Dosing Pickeling Lime w/Reactor

bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I have never maintained PH at 8.5 but I have been there with no noticeable ill effects. My Xenia is usually a good indicator of water quality and it didn't mind 8.5 at all.
In all honesty limewater is more effective when dosed below the water.
I dose it above the water because I don't like having the output clog with CaCO3 precipitate.
 
spmnarciso

spmnarciso

Active Member
Can you administer CO2 safetly with a controller, to contol pH? Is this something that I can attach to a small PH in my fug. ? maybe "kill two birds with one stone" and give CO2 to my plants and control pH from getting too high.
Bang Guy...what about the skimmer idea? How do I tap into that?
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member

Originally posted by spmnarciso
Golfish...that's awesome. Where do you live now? Danbury's cool, getting very expensive! Got to drive at least 45min. to get to a decent LFS.(Milford,Stamford,Hartford). You got to help me out. What would you do if you were in my shoes?
pH this morning was 8.3, so I had my fingers crossed and hoped that it would stay below 8.45 by the end of the light cycle. NO LUCK! 8.46!!!!!! Just turned off my dosing pump again, not sure I want to chance it getting any higher to see how high will it actually get. Measured Ca again today, yesterday 450, today 460! What am I going to do...went to all the trouble of building this beautiful KALK Reactor, and all it's doing is causing me problems.
If I go with Bang's idea to drip into skimmer, how would I do that? Especially without creating suction? can you give me some ideas?
My fug. at one time was lit 24/7 but since two months ago I switched to reverse lighting.(main lights off)
I'm in So Cal. We just went back there to see the plant and get some ideas. Around that time B n R was building a new state of the art plant here in So Cal. Who would of thougth that in less then 10 years they'd shut ALL the plants down and go with a co packer.
I don't see 8.5 a problem but it could go higher then that. You don't have a huge Ca demand so I don't see that as a problem right now. As time goes on and you add more corals, coralline starts to grow you might need to supplement your Ca in other ways. I didn't mean to scare in to thinking your reactor wouldn't keep up with ca. I should have said from the start that I didn't think it would keep up if the tank was FULLY stock with corals (lps, sps)...
I have the line running from my reactor going right to where the intake is for my skimmer pump. I would think the pump picks up most of the kalkwasser.
 
spmnarciso

spmnarciso

Active Member
I'll try that. Thanks, and what do you think about CO2 injection?
Also do you have a check valve on the tubing exiting the reactor, to keep oxygen from entering the reactor? Do you prefer the tube in the water or out of the water?
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by spmnarciso
and what do you think about CO2 injection?
There's an outstanding way to inject CO2. Look into a Calcium reactor. They go hand in hand with limewater like peanut butter & jelly.
Ca Reactors lower PH because of the excess CO2, Limewater raises PH because it gobbles up CO2. Both add Calcium and Carbonate. Ca reactors will also add some trace elements.
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member

Originally posted by Bang Guy
There's an outstanding way to inject CO2. Look into a Calcium reactor. They go hand in hand with limewater like peanut butter & jelly.
Ca Reactors lower PH because of the excess CO2, Limewater raises PH because it gobbles up CO2. Both add Calcium and Carbonate. Ca reactors will also add some trace elements.
that's it in a nut shell. If your going to inject co2 you might as well run a reactor along with it.
 
spmnarciso

spmnarciso

Active Member
That's the only way to inject CO2? With a Ca reactor? I thought of just adding a Co2 line to a PH in my fug , controlled by a controller and pH probe.
Odd thing today...my pH is not getting so high? Any ideas? 8.34 so far...why? Ca-450;9.0 dKH. Coralline looks different...seems duller and whitish spots in some areas.
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member
First thing I'd do is get both of those outside so your wife, mom, others don't kill you. Your Liter meter can pump a hec of a long ways so there's no need to have that stuff uglying up the tank room.
Setting up a co2 injection is going to leave you about 100.00-200.00 short of setting up a Ca reactor (prices will vary) Its a waste if you ask me, besides, your PH isn't all that bad anyway.
Think about getting your top off drum out by your RODI unit. Maybe out in the garage like mine. You can run the lines up through the attic, the walls, outside. I have my holding drum in the garage along with my RO unit. I also have a hose bib timer (about 20.00) hooked up to my RO unit. It take a little practice but once you get it set you can top off your holding drum, and who cars if it overflows a little, its in the garage.
here's a picture of my hose bid timer
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member

Originally posted by Bang Guy
So, why can't the output of the LiterMeter be right next to the input of your skimmer?

I'll second that........
 
spmnarciso

spmnarciso

Active Member
I moved it earlier today, thanks. But for some reason, my ph was low today to begin with, without having to move it. Weird to me. Maybe one of you guys knows? So far ph has been 8.30-8.39. and lights are about out!
 
spmnarciso

spmnarciso

Active Member
Originally posted by golfish
First thing I'd do is get both of those outside so your wife, mom, others don't kill you. Your Liter meter can pump a hec of a long ways so there's no need to have that stuff uglying up the tank room.
I don't have much room so I try to get by and still showoff what I have accomplished. A new place is in the works for next year. With a garage; and a new bigger, bigger, starphire tank. Right size fug., and a hell of a filtration and sump setup. My family is proud of me and enjoy it as much as I do. I'd like to thank all those who have taught me what a LFS could not.
Click to expand...
 
neoreef

neoreef

Member

Originally posted by Kip4130
i just tested some limewater using the hi-res mode of salifert Ca test
i started with 3ml of effluent... added 3ml of RO/DI... added 1 spoon of powder... i dripped a full 1ml syringe plus .2 of another
a full syringe equals 500ppm Ca + 100 (.2 of 2nd syringe) equals 600... i double the result because i diluted the sample in step 1... to get 1200ppm Ca
i tested a sample from the same source ... started with 1.5ml of eff... add 1/2 spoon of powder.... dripped down to .4... corresponding value was 300.... multiply by 2 for low res and get 600
there is obviously a math problem somewhere and i have confused the crap outta myself so badly i dont know where it is... help!!!!!:notsure:
In the "high res" test, you took 3 ml of effluent and added 3 ml water. So you diluted your sample ; MULTIPLYING BY 2 to account for dilution is appropriate.
However, you used twice the volume of a regular test: 6ml instead of 3. The test is designed for 3 ml. It takes twice as much syringe liquid to titrate a 6 ml sample as it does 3 ml of the same sample. Thus you should have DIVIDED YOUR RESULT BY 2.
In other words, the reading you got is the concentration. Don't need to divide or multiply as the factors cancelled out.
A better way to do this is to make your dilution, then take 3ml and do the test. Then multply your result by the dilution factor. More intuitive, and does not challenge the kit to deal with volumes it was not designed to do.
You've got 600 ppm, and that's nothing to sneeze at!:)
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I agree unless the 1" of powder at the bottom was just precipitate and not Calcium hydroxide. That's my only guess.
 
aquajon

aquajon

New Member
ok i have been reading all the post about the kalk reactor, my question is, does it matter if your reef filler starts pumping water at the same time you are mixing? or is it to small of a amount of water to worry about it, cause i would think if you pump during the mixing, you would get a super saturated solution going into your sump. just my thought,i am going to start building my reactor next week, as long as things slow down at work...
 
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