Korallin 1502 Calcium Reactor

[Craigb350]

That’s awesome. What media do you use?

I am currently running the Caribsea Arm Extra course media, but as this breaks down im going to try topping the chamber up with a fine media like the D&D Rowalith W media.

 

[McPuff]

@Craigb350 good points! I was opposed to running a CaRX for a long time (just dosed) because of the complexity. Once I started to read about it, my fears seemed confirmed. There was a LOT of information out there. So I started to build a DIY reactor. THAT made everything seem much more intuitive and I basically just learned as I went along. I used an upflow version as my basis and went from there. The reactor worked really well but ended up being too small for my current 300.

What I'm trying to do now is get the system to the point where I don't really need a pH probe. This is done by regulating the effluent dkh and keeping it between 15 - 25 dkh or so. This is done by adjusting the effluent flow and bubble rate to achieve the desired effluent dkh. Once you have it set, you would only need to change effluent flow and bubble rate sparingly. But Craig is right, it really helps to have a peristaltic pump so effluent rate is very steady. I'm using a manifold to feed my reactor now but will soon switch to a peristaltic pump.

Anyway, keep plugging away. Once you have a CaRX set up you will probably never go back to dosing.

 

[PerplexyHexy]

Converted media reactor into secomd chamber for carx setup... so stoked... nice when you have these things on hand and dont habe to pay for anything

 

[PerplexyHexy]

So i noticed that when the co2 bubble gets sucked up into the eheim pump, it doesnt always make it through... i put new rubber tubing on that area and tou can see very well... a few get by, but they look like they are getting clogged or diverted somewhere else... anyone ever see this? Wondering if this is whats throwing off my ph in my reactor... Im thinking either eheim pump isnt running 100%, there is a clog in the intake or there is way too mich water being fed into the reactor so its creating a backflow issue with intake line from my T feed line... any ideas? Hate to take this thing apart again, but it looks more and more like I have to... there are no leaks, so its not that... heres a picture where I can see the bubbles going by... when they actually do...