I currently have one installed on a manifold off the main return pump. It is the only item on the manifold and will likely remain so and it's fed by a Vectra pump so other than feed mode it should be a pretty stable flow rate.
Right now I'm using the steady stream method with a pH controller to adjust it. The needle valve is slightly closed but I'm probably pushing ~150 ml/minute through it. I could drop that a bit but don't want to risk any clogging by slowing it down too much. pH is a bit high as I'm still trying to bring the overall concentrations up. I suspect I need a somewhat slower feed rate though.
Is it a more efficient use of CO2 to do slower feed and lower pH in the reactor?
Will the pH in the tank be affected more by a lesser amount of lower pH effluent ( say 6.5 ) vs a larger stream of higher pH effluent that's say 7.1 or more? I am assuming the CO2 will be offgassed and still largely contained in the stand so the skimmer will likely not be getting as much fresh air as before as well.
Should the CO2 be on 24x7? I assume the corals don't use much calcium if they aren't also photosynthesizing but maybe they're still building a bit at night. Shutting it down might also add instability and use up more CO2 to drop the pH again in the morning as well as add time to ramp calcium production.
I plan on putting a continuous duty peristaltic pump on this at some point, at which point it seems to make more sense to just peg the pH at 6.5 or similar and then just vary the feed rate out of the reactor.
Is this generally how most people are using and tuning these now?
Right now I'm using the steady stream method with a pH controller to adjust it. The needle valve is slightly closed but I'm probably pushing ~150 ml/minute through it. I could drop that a bit but don't want to risk any clogging by slowing it down too much. pH is a bit high as I'm still trying to bring the overall concentrations up. I suspect I need a somewhat slower feed rate though.
Is it a more efficient use of CO2 to do slower feed and lower pH in the reactor?
Will the pH in the tank be affected more by a lesser amount of lower pH effluent ( say 6.5 ) vs a larger stream of higher pH effluent that's say 7.1 or more? I am assuming the CO2 will be offgassed and still largely contained in the stand so the skimmer will likely not be getting as much fresh air as before as well.
Should the CO2 be on 24x7? I assume the corals don't use much calcium if they aren't also photosynthesizing but maybe they're still building a bit at night. Shutting it down might also add instability and use up more CO2 to drop the pH again in the morning as well as add time to ramp calcium production.
I plan on putting a continuous duty peristaltic pump on this at some point, at which point it seems to make more sense to just peg the pH at 6.5 or similar and then just vary the feed rate out of the reactor.
Is this generally how most people are using and tuning these now?
