Calcium Reactor Questions

[jblasi]

i have a few questions for you Calcium Reactor savy reefers our there. I have been doing a lot of research over the last several months and looking at a lot threads on here but I am still on the fence about one thing in particular. The water input. I know some people use needle valves and some use dosing pumps. I do have a DOS at my disposal that I have entertained installing. However, as I have displayed below, I plumbed out from the return pump into the reactor chamber for a water source.

I am able to control the flow of the water with the valve pictured. But I have read that the flow of water can change pending the amount of ALK being used, is this correct? Would it be wise to install my dosing pump online to meter the water output? I have all my equipment in the cart ready to pull the trigger, I just want to figure out the last piece of this puzzle. As of right now I am purchasing...
GEO CR618 Calcium Reactor
Carbon Doser regulator w/ the check valve
10lb CO2 tank

Any advice or opinion is greatly appreciated. I want to do this right the first time.

 

[lapin]

I feed my Geo reactor off my manifold. Not much pressure but enough to push water thru it without use of the recirculation pump. I control the flow thru the reator via a pinch valve on the effluent exit. A very fast drip (almost a stream). I set the bubble rate so the media will dissolve (Ph depends on media) and the Co2 only shuts off if my Ph in the reactor get extremely low.
A cole parmer litermeter would be an option if you can afford it. Many threads on how to set one up

 

[jblasi]

Thank you for your info. I am assuming by pinch valve your using a needle valves? Would you be able to cut it down to a slow drip if you had to?

 

[lapin]

It is actually a block with a hole for the tubing and a thumb screw. Geo does not sell them anymore. I could use a needle valve but im too cheap to buy one that wont clog. Yes I can do a slow drip if i wanted, however it might clog quicker.

 

[Thales]

Tee'd off valves for carx can clog, so as long as you are checking every day, you will be ok. I moved away from that to using some kind of dedicated pump because I find there to be less fiddling. I like peri pumps for this because I really like the amount of control they give at lower volumes. I use a litermeter because it is good for continious use, which a DOS is not - but there are ways to use a DOS to feed a carx. Sorry I don't know them off hand because I don't do it, but likely will next year when my litermeter is scheduled to be replaced.

So - you can do it either way.

FWIW, I almost never adjust flow through the reactor, instead I adjust the CO2 controls via apex and some virtual outlets that use the alk reading from the trident.

 

[Rick.45cal]

The DOS is going to end up being too noisy for your liking for that purpose. I use a used cole parmer peri pump I got off of ebay and a small sicce feed pump to add positive pressure to my reactor chamber. It hasn’t required any tinkering in 9 months now.

 

[jblasi]

The DOS is going to end up being too noisy for your liking for that purpose. I use a used cole parmer peri pump I got off of ebay and a small sicce feed pump to add positive pressure to my reactor chamber. It hasn’t required any tinkering in 9 months now.

I have heard that people using the DOS did complain about it being very loud. I have been looking into other peristaltic pumps as well.

 

[jblasi]

Tee'd off valves for carx can clog, so as long as you are checking every day, you will be ok. I moved away from that to using some kind of dedicated pump because I find there to be less fiddling. I like peri pumps for this because I really like the amount of control they give at lower volumes. I use a litermeter because it is good for continious use, which a DOS is not - but there are ways to use a DOS to feed a carx. Sorry I don't know them off hand because I don't do it, but likely will next year when my litermeter is scheduled to be replaced.

So - you can do it either way.

FWIW, I almost never adjust flow through the reactor, instead I adjust the CO2 controls via apex and some virtual outlets that use the alk reading from the trident.

Unfortunately I am not always home everyday to check on it. I would like it have as much control from my APEX as possible for short periods that I am away and some alarm goes off.

 

[jda]

I have run T off of return line, but it is NOT on a manifold and will never vary from day to day. I never really had the T clog, but stuff does get into the CaRx chamber unless you build a filter (look at AquaMaxx reactors for filter ideas). Manifolds are extremely difficult since one turn of a valve and everything can get messed up. The CaRx input needs to be consistent so that you can dial in the output - even a 10ml difference can have drastic differences. Some CaRx will pull water with the recirculating pump, so this is handy.

I do use flow control pinch (or mini-ball valve in the past) with small pumps like MaxiJet/QuietOne or a return line T. I used to use Kangaroo (the OG Maserflex), but the benefit was just not worth the cost when the santoprene line broke.

I do not think that a DOS is made for 24x7x365 operation.

 

[Thales]

I do not think that a DOS is made for 24x7x365 operation.

It isn't, but IIRC there are several people using a DOS for carx feeding. Seems to be working even not with 24x7 flow.

