck do I keep it in my sump? What does it attach to?

See? Told you these were dumb

2. On the Reactor, output 2 is my drip rate, which I have set fine, but what the heck is output 1 for? If I open it, it streams out like a river, is this only to bleed off and closed most of the time, or should it also be set to 40 drips per minute. Cant find any referance to how to set this

3. My bubble count gets set, then I lose the pressure and the bubbles stop and I actually get water back up the line. I have it adjusted to 20 psi and my needle valve is working fine, but it loses pressure. I have the tank handle open about 3/4 of the way.

And lastly my most dumb question I guess............

4. If the water that is dripping into my tank is under 7 ph, how does it raise the ph in my tank to over 8? Im lost on that one (can you tell I didnt pay attention in science class)

Thanks anyone who can help. Its driving me nuts right now
 
Okay one more dumb question

Should there be movement inside the reactor? (Im hoping not)

Is the pump supposed to be moving the media? or is the pump on top just to break up the CO2 and push it to the bottom of the reactor?

Sorry for the questions but never thougt of this stuff until I started setting one up
 
stlouisguy said:
Just got my Korallin Ca Reactor set up. Yes I have read Dragon slayers write up on it and it helped a ton. but I have a few more questions that Im sure are so basic I should know but just dont

Okay........

1. What should I use as an effluent cup, and how the heck do I keep it in my sump? What does it attach to?
Any plastic cup placed inside the sump above the water level and overflowing into the sump will be suitable. You can hang it with a string, drill one side and attach a suction cup etc. any way will be OK, with some imagination you will find the way I'm sure.

2. On the Reactor, output 2 is my drip rate, which I have set fine, but what the heck is output 1 for? If I open it, it streams out like a river, is this only to bleed off and closed most of the time, or should it also be set to 40 drips per minute. Cant find any referance to how to set this

Because the recirculating pump takes the water inlet from the top of the reactor it will loose the priming if air or CO2 is allowed to accumulate on the top. One of the outlets comes from the top of the reactor and has to be set to a very slow drip rate, just varely open enough to vent any potential accumulation. The other ouput is the main one you will use for your effluent.

3. My bubble count gets set, then I lose the pressure and the bubbles stop and I actually get water back up the line. I have it adjusted to 20 psi and my needle valve is working fine, but it loses pressure. I have the tank handle open about 3/4 of the way.
First you need to prevent water backflowing back to the regulator. A CO2 check valve shall be installed in the gas line to prevent this as the saltwater can damage the regulator and the water can bet contaminated with coper from the regulator Bronze alloy.
Second if the bubbles stop but the regulator still reads 20 psi you are either trying a very slow bubble rate or the output gauge may have lost the calibration and might be reading pressure when there is none.
You can fully open the cylinder valve with no problem.

[4. If the water that is dripping into my tank is under 7 ph, how does it raise the ph in my tank to over 8? Im lost on that one

The effluent is mostly a mix of dissolved CO2, Carbonic Acid and Bicarbonate. Once it enters the tank any excess CO2 will be vented over time (To help this process you may want to drip close to the skimmer inlet) over time these CO2 is what pulls the PH of the tank down from the normal 8.2 to the 8.0 levels when running a Calcium reactor. Eventually the Carbonic Acid from the solution reacts to become Bicarbonate and as the PH rises a very small portion of bicarbonate reacts to become carbonate. So Bicarbonate and the small portion of Carbonate is what sustains your Alkalinity level.
Click to expand...
 
stlouisguy said:
Okay one more dumb question

Should there be movement inside the reactor? (Im hoping not)

Is the pump supposed to be moving the media? or is the pump on top just to break up the CO2 and push it to the bottom of the reactor?

Sorry for the questions but never thougt of this stuff until I started setting one up
Click to expand...

The pump is constantly recirculating the water to pass trough the media to keep the acid water in contact with every grain to maximize the disolution and insure the water is saturated before it leaves the reactor.
 
'Because the recirculating pump takes the water inlet from the top of the reactor it will loose the priming if air or CO2 is allowed to accumulate on the top. One of the outlets comes from the top of the reactor and has to be set to a very slow drip rate, just varely open enough to vent any potential accumulation. The other ouput is the main one you will use for your effluent["

so the plan from Korallin is wrong, the one I should be using for my drip comes from the pipe on the left, and the slow one from the middle outlet


"First you need to prevent water backflowing back to the regulator. A CO2 check valve shall be installed in the gas line to prevent this as the saltwater can damage the regulator and the water can bet contaminated with coper from the regulator Bronze alloy.
Second if the bubbles stop but the regulator still reads 20 psi you are either trying a very slow bubble rate or the output gauge may have lost the calibration and might be reading pressure when there is none.
You can fully open the cylinder valve with no problem"

The water goes back to the small coupling and not to the regulator, but I still need to stop it.

The bubble rate I am going for is 10 per minute per Dragon slayer, is that too slow? If it is calibration how can I fix that (its brand new from Marine depot)

Thanks for your response

EDIT- so to my last question, there should be no visible movement in the media correct?
 
Media movement is not an issue.
Try a bit more bubbles (say 20) and see how it goes.
As far as I understand Korallin has different configurations so I could not tell which of both is from the top just follow the line.
How are you feeding the reactor?
 
Okay got up this morning and bubbles has stopped but water had not gone back up the line it was kinda like a stand off

The Meter on the right that I had set at 20lb was moving a bit between 15 and 20 lbs. The tank is opened all the way, there are no leaks that I can find, but I know it shouldnt be moving.

My ph in the cup is 6.47. Should it be higher? Will test DK tonight same time as yesterday. Initial set up had DK at 28 and ph at 6.6

Also everyone is saying the aqualifter is crap and I shouldnt be using it, should be using a powerhead. Dragon though says its the best thing to use

This is sooo confusing. If I change to a powerhead how is the tube kept IN the powerhead.

Thanks again for all your help
 
The aqualifter is good to use if you have no problem maintaining a constant effluent flow the reason I asked about the feed is because sometimes feeding from the return pipe directly could create a higher pressure inside the regulator which gives some stability problems.
6.47 ia a bit low but if your tank PH stay above 8 and the tank alkalinity is maintained it will be no much of a problem.
Try to increase the regulator discharge to 25 psi and lower the bubble rate to around 15; the needlevalve will be more sensitive but see if you can achieve better stability.
 
Yeah thats the pump I got with the prefilter.

Tank ph is 7.8 but thats what it was yesterday morning also. It climbed to 8.17 later in the day

Will watch it today. Thanks again for the the comments, Im sure Ill be back again LOL
 
Okay I cant seem to get a good steady bubble count unless I have both valves dripping. Granted they are both dripping slow into the effluent cup, but if I shut one almost down, my bubbles stop
 
without looking back at page one i'm about 99.99999% sure Smoke15 started this thread so i'd say it belongs to him :) and Jose, you got PM.

kc
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

FOX-FACE fanboy….
Calcium reactor components
Replies
7
Views
193
FOX-FACE fanboy….
FOX-FACE fanboy….
J
Calcium very elevated
Replies
3
Views
488
jcarlilesiu
J
five.five-six
Calcium reactor pH problem
Replies
3
Views
379
ct_vol
ct_vol
Broken reefer
Alk and cal
Replies
10
Views
581
Broken reefer
Broken reefer
BuckeyeFish
24g mixed reef dosing
Replies
3
Views
500
CHSUB
CHSUB
Back
Top