MTC Procal Calcium Reactor and low calcium KH 14

[marktheexplorer]

I agree with all of the posts and this is my plan of action. As
For my test kit being bad I had the Fish Store test my water. The results
Matched mine. Also my water changes and limited. Everything looks good in my tank and the parameters do not fluctuate. Even before the Calc reactor parameters where steady but I had to dose in order to keep up the levels. That’s why I purchased the Calc Reactor.

Here is what I have done so far.

1. Had fish store test water. (Tested same as mine)
2. Ordered Mag Flakes, Kent Turbo Calcium and new Salifert Calcium test kit. (Due Friday)
3. Plan to bring Ca. up with Turbo Calcium and hope it levels off.
4. Plan to bring up Mag with Mag Flakes. (Use reef chem calculator)
5. Spoke with Jeff from MTC and he reccomended lowering drip rate and/or C02, which will lower my KH and raise my Ca.
6. Wait two weeks to see outcome.

 

[Jeff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10892145#post10892145 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdieck
The reason that your cal;cium got lower than your alkalinity is because every water change made with IO which is low in calcium and high in alkalinity will skew the levels.
I will suggest cutting back your reactor a little bit so your alkalinity comes down to a level of 10 to 12 dKh.
Make a one time calcium adjustment with Turbo Calcium and if you adjust the Calcium in your newly mixed water then the reactor will keep the calcium at the proper level.
A reactor adds 20 ppm of calcium for every 2.8 dKh of Alkalinity which is the same ratio at which is consummed by coral calcification, just take care of supplementing your new water mix and you will be OK.

BTW IO usually mixes at Mg of 1150 ppm so your test reading might be a bit high but the difference is not enough to ake a diference, try maintaining 1300 ppm to account for variations in the test kit.

Enjoy!

Jose, you just answered about 5 questions that I have been wondering about lately .
Your reef calculator rocks!

 

[jdieck]

Mark: Sounds like a good plan..

Jeff, Thanks, hope it helps.

 

[marktheexplorer]

Thank you,

I got my tank where I thought it should be. I have not
dosed any thing for 2 days and everything is stable. I raised the Ca using turbo calcium. (10 tsp per dose every other day). I raised the mag using the Magnesium Chloride. (2 Cups 2 dose).

Mag 1410
Ca 430
KH 9.0 ( 8 - 10)

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10965751#post10965751 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by marktheexplorer
Thank you,

I got my tank where I thought it should be. I have not
dosed any thing for 2 days and everything is stable. I raised the Ca using turbo calcium. (10 tsp per dose every other day). I raised the mag using the Magnesium Chloride. (2 Cups 2 dose).

Mag 1410
Ca 430
KH 9.0 ( 8 - 10)

Looks very good.

 

[scoobyrs25]

what test kit do you use? i found the same problem with my koraline reactor right now, which im still trying to tune it. However, my CA was reading 390, but with salifer, my kh is reading 11.5 and lamotte is 9.2..

 

[mgny]

It was the red sea calcium pro. The readings were way off. It was reading 300 when with the new test kit it was actually 600 +. I will never trust a crazy reading again. Gonna throw out the kit every 6 months or so.

 

[marktheexplorer]

Salifert

 

[James32]

Some people say you should keep your dkh between 7 and 8 especially in Europe ..and for sure with zeovit system. Is it possible to lower you dkh to 7 and have you calcium at 400-450 with this reactor cause I was thinking of buying the same one. I use IO salt as well???

 

[jdieck]

Some people say you should keep your dkh between 7 and 8 especially in Europe ..and for sure with zeovit system. Is it possible to lower you dkh to 7 and have you calcium at 400-450 with this reactor cause I was thinking of buying the same one. I use IO salt as well???

You can do it with any reactor. Remember that a reactor adds calcium and alkalinity in a balanced way, which is usually at the same ratio as it is consumed. If you start with 7 dkh and 400 ppm calcium and you adjust the reactor to match your consumption then the dKh and the ppm calcium will stay at the original ration whatever it is.
The issue will not be with the reactor but with water changes, Can you find a salt that has the same ratio of 7/400 so as not to change it with your water changes.

