Calcium Reactor Calculation and Calibration

[brandon0921]

I see a couple calcium reactor calculators out there, but they all require you to provide dosing totals from a list of supplements in which the solution I’m using is not included. I know I add 3.6425 dKH daily to ~80g of water volume. Is there a way to calculate approximate effluent dKH and ml

 

[lapin]

I would follow @jda set up and after it is settled in make some final adjustments.
You might need to dose for a short time until you get it dialed in.

Calcium Reactor Thoughts and Tuning

Some copied and pasted stuff from over the years. I will try and keep this document green and updated from time to time. If anybody has any suggestions, send me a PM on RC or r2r - jda on both. Feel free to send this link to anybody who might need it. Preface: This is for people who want to l...

docs.google.com

 

[garbled]

Usually for the calculators, you need to measure the dKH of the effulent from the reactor. Just collect some in a cup and run your normal alk test on it.

 

[brandon0921]

I would follow @jda set up and after it is settled in make some final adjustments.
You might need to dose for a short time until you get it dialed in.

Calcium Reactor Thoughts and Tuning

Some copied and pasted stuff from over the years. I will try and keep this document green and updated from time to time. If anybody has any suggestions, send me a PM on RC or r2r - jda on both. Feel free to send this link to anybody who might need it. Preface: This is for people who want to l...

docs.google.com

Hey thanks for sharing this, Ive actually read through it in the past and understand the gist of it. My question is how do I get myself into the ball park from the get go to avoid any potential drop in dkh while tuning? My tank is packed with sps and sucking up tons of alkalinity each day. Any sort of swing is bound to aggravate the coral.

 

[brandon0921]

Usually for the calculators, you need to measure the dKH of the effulent from the reactor. Just collect some in a cup and run your normal alk test on it.

That works for the adjustment after initial dialing in. For the starting flow and effluent dkh parameters to be calculated, you need to be using one of the predefined supplements and specify your daily dosage. Simply knowing the dkh being added daily wont suffice.

Maybe I'm over thinking this having never run a reactor before, I just figured it would be a good idea to get my rector within arms length to its dialed in calculations from the start since I know exactly how much alkalinity the tank is consuming daily. If the calculators were based off daily alk consumed metric and not ml of a specific product, I would easily be able to calculate it.

 

[garbled]

I don't understand what you mean about the calculator needing supplements.. Have you tried this one?

Calcium Reactor Contribution Calculator

Aquarium calculator; Estimate the contribution of a calcium reactor towards the calcium and alkalinity of a system.

www.hamzasreef.com

 

[X-37B]

I just looked at your build thread.
3.6 dkh a day seems very high if that is the current state of your corals.
Are you sure you are not getting precipitaion somewhere.
I know all tanks are different but my 120 is set up to have an effluent of 20-25 dkh and is very stable.
My coral load is considerably higher than yours.
Check my build thread.

 

[brandon0921]

I don't understand what you mean about the calculator needing supplements.. Have you tried this one?

Calcium Reactor Contribution Calculator

Aquarium calculator; Estimate the contribution of a calcium reactor towards the calcium and alkalinity of a system.

www.hamzasreef.com

Thank you! That makes it usable to me. I had been using this one,

Calcium Reactor Setup Help

 

[brandon0921]

I just looked at your build thread.
3.6 dkh a day seems very high if that is the current state of your corals.
Are you sure you are not getting precipitaion somewhere.
I know all tanks are different but my 120 is set up to have an effluent of 20-25 dkh and is very stable.
My coral load is considerably higher than yours.
Check my build thread.

The build thread pictures are pretty old, but maybe my calculations are wrong. Here are some more recent pictures and some additional info.

Im currently dosing 94ml of Brightwells 8.3 alkalinity supplement daily and 170ml of Brightwells calcium. I use a trident which tests alkalinity 4x a day and Ca/Mg 2x.

Levels sit around 7.7dkh, 420ppm, 1350.

Brightwell Aquatics Alkalin8.3 will increase the alkalinity in 1 US-gallon (3.785 L) of water by 3.1 dKH (1.1 meq/L)
Dosing - 94 ml/day x 3.1 = 291.4 / 80g = 3.6425 dKH

 

[X-37B]

The build thread pictures are pretty old, but maybe my calculations are wrong. Here are some more recent pictures and some additional info.

Im currently dosing 94ml of Brightwells 8.3 alkalinity supplement daily and 170ml of Brightwells calcium. I use a trident which tests alkalinity 4x a day and Ca/Mg 2x.

Levels sit around 7.7dkh, 420ppm, 1350.

Brightwell Aquatics Alkalin8.3 will increase the alkalinity in 1 US-gallon (3.785 L) of water by 3.1 dKH (1.1 meq/L)
Dosing - 94 ml/day x 3.1 = 291.4 / 80g = 3.6425 dKH

If you want to know your useage then I would manually test alk at say 8am then do not dose for 24 hrs and test again.
This will give you your daily alk consumption.
It is the only way to test actual alk loss per day.
I think at an actual 3.6 per day you may have precipitation in your sand or elsewhere in your sump.
You can then compair it with what your trident reads.
I have no trident expeience.
I do not run a controller for anything including my carx system.

 

[brandon0921]

If you want to know your useage then I would manually test alk at say 8am then do not dose for 24 hrs and test again.
This will give you your daily alk consumption.
It is the only way to test actual alk loss per day.
I think at an actual 3.6 per day you may have precipitation in your sand or elsewhere in your sump.
You can then compair it with what your trident reads.
I have no trident expeience.
I do not run a controller for anything including my carx system.

Why wouldn't calculating my daily dosage and converting into dKH give me the same result assuming the test from day 1 at said time matches the test from day 2 at the same time?

 

[OREGONIC]

I just setup a calcium reactor, I had a hard time with a calculator so I just reduced my dosing by 25% and brought my reactor online slowly to minimize a swing. Took about 2 days to dial that in. That gave me a good idea of where I needed to be so I then dropped dosing another 25% and adjusted the reactor. Repeated 2 more times.

 

[Fishyfish22]

Thank you! That makes it usable to me. I had been using this one,

Calcium Reactor Setup Help

Thats the one I used. Are you sure you're using the left, right, OR bottom calculator and not two of them at the same time?

 

[X-37B]

Why wouldn't calculating my daily dosage and converting into dKH give me the same result assuming the test from day 1 at said time matches the test from day 2 at the same time?

Assuming the calculation is right!
I always have a secondary method of testing everything.
It is a way to verify your calculations.
Just a suggestion for verification of your actual useage.

 

[brandon0921]

Assuming the calculation is right!
I always have a secondary method of testing everything.
It is a way to verify your calculations.
Just a suggestion for verification of your actual useage.

Never hurts to verify the data. I appreciate your input

 

[brandon0921]

I just setup a calcium reactor, I had a hard time with a calculator so I just reduced my dosing by 25% and brought my reactor online slowly to minimize a swing. Took about 2 days to dial that in. That gave me a good idea of where I needed to be so I then dropped dosing another 25% and adjusted the reactor. Repeated 2 more times.

I like this approach