Co2 potency issues with Cacium Reactor

[Cyclone-G]

I ran out of Co2 the other day and the place I was buying it from went out of business. So I went across town and got some from another welding supply store. I hooked it up to my Vertex calcium reactor and without changing anything on the regulator turned it on. Now my system cannot get down to 6.62ph as it did before. It's hovering around 7.0! Has anyone had issues with Co2 potency? I've cranked up the bubble rate to the max settings on my Carbon Doser valve and still can't get below 6.8ph.

I'm starting to wonder if the tank is 1/2 full of air mixed with Co2. Anyone else seen this or heard of weak C02? Or maybe I have another problem but that seems unlikely since nothing else changed.

 

[Biglew11]

full discloser i have no experience with calcium reactors. but i've done gas welding so know a little bit about compressed gasses.
pure co2 is pure co2, there would be no difference, unless there's something else in the tank with the co2. now if as you said you have a tank that is full of half air then that could be a problem. when you buy a new tank for propane for example they have to purge the air from the tank so that its only propane, I'm almost positive they have to do this with other compressed gasses as well. if this wasn't done properly i think it's possible you may have a tank half full of air. do you own your tank and have it refilled or do you just swap tanks? can you tell if the carbon doser is releasing the bubble rate that you dialed it in for? check for leaks that may be letting air into the reactor or letting the co2 escape from the reactor or tubing between reactor and carbon doser.

 

[Biglew11]

also what are you using to control ph inside the reactor? are you controlling ph with a controller or are you just monitoring ph and adjusting manually? if using controller try taking it offline and see if you can raise ph by having the carbon doser dose co2 manually.

 

[Cyclone-G]

I'm using a controller to maintain PH in the reactor. If alk or calcium get's to my max set points the reactor shuts off. This is not the problem. I did notice that the bubbles seemed smaller than before. So I cranked up the pressure and this did not help. The next thing I tried is to increase the bubble rate on the carbondoser. After increasing it to ridiculous levels as compared to before the ph dropped to below 6.64 in the reactor. My bubble rate is now about 2 per second so like constant bubbling. I'm heading over to another supplier to get a new tank full of Co2. I'll keep you posted in this thread.

 

[Biglew11]

I'm heading over to another supplier to get a new tank full of Co2.

that sounds like the issue to me as well.

 

[dadnjesse]

Did you drive with the tank laying down. The service guy that fills mine told me to keep it upright otherwise I would have to let it sit upright for an hour before use.