Calcium reactor 3172 leaking

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

What I would do is raise the KH to at least 9 and I would probably just use sodium carbonate to do that. Kalk does lose potency with air contact and mixing, so that could be but it is hard to add enough talk to do much, I would get the KH adjusted higher and then the kalk can help more with stabilizing. The lower drip rate will help, with a high drip rate more CO2 escapes, the longer the contact time of the acid water and the media, the higher the KH of the dripped effluent will be so a higher drip rate, does not always equal more calcium and carbonate.

 

[VJV]

Thanks. I have always kept my tank between 7,6 and 8,0 never higher. Would raising it higher not create additional instability? What is the reasoning behind the 9,0?

I am still dosing balling to keep Alk as stable as possible during this transition time.

 

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

The higher the Alkalinity, the more stable the pH, in general. I maintain my aquarium at 11, you generally want to avoid any rapid change, and there are hobbyists who believe coloration is better at approx 8, but I have always preferred the pH stability of the 10-12 range.

 

[VJV]

Of course, as it increases the buffering capacity of the water. Before turning on the reactor it was in the range of 7,9-8,2. After connecting the reactor the firsts at dropped down to 7,4 at night! Than I started adding the kalk and the minimum is now 7,6.

 

[VJV]

What I would do is raise the KH to at least 9 and I would probably just use sodium carbonate to do that. Kalk does lose potency with air contact and mixing, so that could be but it is hard to add enough talk to do much, I would get the KH adjusted higher and then the kalk can help more with stabilizing. The lower drip rate will help, with a high drip rate more CO2 escapes, the longer the contact time of the acid water and the media, the higher the KH of the dripped effluent will be so a higher drip rate, does not always equal more calcium and carbonate.

One other thing: I am controlling my reactor pH with a probe and my Profilux4. It! is set to 6,5 with an hysterisis of 0,3 the solenoid opens at 6,75 and close at 6,50. You mentioned that my closing the effluent would boost Alk content of the effluent as it would have more time to react with the media. But would it not also require me to close down the CO2 bubble count? Otherwise if I close the effluent but not the CO2 would imagine it would bring pH even lower... actually it would not because the solenoid would close so the impact would actually be a very rapid decrease in pH from 6,75 to 6,5 every time the valve would open and than shut off.

So I kind of answered my own question [emoji4]though in any event probably a good idea to being the bubble count down to prevent constant on-off from the solenoid.

 

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

What pH to use depends a lot on the media, if you use our media or s similar media which is granular calcium carbonate, you generally need a pH of 6.4-6.5 to get a good result, if you use a media that is coral skeletons, this will dissolve more readily at a higher pH so 6.6-6.7 is OK. To me the KH dropping suggests buffer was used up by an acid, possibly free carbonic acid from the reactor, then adding the talk bound it back to carbonate and this is a big part of why using both works so well. I would try keeping the bubble count high but lowering the drip rate, so if you have 4 drips a second, try 3 and if anything try a little less bubbles but keep it proportionally higher than the drip rate.

 

[VJV]

I am using CariSea ARM coarse media. Maybe I should lower the nominal value to 6.4 inside the reactor? Also, reducing the drip rate will not reduce the pH inside my reactor because it is being controlled by the solenoid value to shut down when it reaches 6.5. But perhaps what it would do is by providing more contact time allow the effluent to be more saturated...? Although because the pH of the reCtor will not lower will it really become more saturated....? Confused...

 

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

Exactly, the drips will be more concentrated, the CO2 has more time to work so the effluent has more KH and Ca and less free CO2. ARM will dissolve at a higher pH, anything below 6.7 should work, it is more porous, the other type is rocks that are essentially limestone or marble, they are generally more pure and don't produce as much sludge and sediment that clogs the pump, but they need a lower pH to work as they are very dense.

 

[VJV]

Also, my KH daily consumption is about 1,5dKH so I assumed the drop meant that the reactor was not able to cope with that daily consumption in my 200g system...?

 

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

It is possible, but once the drip and bubble rate are right and given time to stabilize it will keep up.

 

[VJV]

Please add a port to the MAR to connect the effluent of the 3171 [emoji120]. That would be awesome! The CO2 heavy effluent would fertilize the algae and increase the pH! It would be one seamless system [emoji7]

On another note, the reactor is still leaking from the top where the pH probe port is attached to the acrylic. It is not from the threaded part of the attachment but it seems to be leaking from the o-ring of the port connection, if that makes any sense.

 

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

It is not very easy to add such a port due to pressurization but all that would have to be done is drip the effluent near the intake of the pump.

Do you possibly have a photo of where the leak is?

 

[VJV]

It is not very easy to add such a port due to pressurization but all that would have to be done is drip the effluent near the intake of the pump.

