A Few Questions About Calcium Reactor Setup

schrun

schrun

Member
Hello all,
I just recently bought a used knop calcium reactor w/azoo gauge (w/solenoid). I set it up and everything seems like it was working properly until this morning. For some odd reason my chamber went dry and all the co2 went directly into my tank via the inlet tube and the pressure shown on the gauge went from around 15-20 psi to about 40 psi .So here are my questions, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
1.) What should the operating pressure be?
2.) I have the outlet dripping about 2-3 drops per second into my sump, is this correct or should the outlet be free flowing. Some guy at my LFS store told me it should be free flowing, but the manual says it should be dripping.
3.)Is the co2 that was released into my tank going to harm my tank inhibatants? Right now I only have a clown fish, 2 sand sifting stars and a few hermits and snails.
4.)Do you think the gauge I got is broken?
 
zman1

zman1

Active Member
How are you feeding the supply water, gravity or small pump?
1. 15 - 20 lb and CO2 tank pressure side 800 - 900 lbs
Open the CO2 Tank shut off valve 1 full turn. When the tank pressure gets to 500 or below you need to refill the tank Now adjust the output side to 15-20 lbs. This may need fine turning as drip rate and bubble rate effects this adjustment on mine.
2. PH of the drip should be 6.5 - 6.8 with a KH of 25 - 60
Formula KH * Drip rate = CO2 bubble rate/100.
60KH * 60 drips per min = 3600/100 has a bubble rate of 36 bubbles per minute
3. A skimmer should help gas exchange and get most of the excess out. The two things you will see from this is a potential algae growth and a lower tank PH.
4. I have had my solenoid stick closed before thankfully not open. I use a PH controller to regulate the CO2.
If the chamber is dry/full of CO2 you either over powered it with CO2 or your supply water stopped flowing. I use a little aqua lifter for supply feed of the water.
A CA reactor is one of the hardest items to adjust IMO...
Go to my home page and click the second External link "Alkalinity Vs Calcium Calculator w/Magnesium" and you should see this link on the top right of that page "Ca Reactor Setup Help" It may help.
 
schrun

schrun

Member
First of all thanks for you reply. I'm feeding the supply water by gravity but I think I'm going to go with a pump. How powerful of a pump should I get? What brand and model do you recommend? How do you adjust the output side of the co2? my output was at approximatley 15-20 lbs but this morning it shot up to 40 lbs and the co2 was entering the bubble counter at a very rapid rate, I had to work so I just turned off the pump and solenoid. Looks like I overpowered the reactor with co2, like I said I bought the regulator gauge used maybe its not working properly.
 
zman1

zman1

Active Member
The needle valve thumb screw on your regulator is how you adjust the bubble rate. The 15-20 lbs (the regulator knob) is pressure applied to the needle valve. Don't let it get too high or you can damage the needle valve. 40lbs for a little while shouldn't hurt it, just get it back down in the 15-20 range.
Pump..
Google the Item Code "OE1137"
Tom Aquatics Aqua Lifter—Dosing Pump
Item Code: OE1137
Price: $11.99
I have always used a feed pump so I can't say how good they are over gravity feed, but my fear was losing water flow by not having one. They are relatively low cost in the grand scheme of things.
Good luck CA reactors are hard to adjust for me anyway - LOL
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Your lucky.....If you dumped tons of CO2 into the tank could be hazardous......You should actually put it on a controller as suggested.......
 
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