calcium reactor
- Thread starter 90257
- Start date
jonthefishguy
Active Member
the CO2 bubbles in the counter should be 30 bubbles every minute. 1 bubble every 2 seconds. the output should be not a trickle but just before it makes a steady stream. where the water flow is nearly a solid stream but more broken.
jonthefishguy
Active Member
yes, the reactor is to be virtualy air and water tight in which you control the amount of air and water entering and exiting.
frankthetank
Active Member
What exactly is a calcium reactor? How does it work?
hunted
Member
I just added the c02 to my reactor tonight, had running for about 2 weeks without c02 while waiting for gauges to show. I'm running a Precision Marine 422 reactor with milwaukee regulator and bubble counter, as well as a milwaukee ph monitor. For starters don't read the instructions on the box's they suck!. A friend of mine has been running he's for some time now and through trial and error he said a good starting point is set your bubble counter (c02) at one bubble every ten seconds and your drip back to the tank at one every second. I know that one bubble every ten seconds with my setup gives me a Ph of 7.4 - 7.5 in my reactor, this is a good starting point, run like this for about two weeks and monitor Ph and cal. Your ph will take a drop at first but thats OK if it's not to drastic. Here are two good sights for liturature (wish this thing had spell check!!) .
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jonthefishguy
Active Member
Okay first off, adding 1 bubble every 10 seconds to a calcium reactor is NOT a good recommendation much less is releasing 1 drop per severy 10 seconds to your tank. You might as well have stuck with kalkwasser if that was the case and saved all the money. Second a ph probe is not needed. Simply watch your ph for the first couple of weeks and add your solinoid to the same timer that your main lights come on/off so that it is not dumping co2 in the night which will cause a subtle drop in your ph during that time. (Unless you have your tank setup with reverse photosythesis). Continue to watch your ph at the end of every week or two and the need for a ph monitor will not exist. Adding 1 bubble every 10 seconds will not lower the ph nor release enough into the tank with this 1 drop per second to its appropriate level to meet the calium requirements that you are trying to achieve. 1 for every 2 and then adjust to more bubbles when the demand is required from your maintank. You will know this when your calcium level drops due to the amount of corals in the tank that require it and adding more bubbles to the chamber will ultimately lower the ph (within the chamber), cause more aragonite to be dissolved thus releasing more calium to help meet your needs.
hunted
Member
Originally Posted by jonthefishguy
Okay first off, adding 1 bubble every 10 seconds to a calcium reactor is NOT a good recommendation much less is releasing 1 drop per severy 10 seconds to your tank. You might as well have stuck with kalkwasser if that was the case and saved all the money. Second a ph probe is not needed. Simply watch your ph for the first couple of weeks and add your solinoid to the same timer that your main lights come on/off so that it is not dumping co2 in the night which will cause a subtle drop in your ph during that time. (Unless you have your tank setup with reverse photosythesis). Continue to watch your ph at the end of every week or two and the need for a ph monitor will not exist. Adding 1 bubble every 10 seconds will not lower the ph nor release enough into the tank with this 1 drop per second to its appropriate level to meet the calium requirements that you are trying to achieve. 1 for every 2 and then adjust to more bubbles when the demand is required from your maintank. You will know this when your calcium level drops due to the amount of corals in the tank that require it and adding more bubbles to the chamber will ultimately lower the ph (within the chamber), cause more aragonite to be dissolved thus releasing more calium to help meet your needs.
Thats funny because 1 bubble every ten seconds has the Ph in my reactor sitting at 7.3 which is lower than the recommended starting point, so I really don't think I wasted my money . What a waste of money is would be turning your c02 off at night with your lights
. And I did not say release a drop every ten seconds into my tank I said release a drop every second into my tank. So how do you monitor your pH with a test strip or a drop test, figure if your going to spend that kind of money on a calcium setup a monitor ain't that much more, I picked my regulator and monitor up off e-bay for $184.00. Buy the way everything I recommended was a starting point, everybody's system and setup is different.
Okay first off, adding 1 bubble every 10 seconds to a calcium reactor is NOT a good recommendation much less is releasing 1 drop per severy 10 seconds to your tank. You might as well have stuck with kalkwasser if that was the case and saved all the money. Second a ph probe is not needed. Simply watch your ph for the first couple of weeks and add your solinoid to the same timer that your main lights come on/off so that it is not dumping co2 in the night which will cause a subtle drop in your ph during that time. (Unless you have your tank setup with reverse photosythesis). Continue to watch your ph at the end of every week or two and the need for a ph monitor will not exist. Adding 1 bubble every 10 seconds will not lower the ph nor release enough into the tank with this 1 drop per second to its appropriate level to meet the calium requirements that you are trying to achieve. 1 for every 2 and then adjust to more bubbles when the demand is required from your maintank. You will know this when your calcium level drops due to the amount of corals in the tank that require it and adding more bubbles to the chamber will ultimately lower the ph (within the chamber), cause more aragonite to be dissolved thus releasing more calium to help meet your needs.