Do you possibly have a photo of where the leak is?

I will take one tomorrow. But you do not actually see the drip. Just a pool of water tha slowly forms around the base of the ph probe port.

 

[VJV]

Hi Roger, a couple of updates:

1) switched the non return valve so that it sits after the solenoid and now there are zero bubbles as soon as the solenoid shuts down. The pressure gauges also do not move when it is closed so I would say ofir is safe to say I do not have a leak. Only issue is that now when the solenoid closes the water in the bubble counter slowly starts to siphon in the direction of the solenoid... [emoji51].

2) reduced the drip rate to a couple something like 4 per second from a wide open stream. Reactor pH is running between 6,5 and 6,6. I still have to dose 180ml of balling salts (each) to keep Alk level. Let’s see if with a more concentrated effluent Alk levels start to rise.

3) here is a picture of the base of the probe holder. The small pool of water slowly increases in size over the course of several hours.

 

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

1) On my set up, I have regulator, solenoid, check valve, bubble counter in that order. My main issue is that the water in the bubble counter pushes up to the reactor over time and when off, it runs back into the bubble counter, but I have never had it siphon back or be a major issue.

2) I would probably go to 6 drops a second, 4 sounds like too little, I have drops fast enough that it looks like a pulsed stream and I add 3 bubbles of CO2 a second, but I use the 3170 which is smaller and was never made available for sale and it has no pH port, I instead dose CO2 anytime the tank pH is above 8.10. It does keep up with my 215 when paired with kalkwasser, though I do tend to once a month have to make very small corrections with additives, KH may drift down to 8.5 and try for 9-10 and Calcium may drift down to 390 and I try to keep 420-440. This is mostly because the 3170 is in tank and algae grows in the tubes from light exposure for water intake and drip, so they clog and have to be cleaned so it is neglect on my part and one of the technical reasons this unit was never sold, I am thinking of trying black tubing.

3)It looks like a leak where the thread of this fitting enters the reactor, I would put teflon tape on the fitting and rethread it into the lid. All this fitting is is a gland nut used to water proof cable entries, they tend to be reliable as a seal on the probe, but the thread into the reactor could be allowing a leak.

 

[VJV]

Hi Roger,

So I am now working with a pH of 6,4 inside the reactor, dosing Kalk in my ATO and i still need to dose... this does not make much sense... right?

Yesterday I fully cut back on dosing and the ATO probably did not add much if any water and on a 6h period my Alk dropped 0,5dKH...??? It seems like the reactor is not adding anything to the water...

 

[VJV]

Oh, and another thing: I am running the pressure gauge at 1bar, is this ok?

 

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

1 bar is what I would recommend.

It is easy to test how the reactor is working, test the KH of the effluent, it should be at least 18dKH and can be as high as 24 dKH, assuming all hoses are connected correctly, to increase the KH of the effluent you can increase CO2 bubble count or slow drip rate and usually the correction is to do a little of each. Once this is basically adjusted, for the tank to increase KH you need to increase drip rate as needed and typically 2 bubbles of CO2 for each additional drop is about the right setting, but the same test method can verify it is functioning properly. Also, make sure the pH probe is calibrated, if the pH is above 6.7, there will be almost no dissolving of media. It does take time to get a calcium reactor set up and working well and it can take one to two months to find the balance.

 

[VJV]

Hi Roger,

The pH probe is a new one from GHL and I have calibrated it twice so I hope it is properly calibrated.

PH is now regulated to 6,4-6,5 but still kit keeping up. I have researched a number of posts from users of CaribSea Arm that they would only get any Alk out of the reactor above a pH of 6,3.

The good thing about this media is that it contains both Magnesium and Strontium (or ao it states on the box) so it is an all in one solution. But I will try Tunze Calcium Carbonate media if I can’t get proper Alk levels from the reactor.

 

[rvitko Verified Sponsor]

Basically this media is coral skeletons so it has everything in it a coral would use to grow, the draw back is that as it dissolves it leaves a lot of spongy sediment, it is so porous that it dissolves into fine granules and it can have substances that promote algae growth depending on how it was collected, cleaned, stored, etc. Corals do sequester phosphates in their skeleton for example. The main issue and reason we don't offer such a media is their is more maintenance, since the media breaks down to a sort of sandy sludge the reactor and pump need more frequent cleaning and if neglected, the pump can be damaged.

The stone based medias need a lower pH to work, they are more pure but they do lack the trace elements. They dissolve nearly completely so instead of a full tear down and cleaning, you can just top off the media.

Neither is really better or worse, they are just different, both have advantages and disadvantages but in terms of adding KH and Ca it should not be significant.