geo reactor
- Thread starter jose hernandez
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SneakyTortuga
Valuable Member
This thread has been extremely helpful. I didn’t think that the primary chamber was more important than the secondary but it makes sense how the primary chamber you would want larger. I myself was considering a 612x2 for a future 225 gallon build but am now rethinking that a 624 or 818 is the way to go
C. Eymann
2500 Club Member
It's all about how you tune the reactor, I always recommend people to go bigger than smaller so media replacement is less of a hassle, like mentioned above.
A calcium reactor's turn over or "turnover height" has a lot to do with how efficient they are, recirc pump gph can impact this as well obviously the faster the acidic water passes through the media, the more saturated it can become because of increased ( height)turnover/ contact time before exiting the reactor, more media =more surface area, bigger reactor chamber= more time.
That's always been my understanding.
However it all comes down to tuning, you can tune a smaller undersized reactor (to a point) to meet demand of a larger tank, but media changes will be frequent, as will CO2 fills
More appropriately or even larger reactors can be tuned to smaller demands, I ran a Korallin 3002 (30" tall) rated for upto 800ga on a 58gal SPS tank, bubble count was rediculously slow though.
second stage chambers can definitely help buffer pH of effluent as well as adding in a few more degrees of DKh onto the effluent too! neccessary? no, but it's nice if you have the space.
If you have low pH issues then sure, you can. The secondary effluent chamber acts as a degassing chamber to use up excess CO2 that isn’t used by the main reactor. That’s why you want to use media with a lot of surface area, like dry Florida crushed coral (since it seems as through Caribsea ARM fine media has been discontinued). However, just note that pH gains will be marginal at best. Maybe something like .5 of an increase. I think BRS may have done a test on the effects of secondary chambers. That said, I will be using an SMC415 for my CR612 set up for my 57 gallon DT once my tank matures.
Heres that BRS video on secondary effluent chambers...
Hersheyb
Active Member
As it was mentioned above, go with the biggest main reactor you can if you're worry about keeping up with your consumption. Any of the sizes you were looking at will work, it's just the matter of how many times you will need to refill your first chamber will new media. The secondary chamber serves to only diffuse any exceess co2 coming from the first chamber. The ph difference that the 2nd chamber will provide is so minor that it's not really necessary. Invest in a good co2 regulator and a peristaltic pump if you want solid ph in the main chamber in which you will have solid effluent.
Use Reborn and Remag in the calciumreactor main chamber. Florida crushed coral is my preferred media for the secondary effluent chamber because of the large surface area. However, you’d be fine using Reborn in the secondary chamber. You wouldn’t want to put Remag on the secondary effluent chamber though.
vangvace
Well-Known Member
The 415 would still be a good secondary I believe. I want to say that running a secondary would mean your CO2 scrubber wouldn't be working as hard, though I am also not sure how much CO2 is left in the effluent.