 

[polywise]

Jdieck,
I use a MTC pro-cal reactor with PH control in the reaction chamber. Are you sure about the equal release of calcium and alk?

I know I can bias one or the other through the reactor to adjust levels +- in my tank.

 

[JPMagyar]

You can do it with any reactor. Remember that a reactor adds calcium and alkalinity in a balanced way, which is usually at the same ratio as it is consumed. If you start with 7 dkh and 400 ppm calcium and you adjust the reactor to match your consumption then the dKh and the ppm calcium will stay at the original ration whatever it is.
The issue will not be with the reactor but with water changes, Can you find a salt that has the same ratio of 7/400 so as not to change it with your water changes.

JD,

I don't think I've had the opportunity to thank you personally for your hard work in creating the calcium reactor website. After many years of struggling I finally applied the science available on your site and was able to "dial in" my MTC ProCal Reactor. I no longer need to dose B-Ionic. The savings have been enormous, and it's all the direct result of your site.

Thank-you.

If you're ever in the Westchester County, NY area I hope you will look me up!


Joe



Here's my original post from my tank thread . . . just thought you might enjoy the story line

In the category of we never stop learning no matter how old or experienced we think we are, I was talking to Rob at Greenwich Aquaria about how I always struggle to keep my alkalinity up, and he asked if I had ever tried to up the output on my calcium reactor to match the alkalinity usage in my system. Truth be told I had never studied the science of my reactor and had always been working under a stable but flawed process that amounted to guessing so I went home and found a webpage made by J. Dieck (Thanks JD - the calculator is awesome!) that allowed me to carefully analyze my reactor output.

Calcium Reactor Setup Help​

What I found was that my effluent was around 15 dKh and my flow rate was less than 100 ml/min. Based on the information on his page I increased the flow rate to a maximum suggested rate of 150 ml/min and then studied my alkalinity over a period of several weeks. I ended up increasing the bubble count from the CO2 to about 120 bubbles/min which created an effluent alkalinity around 20 dKh and now my tank alkalinity is stable at about 8 to 8.5 dKh. The savings in B-Ionic cost will be enormous, but the question remains how often will I need to refill the reactor with media and exchange the CO2 tank with a new one. Regardless, I am certain it will have a net cost well below the B-Ionic cost. I haven't yet tested the pH so I wonder if it is lower now that I'm adding more effluent. Standby for more info on that!


Thanks everyone for checking in!


Joe

 

[jdieck]

Jdieck,
I use a MTC pro-cal reactor with PH control in the reaction chamber. Are you sure about the equal release of calcium and alk?

I know I can bias one or the other through the reactor to adjust levels +- in my tank.

Yes I am sure, when using only calcium carbonate media, the ration of calcium to carbonate alkalinity is the same as the ratio used by the corals in building their skeleton. Keep in mind that that ratio is about 20 ppm of calcium for every 1 meq of alkalinity so it might give the impression that you get more alkalinity than calcium. Having said that, some tanks seem to consume a bit more alkalinity than calcium as some processes may produce some organic acids that may consume some alkalinity. Other areas of deviation might be the ratio on the new water changes as well as adding some magnesium carbonate to the reactor media. In the later case there might be a slight higher addition of alkalinity than calcium as some of it is being replaced by magnesium ions.

 

[jdieck]

Joe:

Thank you for your kind words. I am glad the page helped you, many find it rather complex.

 

[polywise]

In my experience,
I have been running my reactor since 2003-ish, and I have found that at a certain maintained PH value in the reaction chamber, if I slow the flow through the calcium reactor, my calcium comes to a max for that specific PH setting, and the KH falls to a certain level. If the calcium is where I want it, but KH a bit low I gradually increase the flow through the reactor(getting to just about a full stream), until over a week or two my KH comes to a range that I want to achieve. If I am at the max flow
(just about a full stream) and the KH does not raise to the level, then I try to leave it there and up tick the PH by .1 / week until the KH comes more into line.
Make any sense?