need some help here pls with a reactor and tank PH prob

chevegan

chevegan

New member
Ok so I set up my reactor last night and it has stayed a steady 6.55ph inside with an efluent drip rate of 30 per min. the effluent is at 49dkh. What I don't get is that it's at only 10 bubbles per minute. Whats with the saturation.

My tanks PH is now 8.58 from a 8.35 norm during peak light. And my DKH has gone up from 11.2 to 12.6.

I would rather have it down to like 9-10 region. Please any help would be much appreciated or I'm selling this thing and going back to dosing. :mad2:
 
hmmm... Did you try increasing the effluent drip rate to increase the ph in the reactor and reduce the amount of media that is dissolved? I am counting 15bubbles per min on mine with and effluent drip rate around 45 or so... and my tank is only 45g but sps dominated and pretty high demand. Just sounds like too much calc and alk are being delivered to the tank for the current demand...
 
I shut the thing down for now. Gonna let the tank stabilize and start again. Maybe at 6 bubbles per minute and 50 drops effluent per min
 
the owners manual says "desired effluent kh x effluent drip rate = bubble count (move decimal place two to the left or divide by 100)"

So if you plug in your variables you get 49kh x 30dpm = 14bpm (although you say you are counting 10 which is not much off and this is a rough calculation).

If you keep the bubble count and increase the drip rate to say 50dpm you get this X x 50dpm = 14bpm (or keep at 10 since that is what you have now). If you do the math you should get a kh of 28kh. Like this: 28kh x 50dpm = 14bpm. This should be more closely matched to your system but play with it a little bit....
 
it should... theoretically CO2 is building up in the reactor lowering the ph and dissolving lots of media... If you increase the effluent, it will decrease how much CO2 is allowed to build up in the chamber. This in turn will increase the PH in the reactor and in turn less media will dissolve. This means less potent effluent with a lower alkalinity and less dissolved calcium. This should help keep your in tank PH a little lower as well your in tank Alkalinity. It might take a little tinkering to perfectly match the demand of you tank. You may also need to adjust it as time goes by to keep up with your tanks demand as you add coral and your coral grows..
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14469276#post14469276 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 90sShooter
it should... theoretically CO2 is building up in the reactor lowering the ph and dissolving lots of media... If you increase the effluent, it will decrease how much CO2 is allowed to build up in the chamber. This in turn will increase the PH in the reactor and in turn less media will dissolve. This means less potent effluent with a lower alkalinity and less dissolved calcium. This should help keep your in tank PH a little lower as well your in tank Alkalinity. It might take a little tinkering to perfectly match the demand of you tank. You may also need to adjust it as time goes by to keep up with your tanks demand as you add coral and your coral grows..
Click to expand...

This is sound advice, Chevegan... The problem with Korallines is that they are notorious for C02 buildup inside the reactor. It's one of the reasons why Geo and other reactors with a more efficient C02 path (even recirculating like Schuran or ATB) have gotten popular...

With your light coral load, even only 10 bpm could be too much in the Koralline (as it build up). Like I PM'd you, a really easy fix I found was to put the C02 on a timer.
 
+1 I have mine on a controller that turns the CO2 solonoid on and off to keep the PH in the reactor at a set point. If you don't have a controller yet, this would be a good time to invest. It may also prevent a tank dissaster if something happens to go wrong...
 
90sShooter, nice info here, thanks for the posts. I definately learned something about my CA reactor reading this thread.

Chevegan, I hope you don't mind an extra question here? Why do you want the Alk so high from the effluent? what is the corralation between Ph and Alk? How do they move in relation to each other? As alk goes up, what will happen to PH?

My tank Alk is currently at 8, my Effluent Ph 6.7 and I am worried about driving my tank Alk too high if I set the Effluent Dkh where you indicate, which has happened to me before. I do understand that I my Dkh is currently a little low at 8 for a mixed tank right?
 
no actually I believe from what I've read, natural sea water is at 7ish. But we have to keep tanks at around 8-9 at minimum to buffer the PH swings in the tank which occur do to the CO2 being released from livestock within a tank. I don't quite understand why my PH went so high as reactors are known to lower PH.

So therein lies my confusion
 
ok let me give this a shot... lol

Now I am no expert on water chemistry so hopefully someone who is will chime in.

I am not sure that alkalinity and ph are directly related. Although I am sure they will influence each other, you can have an alk of 12 and a ph of 8.3 or your alk can be 7 at the same ph... But like I said, I am pretty sure that alkalinity can affect ph but not sure how so...

Now to answer your question... The reason you want such a high Alkalinity in your effluent is that is how much calc/alk your ADDING to your system... Ok I don't know really how to word this so let's start from the beginning. Water comes into the reactor at your current parameters (i.e. 8dkh and lets say PH of 8.35). Then CO2 is injected into the reactor which then LOWERS the PH to essentially what it is coming out at (i.e. 6.7). This makes the water more acidic allowing it to dissolve the media which drives up your calcium/alk of the water in the reactor (the effluent). Then it is dripped out at super high calc/alk levels (i.e. 25-35dkh) and the calc and alk are slowly added to your system (hopefully at the same rate they are being used up by your corals, fish, coraline algae, etc..).

Your right, you should be worried about driving up your alk too much or too quick so if your system is stable then leave it be! The only reason to up your effluent alk is to increase the amount of calc/alk being delivered to your system. In order to do this, you can lower the ph in the reactor which will dissolve MORE media and raise the amount of dissolved calc/alk, if you want to lower your alk then raise the ph in the reactor, this will decrease the amount of media being dissolved and in turn lower the amount of dissolved calc/alk in your effluent. Either way you should shoot for a STABLE TANK alk. If your reactor is keeping everything stable and you wish to increase alk or calcium levels, do so with alternative buffers (i.e. 2 part dosing)

I hope that makes sense... I was just kinda rambling..

Chevegan - From what I read, although the effluent is coming out at a lower ph, when the calc/alk are dissolved into the system and it stableizes, it will actually work as a buffer to INCREASE PH... ??? Don't know how or why, but that's what they say... go figure...
 
Ok I finally found the sweet spot. Which shows my requirements are VERY low lol. I'll have this same CO2 tank for a long time.

48 Drips/m 5 bubs/m - reactor PH 6.95 - reactor DKH 29.4 - Tank PH down to 8.21 in the morning and I'll find out what it is at peak hrs later
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14479222#post14479222 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chevegan
Ok I finally found the sweet spot. Which shows my requirements are VERY low lol. I'll have this same CO2 tank for a long time.

48 Drips/m 5 bubs/m - reactor PH 6.95 - reactor DKH 29.4 - Tank PH down to 8.21 in the morning and I'll find out what it is at peak hrs later
Click to expand...


Cool... Good for your for fiddling, that was fast...! What is your tank dKH at...?
 
SWEET! Good job! Sounds like everything is where you want it... BTW Korallin states that a 5lb co2 bottle should last 1 YEAR! with this reactor at 10bpm 24/7. At that rate, yours should last for 2! :lol:
 
came home to find my ph is at 8.5 and tank dkh at 11.9. So now my CO2 bubble rate is down to once every 16 seconds rofl. Damn it I'm GOING to get this and it will work lol
 
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