Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

Have a basic question:
I'll be using masterflex with 2 heads for continuous water change.
I plan to use the 'out' line from the sump to a frag tank and from there the water can drain via overflow passively to a drain.
I will be exchanging 3 gallons daily...so that much water will go in the 20g frag tank....
question: I know water will evaporate from the frag tank too but will the 3G exchange keep the sailinty stable in the frag tank????


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awais98 said:
Have a basic question:
I'll be using masterflex with 2 heads for continuous water change.
I plan to use the 'out' line from the sump to a frag tank and from there the water can drain via overflow passively to a drain.
I will be exchanging 3 gallons daily...so that much water will go in the 20g frag tank....
question: I know water will evaporate from the frag tank too but will the 3G exchange keep the sailinty stable in the frag tank????


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Click to expand...
No, you will need to "dose" fresh DI water at the rate of the evaporation. The inflow of the salt water from your water change system doesn't have any effect on the salinity increase due to evaporation. I'm doing that exact same thing with my system.
 
BillFW said:
No, you will need to "dose" fresh DI water at the rate of the evaporation. The inflow of the salt water from your water change system doesn't have any effect on the salinity increase due to evaporation. I'm doing that exact same thing with my system.
Click to expand...



In the frag tank If the water will 'always be full' due to incoming 3 gallons, how will I ever 'dose' auto topoff water via float switch.



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awais98 said:
In the frag tank If the water will 'always be full' due to incoming 3 gallons, how will I ever 'dose' auto topoff water via float switch.



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You won't always be full. Say your tank evaps 1/2 a gallon a day. You pull out 3 gallons for the AWC so your tank is now down 3.5 gallons. When pulling out the water you pump in 3 gallons so you are still down .5 gallons due to the evap.

Your pump doesnt pump in more fresh water to account for the evap. That is what top offs are for.
 
soulpatch said:
You won't always be full. Say your tank evaps 1/2 a gallon a day. You pull out 3 gallons for the AWC so your tank is now down 3.5 gallons. When pulling out the water you pump in 3 gallons so you are still down .5 gallons due to the evap.



Your pump doesnt pump in more fresh water to account for the evap. That is what top offs are for.
Click to expand...



How you describe it it will work perfectly for the main St/sump setup.
But I'm talking about the frag tank..... saltwater in going in, but not being actively pulled out.....it supposed to come out passively via drain.... do I make sense?


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How big is the frag tank? If we are talking only 3-4 gallons then you wouldn't have to worry about it. If you are talking more then regardless of the constant 3 gallons coming in you will still have a decreasing level in the tank. Depending on where your drain is passively draining from this could cause a slight issue and increase the salinity in the tank as evap happens.

IE you drain from the top and the water level drops slightly during the day but you are still draining. You are pumping in more water and the next day you are down a gallon in the frag tank. Salinity would drift ever so slightly.

It doesnt matter where the water is coming from as you will have evap. If this were closed system with the frag tank draining back into the sump it wouldnt be a concern as the sump ato would handle all evap but as is you will need to monitor it or add another ato for your frag tank.
 
awais98 said:
In the frag tank If the water will 'always be full' due to incoming 3 gallons, how will I ever 'dose' auto topoff water via float switch.



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That's why I said "dose" :). You'll have to measure the rate of evaporation and "dose" that much topoff water using a dosing pump. You would set it up just like a dosing pump for calcium or alkalinity where you'd measure the uptake and match it with dosing the replacement.
 
BillFW said:
That's why I said "dose" :). You'll have to measure the rate of evaporation and "dose" that much topoff water using a dosing pump. You would set it up just like a dosing pump for calcium or alkalinity where you'd measure the uptake and match it with dosing the replacement.
Click to expand...



Man!! That will be difficult.
How do you measure the rate of evaporation? Set the whole thing up and mark levels everyday. Or put a salinity probe?

Have another theoretical argument.
Say for example the salinity in the frag tank is 2.050 and now daily continuously 3 gallons of 1.026 water is coming in. Logic tells me that the salinity will try to come down to 1.026 and one day it will reach there and stay there..... unless the evaporation rate is more than 3 gallons in 24 hours.

Tell me where am I wrong.




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Any evap will cause your salinity to drift. Your input of water is not variable.

Say your drain is set up to drain when the tank is full. It drains 3 gallons of water at same rate you pump in. The frag tank starts to evap and your water level ever so slightly drops causing the drain to be less then that of the water pumping in. Sure that water is 1.026 but the water in the frag tank is constantly rising as water evaps but salt remains.

It is the exact same concept as a dt with sump or any other setup. You evap water but the salt stays and as such your salinity drifts.
 
soulpatch said:
How big is the frag tank? If we are talking only 3-4 gallons then you wouldn't have to worry about it. If you are talking more then regardless of the constant 3 gallons coming in you will still have a decreasing level in the tank. Depending on where your drain is passively draining from this could cause a slight issue and increase the salinity in the tank as evap happens.

