Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

Haksar said:
Just checked reactor KH is at 7.50 slowly increasing at settings of 80ml/min, 4 seconds per bubble and 5 PSI. Reactor pH is now hovering at 6.40 and 6.50 which is a good sign .
With this setting I have managed to increase ph but let's KH will increase further or not.
Click to expand...
What is the KH of the reactor effluent?
 
hkgar said:
My logic says that the longer the water stays in the reactor (slower flow rate) the more Alk it can absorb (might not be the right scientific word, but I think you know what I mean) so the more effective is the reactor. If your rate is 60ml/min than the water has only 1/2 the time in the reactor than at 30 ml/min
Click to expand...

That might be true if the water that you were putting into the reactor was the water that came straight back out. Obviously the water going in mixes with the saturated water already in the reactor to bring all water in the reactor to the same Alk and Cal saturation level. The pump on the reactor mixes the water inside the reactor at hundreds of GPH so clearly the small amount of water we are running through the reactor gets mixed very quickly into the rest of the water. Just like when we do water changes, the small amount of water going in has very little effect on the total water parameters inside the reactor until the flow rate gets quite high.

The amount of Alk and Cal in the water is controlled by the pH (how acidic the water in the reactor is to dissolve the media). If the pH is maintained in the reactor then the same amount of Alk and Cal is available in the water at just about any flow rate (within reason). Thus maintaining pH and increasing flow will increase tank parameters more effectively.

At least that's the way I think of it. We are also talking about this in the masterflex thread so we have quite accurate control over flow rates and consistency of that flow. Having a stable pH but a flow rate that was constantly changing (like when using needle valves) is the whole reason this topic exists. Constant pH and constant flow give a constant result to the tank. Krazie :jester:
 
Correct. When people say things like a faster effluent rate will supplement more....they need to specify ONLY under identical ph conditions. If you don't adjust the gas and ONLY adjust the effluent, it is less concentrated, less dwell time, less dissolution, less supplementation, higher ph. Those are the results. As mentioned, which I know you understand...if one wants to BOTH increase the reactor ph, AND concentration of effluent, or the amount you're supplementing, you have to increase both effluent and bubble count. The increased effluent should be weighted slightly more than the increased bubble count. That way you can have both a net increase in supplementation, with a higher ph at the same time. Only adjusting the bubble count but not the effluent in your case will just turn the media to dust and drive the ph even lower, while supplementing more until your reactor stalled out entirely. Only increasing the effluent without touching the regulator, will result in higher reactor ph, but weaker effluent. Reducing only effluent without touching gas will reduce reactor ph, and strengthen the effluent.


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Let's just say that my tank dKh is 8.0, my flow is 30ml/min, reactor ph 6.4 and and my tank dKh starts to drop dainly, because of growth. I thin at that point you would have to increase flow ( I would up it to 40 and reset ph to where I could get consistent tank dKh).

Am I right to assume that if I increase flow rate to 40 and maintained the same ph, the tank alk would start increasing, so to maintain tank stability I would have to increase ph when increasing flow?

I guess the question is when you are running the reactor at the lowest safe point before turning media into mush, what would you do to get more ALK into the tank?
 
Just as you said. Increase both effluent and gas to maintain ph. If you only increase effluent, the ph will rise as well


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If the ph of the reactor is the same the effluent should stay the same. Just more of it


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My effluent DKH hasn't increased at all still hovering at 7.50 and ph at 6.40 and 6.50.
Shall I increase the pressure to BPM to 2 seconds per bubble and psi to 6 to increase the kh.
Of course by doing that I know ph will reduce so I will have to increase the flow to 90ml/min.
 
Actually I would decrease the flow and maintain the PH at about 6.5. That will increase the dKh of the effluent. At about 6.3 you start to turn the media to mush and the reactor will not properly function.
 
So what flow should I maintain , BPM and PSI.
KH has gone up to 14 when I revised the setting to 6 psi / 30ml/min and 10 seconds per bubble but ph has nosedived to less than 6 in the reactor and sitting at 5.7. Now I will increase the flow or reduce the psi but if I reduce the Psi to 3 I don't see any co2 coming out of the reactor. Confused .
 
I would set the flow to 50ml/min and adjust the bubbles and or psi to get a ph of about 6.6. Check your tank ALK and that of the effluent, leave alone for 48 hours and then recheck the numbers and fill in this chart.

http://reef.diesyst.com/reactor/reactor.html (right side of the page).

You really need to get a handle on how much dKh your tank is using and adjust to get stability.
 
I agree if the effluent flow is changed somewhat dramatically that yes, alk will be lower overall, but with the accuracy and small increments that they can be adjusted, bumping the reactor flow a ml or 2 per minute will increase available alk in the tank in my experience.
 
I don't concern myself with reactor kh. I know some people do but that seems kind of arbitrary. I base my adjustments solely on tank consumption


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The only reason to know the reactor KH is do determine the KH usage of the tank. Do determine usage you need to know how much you are adding.
 
Haksar said:
Tank kh is 6.7 and reactor kh is 14. Reactor ph is 5.8.
Click to expand...

Reactor PH of 5.8 will turn your reactor media to mush, if it hasn't already. Once that happens it will start clogging and all media will need to be removed and replaced.
 
I guess I just don't get that mathematical with it. Really only monitor the ph to ensure it doesn't get too low, otherwise I just measure the display tank alkalinity every couple few days and adjust my effluent as needed it pretty much stays between 7.8-8.0 all the time. And if it starts deviating out of the test margin of error of 0.2 I'll increase or decrease effluent as needed. Has worked in my case.


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