Calcium reactor users

[cilyjr]

I've recently bought a much larger reactor and it's got me thinking a few things. First off the reactor that I had was too small for my system as a result I had to have a pretty high effluent rate around 120 ml per minute and a bubble count at about three bubbles every second to keep the pH at around 6.65. This was keeping the overall system pH pretty low. I swapped it out to a much larger reactor. Here are my thoughts on this.
1. A larger reactor chamber with a larger recirculation pump should result in a more rich effluent?
2. With a more rich effluent the drip rate should be slower (contributing to dwell time in the chamber thus adding to solution saturation) and still allow for adequate supplementation?
3. Is there a saturation point for the effluent in the chamber?

For those curious the new reactor is the aquamaxx t3 with a carbon doser co2 regulator. The old reactor was a precision marine cr422. The reaction chamber is twice as large and the recirc pump is about twice as large as well.

Thanks for your thoughts

 

[Martin Kuhn]

An effluent rate of 120ml/min is crazy high. You would totally flush the reactors high ph content in maybe 30 minutes?

If that was your only way to keep up Alk the change was a "must do"

On the other side:
I recommend a ph of 6,2 within the reactor. 6,65 seems to high (not acid enough) to dissolve enough calcium carbonates.

So, my concern is that you used your old reactor in a way it was not intended for

Please also regularly check the calibration of your reactors ph probe. If you work with an accidentally wise wrong ph, this is a starting point for problems

 

[cilyjr]

Can Anyone chime in on my effluent saturation theories?

 

[Martin Kuhn]

1) the bigger the amount of material inside the reactor and the lower the ph the more ca-carbonate is diluted. Meaning also what you take out of the reactor (effluent?) is more rich on this

2) ???
If what flows out of the reactor has a higher ca carbonate content (ca / KH), then you need less of it to match your tanks consumption

3) i don't know exactly. Other Ca reactor users could measure the KH of the water coming out of the reactor

 

[cilyjr]

When dripping the new one at 75ml per min at 6.5 I measured 16dkh on alk I did not test ca or mg. I'm curious if slowing the drip will allow for more reaction time thus providing a more rich solution.

I'm interested in reducing the efficient drip while maintaining levels. In hope of combating lower ph. 7.9 at it's height (both ph probes are changed regularly and calibrated)

This is in addition to
1. Kalk dripping
2. Opposite lighting on chaeto.
3. Outside air being brought in in both the skimmer and via air pump.

 

[cilyjr]

@Martin Kuhn ty for taking an interest in this thread

 

[Martin Kuhn]

You're welcome

Did you try setting the ph controller in the reactor to 6,2 yet? This should bring your KH up

75ml @ 6,5l seems much better than before. Assuming 50% of the reactor is water, that's replacing the reactors water in 45 minutes

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Technically speaking, the lower the pH (that is, the more CO2 you add) the more media can dissolve. There is no real limit to that until you become limited by the available pressure of CO2 that you can apply. Reefers do not attain that level, typically. Before you reach that point, many people find the media begins to break down into a mush of fine stuff that no longer works well.

At any given pH, there is a saturation point, and I expect reefers typically get close in recirculating systems, but perhaps not right to saturation. That may take more time than systems usually allow.

As to a more "rich" effluent, I'm not sure what that means. You can measure the alkalinity of your effluent to see how much has dissolved into it. There are calculators that can be used for interpreting such values.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Here's one such calculator:

Calcium Reactor setup calculator (CaCO3/CO2 reactors)
http://reef.diesyst.com/reactor/reactor.html

 

[cilyjr]

Yeah I've looked at that.

I kind of forgot about the media turning into mud as a possibility.

Did you try setting the ph controller in the reactor to 6,2 yet? This should bring your KH up

No I was at work. I'm bringing down a bit I'll test effluent at 6.4 after 24 hrs and get back then a bit lower if I'm not happy with the result. Then bring down a bit at a time.

I'm using the coarse ARM for media. I'm going to look into their suggested ph to run at.