 

[motortrendz]

Right now I'm running my carx off my manifold with a 1/4" wuick.connext valve. I run just enough pressure to feed the reactor in my basement and back up to the tank. In the sump where the line returns I use a needle valve to control the drip rate and use a ph controller to control my reactor co2

With that said I hate the needle.valve bc it does tent to.clog up and I have to flush it out every once in a while bc my drip rate slows.
I'm in the process of building a larger sump and moving all the reactors and new sump to the basement. I bought a kamoer doser for the reactor. I got a 1/4" quick connect bulhead and rigid 1/4" line to allow the kamoer to syphon the water out of the sump and draw water though the reactor and measure the amount being delivered back to the sump with a more consistent rate.

 

[Hersheyb]

If you are going to go with a geo calc reactor you will need some pressure going into the reactor for it to work properly. Ideally, if you can you should add a peristaltic pump into your calc reactor, you won't have to worry the needle valve getting clogged and dialing the system is going to be so much easier.

Feed manifold/small pump -> calc reactor -> peristaltic pump to pull

If you're worry that something might get through the manifold and clog something you can always feed with a small pump like a mj pump with some sort of prefilter and use the peristaltic pump to control the flow output.

 

[Bpb]

I use a masterflex to pull from my geo. Have done it this way for about 3 years. No additional pressure pump on the front end.

 

[Hersheyb]

I use a masterflex to pull from my geo. Have done it this way for about 3 years. No additional pressure pump on the front end.

Nice, I tried that, when I first setup my reactor but I couldn't get the masterflex to pump a continuous stream and I had co2 air bubbles build up in the reactor chamber because they weren't getting all mixed by the pump and it wasn't like I was pumping alot of co2. I tried bunch of stuff and it was the same thing... As soon as I added some pressure into the system it fixed the issue.

 

[Bpb]

Nice, I tried that, when I first setup my reactor but I couldn't get the masterflex to pump a continuous stream and I had co2 air bubbles build up in the reactor chamber because they weren't getting all mixed by the pump and it wasn't like I was pumping alot of co2. I tried bunch of stuff and it was the same thing... As soon as I added some pressure into the system it fixed the issue.

Interesting. No that hasn’t been my experience. Mine primed completely and has been running faithfully without a hiccup since the day I set it up. I’ll refill and adjust the gas and peri tubing maybe once every 6 months but otherwise I literally never touch it.

 

[mtraylor]

I feed my geo reactor from my manifold. No issues. Howevere i keep my efluient rate at a slow stream flow rate. No dripping. Basically after drips turn to flow is basically where I'm at. The effluient is controlled by needle valve.

I keep the flow up in case of fluctuations. I do checknit every now and then to make sure no adjustments are needed in flow.

 

[jblasi]

I really appreciate everyone’s feedback and experiences. Just like everything else in this hobby it seems like some setups work great for people and the opposite for others. Yesterday I performed a flow test with the plumbing that I designed for future reactor and I was able to keep it at a slight flow, almost like a very small feed pump. I let it run for an hour and did not have any sort of material come out. I am still looking at all possibilities and what could possibly work best for my setup.

 

[jblasi]

After 3 cups of coffee this morning and about an hour in my sump. I think I have decided to go with a Kamoer peri for the feed. I can use the extra plumbing off the return for a media reactor if necessary in the future.

 

[Saltyanimals]

Been tickering with this for months now trying to tune a CaRX off gate-valved manifold to no avail. Solution seems to be a perm pump to pull but that adds to more $$, another device, outlet etc.

Mine will stay tuned for a couple days then I'll start to see the pH drift down which means the needle-valve effluent is getting clogged. A couple turns left and right of the effluent needle valve will clear it up, but then I may have to tune again unless I was able to return to the precise starting point before I did this clear up exercise. What a pain. I tried to put an inline filter before the effluent needle to prevent a clog, but still not giving much relief.

Has anyone every reliably tuned a carx off a manifold???!! lol

 

[NYCMAN]

After 3 cups of coffee this morning and about an hour in my sump. I think I have decided to go with a Kamoer peri for the feed. I can use the extra plumbing off the return for a media reactor if necessary in the future.

I have this setup Kamoer peri, Geo CalcRx, and Carbon Doser. It is a very good, plug and play set up. My setup follows a BRS video recommendation and pulls the effluent out of the reactor, versus pushing it in (feeding it). The video goes through all the pros of this method and it is working fine for me. Allegedly, you can run the Kamoer 24x7. I also did the pull method with the peri on my prior reactor, a Life Reef and there too it work great. Alk of 8.5 with zero variance. Plug and play. My experience with those screw valves and needle valves was suboptimal. Over time, they always clog or change flow rate when the tubing hardens. You have to pay attention every day.