Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

[slief]

Cleaned my Calclum reactor and filled it for the first time in 9 months.Also recalibrated my pH probe which apparently didn't need to be calibrated. Gotta love how maintenance free and stable a good Masterflex pump and a good regulator makes a calcium reactor. After 9 months, my 20 pound Co2 tank is still nearly 80% full.

Here is a graph from my Apex. The consistent flow and the consistent Co2 rate is all that's needed to keep my reactor pH pretty much flatline. My Apex never has to shut the solenoid off and only acts as a fail safe.

Setup is a Geo 818 Calcium Reactor
Carbon Doser regulator
Cale Parmer Masterflex 7523-80 Brushless Pump
24ml/min and 1 bubble every 4.5 seconds
Reborn Media in the main reactor and ARM in the second reactor
Reactor pH of about 6.7 pH.

Absolutely flatline without any Apex intervention. You can see when I serviced it and calibrated the probe by the one and only blip in the pH.

 

[royvoss]

not sure if this is the right place to post,
been running my masterflex (7523-80) for about a month, today i noticed that it was not pumping, checked the pump, had a error code 18, looked in the book, claims it is a watchdog error, program locked up. does any body know what this means , power cycled it, went right back to running like nothing ever happened. not sure if it was outside issue like a power blip or and pump issue.
any insight would be helpfull
thanks

 

[BillFW]

not sure if this is the right place to post,
been running my masterflex (7523-80) for about a month, today i noticed that it was not pumping, checked the pump, had a error code 18, looked in the book, claims it is a watchdog error, program locked up. does any body know what this means , power cycled it, went right back to running like nothing ever happened. not sure if it was outside issue like a power blip or and pump issue.
any insight would be helpfull
thanks

A watchdog error is a software issue. Basically something caused the internal computer program to crash. It may be just random or it could be chronic.

 

[royvoss]

thanks, its still running fine as this am,we had t-storms come thru around the time it coded, wonder if there was a power blip,will need to keep an eye on it.

 

[scuzy]

Cleaned my Calclum reactor and filled it for the first time in 9 months.Also recalibrated my pH probe which apparently didn't need to be calibrated. Gotta love how maintenance free and stable a good Masterflex pump and a good regulator makes a calcium reactor. After 9 months, my 20 pound Co2 tank is still nearly 80% full.

Here is a graph from my Apex. The consistent flow and the consistent Co2 rate is all that's needed to keep my reactor pH pretty much flatline. My Apex never has to shut the solenoid off and only acts as a fail safe.

Setup is a Geo 818 Calcium Reactor
Carbon Doser regulator
Cale Parmer Masterflex 7523-80 Brushless Pump
24ml/min and 1 bubble every 4.5 seconds
Reborn Media in the main reactor and ARM in the second reactor
Reactor pH of about 6.7 pH.

Absolutely flatline without any Apex intervention. You can see when I serviced it and calibrated the probe by the one and only blip in the pH.

Can you share your apex programming with the co2 and anything for masterflex?

 

[slief]

Can you share your apex programming with the co2 and anything for masterflex?

Sure.. Here is my Apex programming for the Co2 solenoid. As I said before, my Apex never has to intervene those. The pH in my calcium reactor stays pretty much flatline. At 24ml/min flow and 1 bubble every 4.5 seconds, my reactor pH stays at around 6.65.
Co2 Regulator
If CaRxpH > 6.65 Then ON
If CaRxpH < 6.60 Then OFF
If pH < 7.80 Then OFF
If Outlet SumpLow = ON Then OFF
If Outlet Leak_Shed = ON The OFF

Masterflex
Fallback ON
Set ON
If pH < 7.80 Then OFF
If Outlet SumpLow = ON Then OFF
If Outlet Leak_Shed = ON The OFF

Calcium Reactor circulation pump
Fallback ON
Set ON
If pH < 7.80 Then OFF
If Outlet SumpLow = ON Then OFF
If Outlet Leak_Shed = ON The OFF

 

[scuzy]

Mine looks like this for the regulator

Fallback OFF
If CAPH > 6.68 Then ON
If CAPH < 6.48 Then OFF
If pH < 7.70 Then OFF


Is this ok?

 

[slief]

Mine looks like this for the regulator

Fallback OFF
If CAPH > 6.68 Then ON
If CAPH < 6.48 Then OFF
If pH < 7.70 Then OFF


Is this ok?

Looks fine to me. 6.48 may be kind of low as it will turn a lot of media to mush if your reactor gets that low. That does however depend on the media. Different media has different recommended ranges. That said, you will be using your Masterflex and regulator to maintain the pH level so hopefully your Apex doesn't need to intervene anyway.

 

[hkgar]

Looks fine to me. 6.48 may be kind of low as it will turn a lot of media to mush if your reactor gets that low. That does however depend on the media. Different media has different recommended ranges. That said, you will be using your Masterflex and regulator to maintain the pH level so hopefully your Apex doesn't need to intervene anyway.

