If the Ph in the reactor is suppose to be at 6.5. The the affluent coming from the reactor is 6.5. How will this affect the rest of my tank in regards to the PH when we are trying to keep 8.3 PH. Will it drop the PH in my tank to 6.5. This doesn't seem right to me. I have read Melev article on this and many others. I have mine set up just as Melev suggested. Can someone please explain this alittle to me.
PH / Calcium reactor?
- Thread starter Zeus2
- Start date
crvz
Team RC
it's credible to drop the overall pH in the tank, and that's were good aeration comes in.
first, don't hold blindly to a reactor pH of 6.5, or a tank pH of 8.3. You can adjust the reactor based on the supplementation need of your tank, and the tank pH is fine as long as it's in a range of around 7.8-8.4. But the reason reactor pH is that low is due to the CO2 deliberately injected into the water column. As the effluent slowly drips into the tank, good aeration can help blow-off that excess CO2. Also, the flow rate through the reactor is relatively slow, and this helps give the tank time to bolster the pH.
first, don't hold blindly to a reactor pH of 6.5, or a tank pH of 8.3. You can adjust the reactor based on the supplementation need of your tank, and the tank pH is fine as long as it's in a range of around 7.8-8.4. But the reason reactor pH is that low is due to the CO2 deliberately injected into the water column. As the effluent slowly drips into the tank, good aeration can help blow-off that excess CO2. Also, the flow rate through the reactor is relatively slow, and this helps give the tank time to bolster the pH.
Nanz
Premium Member
Basically you have a canister filled with calcium-based substrate. When your CO2 tank injects CO2 into the reactor the pH of the reactor falls allowing the reactor media to dissolves, thereby freeing calcium and alkalinity ions so that they can be dripped back to the aquarium. These Ions then dose your tank Ca and Alk but also some CO2 gas as well. The CO2 gas will lower your tank's pH if it’s not removed by aeration or running it through another a second stage, which helps to absorb extra carbon dioxide gas before it can escape back to the aquarium. These are methods that people use to remove the excess CO2. Some people don't care about the pH drop because they also dose Kalkwasser which has a HIGH pH to help counter the low pH caused by the reactor.
The higher your alkalinity the higher your pH should be but that’s not including all the CO2 gas that’s getting dosed along with it as well as the amount of CO2 currently in the tank. Gas exchange is very important in a reef tank and if there is too much CO2 in the surrounding air then the excess CO2 stays in the water resulting in a lower pH. Some people draw the air into their skimmer from outside to help with this gas exchange.
I think it’s more important to focus on your Alk, Ca and Mg than to worry about pH. As long as your pH is between 7.9 - 8.4 I would not worry. My pH has never been higher than 8.2 in my tank and that was when I was dosing kalkwasser which I have discontinued now. My pH is between 8.0 and 8.1 and stays low because I have excess CO2 in my home. Keeping the tank pH constant is more important that trying to target a specific pH.
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