please help me out

[richierich2000]

ok I am having ph cal problems I stopped using my cal reactor and have been dosing kalk that is ok but it is a pain a gallon a day and my kh was at 8 and cal was at 320 ph is ok
I have been
adding magnesium once a week
dosing about a gallon of kalk a day
I got some kent turbo cal to add to get cal up
I have some kent superbuffer-dkh to get the kh back up
My question is I have spent so much on this p.m. cal reactor how can I switch to just the cal reactor?
I have a pinpoint ph controller. everytime I try to use it the ph falls below 8.0 so how can I turn it on and keep my ph up?
I know that you should set the ph comming out of the reactor to 7.0 should I then add dkh and turbo cal till I reach like 12 kh and 450 cal.
the last time I tried to use it my kh went up too 18 to 20 and cal 300 ph low 7.8-8.05
please help me

 

[richierich2000]

sorry it is a 150 gallon with a bout 275 # l/r about 5" dsb

 

[richierich2000]

 

[nm reef]

Sorry but there is very little I can do to help here...there are several members that use cal reactors....the least I can do is keep your question up top and hope somebody with experience using a reactor will eventually reply.
Not much help but it at least bumped this back up...

 

[richierich2000]

thanks

 

[bang guy]

You may be trying to raise your Calcium too fast with the reactor. If you lower your bubble count and aerate the water well then the PH won't drop so much.
I really recommend you use Kalk in addition to your reactor. It has many benefits including keeping the PH stable.

 

[richierich2000]

Originally posted by Bang Guy
You may be trying to raise your Calcium too fast with the reactor. If you lower your bubble count and aerate the water well then the PH won't drop so much.
I really recommend you use Kalk in addition to your reactor. It has many benefits including keeping the PH stable.

so you are talking about the water comming out of the reactor or the co2? how fast shold the water be comming out of the reactor and how is the best to aerate the water? I have heard of dripping it in your skimmer but is there any other way?

 

[richierich2000]

 

[bang guy]

Bubble count = CO2. If you're adding too much CO2 your PH will definately drop. Less CO2 won't dissolve as much Aragonite but just keep tweaking it to find a happy medium. I suggested Kalk because it will quickly react with the CO2 and stabilize your PH... a match made in heaven.

 

[richierich2000]

thanks for the info I had one more? the water comming out of the reactor how fast would you start out it out? the instructions that came with it is a joke and I call the owner of p.m. and all he could tell me was what a great reactor and what "it will do" and not how to get it to do it it says to start with a broken stream is that ok?

 

[bang guy]

The flow kinda depends on the size of the reactor. I would try posing another thread in the Equipment forum listing your specific reactor and see what everyone else does (that works).