IE you drain from the top and the water level drops slightly during the day but you are still draining. You are pumping in more water and the next day you are down a gallon in the frag tank. Salinity would drift ever so slightly.

It doesnt matter where the water is coming from as you will have evap. If this were closed system with the frag tank draining back into the sump it wouldnt be a concern as the sump ato would handle all evap but as is you will need to monitor it or add another ato for your frag tank.
Click to expand...


Thank you for your input.
Reply to your first 3 sentences:
Well if it doesn't matter for 3-4 gallon tank ..... well then it shouldn't matter for a larger 20g tank too with TIME....the 3 gallons of 1.026 will always try to pull the salinity back towards it......


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I say it doesnt matter with a 3 gallon tank since the flow in would perfectly match the capacity of the holding tank. You would still get some drift but it would be so miniscule that it would take quite a while to notice.

The smaller % of tank volume that 3 gallons coming in is the more of a concern evap and salinity swing becomes.

And you are incorrect with the salinity of water coming in pulling it back. The rate at which it would "lower it" would be nearly impossible to measure it woudl be so slow. That is why top off is straight RODI. You need to give it fresh water for the salt that does not evap out to mix in with and balance the levels. Sure you would export some of the higher salinity water via the drain which would slow the drift but you are going to have it. The rate of the swing is unknown as we dont know your tank size or evap rate. Once you know those 2 variables then you will have a better position to know the level of impact you are going to deal with.

But if this is a frag tank for SPS then I would want to incorporate some form of ATO to ensure salinity does not drift especially for new frags which are healing from a cut...
 
Hey everyone, I am running 2 masterflex pumps for a calcium and sulphur reactor, and just noticed last night a green fluid leaking from the bottom housing on one of the pumps..it's antifreeze green color. Obviously this not good news, has anyone else experienced this?

I haven't had a chance to open up the unit yet so haven't seen exactly where the motor leak is coming from yet.

Thanks
 
soulpatch said:
I say it doesnt matter with a 3 gallon tank since the flow in would perfectly match the capacity of the holding tank. You would still get some drift but it would be so miniscule that it would take quite a while to notice.

The smaller % of tank volume that 3 gallons coming in is the more of a concern evap and salinity swing becomes.

And you are incorrect with the salinity of water coming in pulling it back. The rate at which it would "lower it" would be nearly impossible to measure it woudl be so slow. That is why top off is straight RODI. You need to give it fresh water for the salt that does not evap out to mix in with and balance the levels. Sure you would export some of the higher salinity water via the drain which would slow the drift but you are going to have it. The rate of the swing is unknown as we dont know your tank size or evap rate. Once you know those 2 variables then you will have a better position to know the level of impact you are going to deal with.

But if this is a frag tank for SPS then I would want to incorporate some form of ATO to ensure salinity does not drift especially for new frags which are healing from a cut...
Click to expand...



Thank you for your advice, will definitely measure the evaporation rate and go from there.
Happy reefing!!


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Jstaff123 said:
Hey everyone, I am running 2 masterflex pumps for a calcium and sulphur reactor, and just noticed last night a green fluid leaking from the bottom housing on one of the pumps..it's antifreeze green color. Obviously this not good news, has anyone else experienced this?

I haven't had a chance to open up the unit yet so haven't seen exactly where the motor leak is coming from yet.

Thanks
Click to expand...

It could possibly be grease coming from the gear box. Otherwise I don't think there is anything else that could possibly leak.
 
awais98 said:
Man!! That will be difficult.
How do you measure the rate of evaporation? Set the whole thing up and mark levels everyday. Or put a salinity probe?

Have another theoretical argument.
Say for example the salinity in the frag tank is 2.050 and now daily continuously 3 gallons of 1.026 water is coming in. Logic tells me that the salinity will try to come down to 1.026 and one day it will reach there and stay there..... unless the evaporation rate is more than 3 gallons in 24 hours.

Tell me where am I wrong.




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Click to expand...
@soulpatch has it nailed. It's not that difficult, just estimate a starting point and monitor salinity daily and tweak it until it stabilizes. Then monitor maybe once a week to watch for seasonal evaporation changes. The only other option is manually topping it off which would be difficult to keep up with.
 
So I have been running my unit for a couple months now and I just can't seem to get my dkh to stay at 7 or higher. its been pretty much sitting at 6.5-6.8 every time I check. I'm currently running the cole unit at 35 mils per min and the reactor has a ph reading of 6.5.

I would like to be at 7-8 dkh. Would you guys rec on bumping the mils on the cole unit and also bump the C02 to make up for the difference?

TIA
 
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