+1 No need to program regulator on/off was you dial it in. Here is my program for the regulator:

Fallback ON
Set ON
If Outlet CAREACON = ON Then OFF
If CARX_P < 6.50 Then OFF
The Outlet CAREACON is used to shut down all ca reactor programs - regulator, mixing pump and Masterflex pump.

See graph of ph in the reactor here:

https://www.reeftronics.net/graphns.php?probe=03&period=day&member=garyk

 

[vhuang168]

What does the outlet CAREACON look like? How do you control PH in the reactor?

 

[hkgar]

CAREACON is

Fallback OFF
Set ON

I keep it in the off position and if I need to shut down the reactor I just set it to ON. I do not use the AUTO.

Set your reactor flow to a desired amount and then adjust the ph by either adjusting the bubble rate or the bubble pressure (size). If your ph is too high reduce the bubble rate or lower the bubble pressure and if too low just do the opposite. Monitor the tank ALK and if it is dropping decrease the reactor ph. If it is increasing raise the reactor ph. Do not change the effluent flow rate.

Masterflex program:
Fallback ON
Set ON
If Outlet CAREACON = ON Then OFF

Mixing pump program:
Fallback ON
Set ON
If Outlet CAREACON = ON Then OFF

 

[vhuang168]

Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

So what happens if your effluent output gets clogged?

Or if the needle valve on the reg leaks and the bubble rate increases causing the PH to drop in the reactor?

The way you have it setup right now, you are just using the Apex as a manual remote on/off switch.

 

[slief]

So what happens if your effluent output gets clogged?

Or if the needle valve on the reg leaks and the bubble rate increases causing the PH to drop in the reactor?

The way you have it setup right now, you are just using the Apex as a manual remote on/off switch.

In his Co2 regulator outlet He has: If CARX_P < 6.50 Then OFF which will shut the Co2 OFF automatically if the pH drops in the reactor. With the Masterflex pump, effluent clogs don't happen but if that did occur, the pH would drop and the Apex would shut the Co2 off anyway. If the Co2 regulator breaks, that would drop the pH and his controller will shut that outlet off.

The CAREACON outlet is a virtual outlet that he uses to manually shut the Co2, Masterflex and recirculation pump off for maintenance purposes. He normally runs that in "ON" mode. If he needs to do maintenance or wants to shut the reactor down for any reason, he just toggles CAREACON to OFF via Fusion or the web interface. It's easier to shut one virtual outlet off than shutting off 3 other outlets one by one.

 

[vhuang168]

In his Co2 regulator outlet He has: If CARX_P < 6.50 Then OFF which will shut the Co2 OFF automatically if the pH drops in the reactor. With the Masterflex pump, effluent clogs don't happen but if that did occur, the pH would drop and the Apex would shut the Co2 off anyway. If the Co2 regulator breaks, that would drop the pH and his controller will shut that outlet off.



The CAREACON outlet is a virtual outlet that he uses to manually shut the Co2, Masterflex and recirculation pump off for maintenance purposes. He normally runs that in "ON" mode. If he needs to do maintenance or wants to shut the reactor down for any reason, he just toggles CAREACON to OFF via Fusion or the web interface. It's easier to shut one virtual outlet off than shutting off 3 other outlets one by one.

Huh, I just noticed that Tapatalk is not showing the whole posts.

Eg, I didn't see the CARX_P < 6.50 statement in his original post or the part above where you post about the virtual outlet.

It's when I hit quote is when I saw the rest.

 

[scuzy]

Yeah for some reason my cut and paste didnt work


Fallback OFF
If CAPH > 6.68 Then ON
If CAPH < 6.48 Then OFF
If pH < 7.70 Then OFF


That's what i set my co2 at, internal calcium recir pump is always on and masterflex is alwasy on.

 

[hkgar]

Vincent,

If you are using a Masterflex pump, there is no needle valve to clog. The effluent drips into the tank from 1/4 inch RO tubing. I have never had a clog since switching over to this method.

Yup one virtual outlet to shut down for maintenance and repairs, no other reason. I have shut it all down a time or two if ALK drifted higher than I wanted and just let it settle back down through coral up take.

 

[scuzy]

Why the heck is my copy paste cut off

 

[Ah64av8tor]

Ok, here is my pump it runs fine I got it a few years ago but never got it hooked up to my Korallin C3002 Calcium Reactor and due to a crash I got out of SPS. So now I'm getting back into stony corals and will need to get it running. I don't know where to start so any help would be appreciated.

Is there ant maintenance I should do?
What tube to use and where to get it?

 

[ClownsRCoo]

What kind of check valves are everyone using? The ones listed earlier in this thread don't have very good reviews online. I don't want to risk my nice regulator to damage from a crappy check valve.

 

[gus6464]

What kind of check valves are everyone using? The ones listed earlier in this thread don't have very good reviews online. I don't want to risk my nice regulator to damage from a crappy check valve.

I have McMaster Carr ones on my regulator. They are not cheap but less likely to fail.