Thats funny because 1 bubble every ten seconds has the Ph in my reactor sitting at 7.3 which is lower than the recommended starting point, so I really don't think I wasted my money . What a waste of money is would be turning your c02 off at night with your lights
jonthefishguy
Active Member
ANYWAYS....the reason for placing the solinoid on the same timer as the lights is because, when the lights go out, photosynthesis stop. It means that at night when the photosythesis has stopped being produced and both plant and animal life consume and deplete dissolved oxygen. There are ways to counteract that effect by exposing as much water surface to air. However, as the animal and plant obsorb oxygen, they release more CO2 which like I said, tends to drop the ph over time. Continuing to add CO2 from your reactor throughout the night will only speed up the process that your tank PH will drop even during the day. To countereffect this issue, you can also use kalkwasser which not only adds Calcium ions in the water, but helps stabilize your alk.
hunted
Member
What your saying make's sence, but once your calcium reactor is setup to your tanks specifications it should not effect your PH.
With my system which is what I meant buy every system is setup different, I have my return going into my sump/fuge buy my skimmer to drive off the c02 before the effluent reaches my reef.
With my system which is what I meant buy every system is setup different, I have my return going into my sump/fuge buy my skimmer to drive off the c02 before the effluent reaches my reef.
90257
New Member
boy iam confused so i need a ph probe or not I live in austin tx water is naturely 8.0 ph .Iguess i screwed up I need to suck freshwater not water out of my sump.for some reason i can not keep the reactor full of water.I used to have 150 gal with hang on filters that was solid purple and grew corals so fast I could not keep up with the frags. now I switched to a 210 reef ready and cant get anything to grow very well.BUT ILL get there .
jonthefishguy
Active Member
I have NO IDEA what you are talkin about with sucking fresh water...but NO you do not need a PH monitor. Its just another toy to buy. As for the water in the chamber, some people plumb it right in line with their pump. Tee a line off so that it is fed water at all time and have the output going into the sump. You can also place the inlet in the tank from the top and have it syphon into the chamber and gravity feed it to the sump. However this can also have a negative effect if algae or detritus were to get caught in the tubing and block it.
hunted
Member
Originally Posted by 90257
boy iam confused so i need a ph probe or not I live in austin tx water is naturely 8.0 ph .Iguess i screwed up I need to suck freshwater not water out of my sump.for some reason i can not keep the reactor full of water.I used to have 150 gal with hang on filters that was solid purple and grew corals so fast I could not keep up with the frags. now I switched to a 210 reef ready and cant get anything to grow very well.BUT ILL get there .
I'm not trying to be ignorant, so please don't take it that way jonthefishguy, put inorder to fine tune a reactor and get the best performance from it you need to monitor the Ph of the effluent in the reactor, or else you will either turn your substrate to mush with to much c02 which would be from to low a Ph or you will not dissolve the substrate with to high a Ph.
90257 the Ph of your tap water and tank water is important Yes, but you need to be able to measure the Ph of the water from your reactor.
As for supplying your reactor's feed line you can do what jonthefishguy said which would be the cheaper way or you can get a little pump to supply it, thats what I had to do because I had no room to tee off any of my lines. Just remeber that whatever pump you do get, if you get one, make sure it can handle the head pressure
boy iam confused so i need a ph probe or not I live in austin tx water is naturely 8.0 ph .Iguess i screwed up I need to suck freshwater not water out of my sump.for some reason i can not keep the reactor full of water.I used to have 150 gal with hang on filters that was solid purple and grew corals so fast I could not keep up with the frags. now I switched to a 210 reef ready and cant get anything to grow very well.BUT ILL get there .
I'm not trying to be ignorant, so please don't take it that way jonthefishguy, put inorder to fine tune a reactor and get the best performance from it you need to monitor the Ph of the effluent in the reactor, or else you will either turn your substrate to mush with to much c02 which would be from to low a Ph or you will not dissolve the substrate with to high a Ph.
90257 the Ph of your tap water and tank water is important Yes, but you need to be able to measure the Ph of the water from your reactor.
As for supplying your reactor's feed line you can do what jonthefishguy said which would be the cheaper way or you can get a little pump to supply it, thats what I had to do because I had no room to tee off any of my lines. Just remeber that whatever pump you do get, if you get one, make sure it can handle the head pressure
