What am I doing wrong?

[connpatd]

What am I doing wrong?

I bought a new Calcium Reactor but I cannot get it to increase my Alk or Calcium. In fact, since I started using it my Alk and Calcium have dropped since I stopped dosing Kalk after I dropped $600+ to do that job.

I bought a Korallin C1502 Calcium Reactor with Eheim Pump and I'm using a PH Controller to turn the C02 on and off.

My tank water has an Alk of about 7 KH. The Effluent coming out of my Calcium Reactor has an Alk of around 13 or 14 KH.

It is my understanding that the effluent should be at least 25 KH.

It is also my understanding that I should not allow the reactor PH drop below 6.5.

If I reduce the drip rate of the effluent or if I increase the bubble rate of the CO2, the only result is that my PH drops to 6.5 faster and my PH controller turns off the CO2 supply.

It doesn't increase the effluent Alk at all.

Does anyone have any ideas what I am doing wrong?

I've been struggling with this for about a month now.

 

[cnote2991]

What kind of media are you running? Some medias require a lower Ph to disolve it. What is the KH of the effeluent with the reactor running at 6.5?

I have found that it is much easier to dial in by just monitoring the Ph of my reactor and make adjustments accordingly, instead of using a controller to turn the CO2 on and off.

I use a controller to turn off the CO2 only if my tank Ph drops too low. Hope this helps.

 

[connpatd]

I'm using Caribsea A.R.M. Aragonite Reactor Media.

So does your PH remain constant?

For me to get mine to remain at a constant PH, I'd have to reduce the CO2 even more which would, I expect, further reduce the effluent PH, wouldn't it?

 

[connpatd]

PS, I have my PH Controller set to turn the CO2 off when the PH drops below 6.55 and to turn it back on when it rises above 6.6.

 

[cnote2991]

I also use the A.R.M media. The small old school size.

My Ph stays fairly constant. Sometimes my effluent slows and causes the Ph to drop (from 6.7 to 6.6), but it does not seem to effect th KH any.

Decreasing CO2 would raise the effluent PH thus lowering the KH, and vice versa.

What is your effeluent drip rate? Best way to measure is in ml/min.
How many bubbles of CO2 per min?

For example my reactor runs about 25-30ml/min, and around 50 bubbles of CO2 per min. Last time I checked the KH of the effeluent it was around 16-20 DKH. (I think) It is a DIY reactor with a second chamber. I also use a kalk reactor with my ATO, so you may need more.

 

[connpatd]

I'm at work so I cannot make any changes right now, but I know I have it set to:

CO2: 21 Bubbles per minute
Effluent: 60 drops per minute

Based on those settings, I would expect an Effluent KH of 35, but I'm not even close (~14 KH).

 

[cnote2991]

You may have already seen these, but they were helpful to me.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/sh/feature/index.php

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/reactor.html

 

[connpatd]

Well, I spent all evening tweaking my Calc Reactor.

I have it set as follows:

Internal PH: 6.56 constant
CO2 bubles: 28 per minute
Drip Rate: 74 ml per minute

I allowed everything to settle for a couple of hours to make sure the numbers are steady and constant.

I then tested the dKH of the effluent output.

It is now a disappointing 12 dKH.

Per the owners manual of my Calc Reactor, a minimum of 25 dKH is needed and it can go as high as 60 dKH. In other words, I'm not even close to the minimum.

Doubling the CO2 bubbles requires doubling the effluent out in order to keep the PH constant. The net effect, however, of doubling both the CO2 in and the effluent out seems to be a net gain of zero dKH of Alk (or possibly a loss).

Am I missing something?

Here is my owner's manual...

http://akamai.f3images.com/IMD/UserManuals/KTKLCP2.pdf

 

[connpatd]

PH, CO2, and drip rate were still stable this morning...

Internal PH: 6.56 constant
CO2 bubles: 28 per minute
Drip Rate: 74 ml per minute

Effluent dKH still very low compared to what I expect.

Any ideas?

 

[connpatd]

Ok, I spoke to MArine Depot and the guy there recommended setting my Reactor's PH lower, to about 6.0 and also to reduce my effluent drip rate to 2-3 drops per second.

I've read that Caribsea ARM media disolves at a higher PH and that you shouldn't go below 6.5, but he indicated it should be ok.

Does anyone recommend against setting my PH down to 6.0 or have experience that Caribsea ARM will melt too fast at that PH?

 

[GW81]

this might be a dumb question, but is your ph probe brand new? are you confident it's calibrated correctly?

 

[connpatd]

good question.

Yes, the probe is new, and no, I'm not sure it's calibrated perfectly.

I have the new RKE system and it has been a buggy road so far. Immediately after calibrating, the probe is off by .1 to .4 while it is still sitting in the calibration solution.

That being said, the PH readings remain steady, so while it is off a tad, it isn't jumping around.

I took Marine Depot's advise and broght the PH down to about 6.20 (at least that's what the probe says, hehe) and it is giving my an effluent with alk = 31 now which is right about where I wanted it for starters, so I think I'm good. I just hope it doesn't melt my media too fast, but I'll keep an eye on it.