Tuning your CalRx | Alternate method thats too easy

[Makers Marc]

I had the same exact issue... and with my auto feeder shutting my return pump off twice a day it was causing a serious issue. I had an extended stay work trip coming up which got me thinking I had to resolve this issue somehow. I ended up getting the new kamor pump and taking it off the return manifold

Did you try using the benz filter?

 

[Gentle Dumpling]

following

 

[SneakyTortuga]

I did not. The work trip was thrown at me last minute and I didn’t have enough time to try the filter out so I just next day aired a pump to my house

 

[LouieP]

What is a Benz filter???

 

[SneakyTortuga]

I believe it is a Mercedes benz fuel
Filter they run in the effluent line

 

[Makers Marc]

So I have an interesting update. I havent installed the Benz filter yet b/c keep forgetting to get the John Guest fittings. But with the effluent at a constant stream 99% of the time my alk has been stable.

But, if something on my APEX triggers my return pump off (CaRx fed through manifold) my effluent stops obviously. But when turned back on, the effluent does not resume and I need to slightly open and close the Cepex ball valves to resume effluent flow.

Not a big deal. But I am scared of what happens when I go on vacation and no one is there to turn the valve and my CaRx will just stop running. Is there pressure or air built up somewhere I can fix? Or is this something the Benz filter may be able to fix?

Anybody have an idea?

 

[Makers Marc]

Well I heard back from Geo themselves and they told me it was a pressure related issue, and there's nothing I can do about it except

1. Dont turn off return pump ever
2. Open up effluent more (which it was already opened alot based on this thread and OPs setup. But ill try more and raise my CaRxPH ranges.

 

[Makers Marc]

Well I heard back from Geo themselves and they told me it was a pressure related issue, and there's nothing I can do about it except

1. Dont turn off return pump ever
2. Open up effluent more (which it was already opened alot based on this thread and OPs setup. But ill try more and raise my CaRxPH ranges.

Forgot to add:

1. I can try a standalone feed pump or perialistic pump, though Id hate to buy one with this nice manifold I built. Plus no guarantees this works unless someone can test for me and save me money.



2.

 

[LouieP]

Forgot to add:

1. I can try a standalone feed pump or perialistic pump, though Id hate to buy one with this nice manifold I built. Plus no guarantees this works unless someone can test for me and save me money.



2.

I dont think you will have an issue with a separatr feed pump since the flow can only go to one line.

Ive had my GeoReef CaRx for almost 5 years and its on a separate feed pump maxijet 900 or 1200 not sure but im thinling about going to the FX-STP Peristaltic Continuous Duty Dosing Pump - Kamoer that BRS sells.

 

[Makers Marc]

I dont think you will have an issue with a separatr feed pump since the flow can only go to one line.

Ive had my GeoReef CaRx for almost 5 years and its on a separate feed pump maxijet 900 or 1200 not sure but im thinling about going to the FX-STP Peristaltic Continuous Duty Dosing Pump - Kamoer that BRS sells.

If its worked well for 5 years, can i ask why you'd wanna switch to the perisatalic? Does your effluent clog or slow down gradyallover time?

 

[Reefahholic]

This method does sound easier. Clogging can give you a constant headache.

 

[dave57]

So I just recently installed a Korallin 1502 calcium reactor for my 525 xl (100 gallon display) medium stocked was dosing 100 ml per day with esv bionic,

My reactor is running ph 6.5 with a light stream of effluent. How can I get my dkh higher it’s currently like at 7.5 my target is 8.5.. I know people say to dose with two part to bring it up which I have but then 24 hours later it’s back down to 7.5.

Should I open my effluent further and bump my ph back down to 6.5 or am I doing this wrong... I’m trying the stream method of running my calcium reactor..

Any suggestions or things I might be doing wrong? I am aware I’ll be using more co2 this way,I’m afraid if I drop my ph further it will mush the media? Could be that my old ph probe isn’t calibrating correctly anymore? Just calibrated it two days ago.

 

[SneakyTortuga]

So I just recently installed a Korallin 1502 calcium reactor for my 525 xl (100 gallon display) medium stocked was dosing 100 ml per day with esv bionic,

My reactor is running ph 6.5 with a light stream of effluent. How can I get my dkh higher it’s currently like at 7.5 my target is 8.5.. I know people say to dose with two part to bring it up which I have but then 24 hours later it’s back down to 7.5.

Should I open my effluent further and bump my ph back down to 6.5 or am I doing this wrong... I’m trying the stream method of running my calcium reactor..

Any suggestions or things I might be doing wrong? I am aware I’ll be using more co2 this way,I’m afraid if I drop my ph further it will mush the media? Could be that my old ph probe isn’t calibrating correctly anymore? Just calibrated it two days ago.

Personally I would set a drip rate and leave it at that rate. When you see that it isn’t keeping up with your Alk demand then I would lower the ph on the reactor slowly (not changing the drip rate) until your alk stabilizes. If you need to increase your alk in your tank for some reason I would do so through water changes or dosing some 2 part.

Mind you this is how I would do it. It’s worked for me but i am by no means a professional. I just feel if you constantly change your drip rate and ph you will never find a balance.

In this hobby less is more...

 

[dave57]

Personally I would set a drip rate and leave it at that rate. When you see that it isn’t keeping up with your Alk demand then I would lower the ph on the reactor slowly (not changing the drip rate) until your alk stabilizes. If you need to increase your alk in your tank for some reason I would do so through water changes or dosing some 2 part.

Mind you this is how I would do it. It’s worked for me but i am by no means a professional. I just feel if you constantly change your drip rate and ph you will never find a balance.

In this hobby less is more...

Thank you this makes more sense to me I was just afraid of going down lower than 6.5 ph but my ph probe isn’t probably at its best calibration.. I bought it second hand from another reefer and calibrated it 3 days ago. I’ll attempt to drop my ph slightly lower and go from there. Maybe not enough media is getting melted.. not meeting the demands of the tank. Makes perfect sense to me to drop the ph slightly lower. Thanks again

 

[SneakyTortuga]

Thank you this makes more sense to me I was just afraid of going down lower than 6.5 ph but my ph probe isn’t probably at its best calibration.. I bought it second hand from another reefer and calibrated it 3 days ago. I’ll attempt to drop my ph slightly lower and go from there. Maybe not enough media is getting melted.. not meeting the demands of the tank. Makes perfect sense to me to drop the ph slightly lower. Thanks again

How high is your drip rate set? 6.5 sounds like a low ph to set the continuous method at

 

[dave57]

Like mentioned on the tuning your carx video, not a drip drip drip but a slow solid stream

 

[dave57]

200 ml per minute

 

[ReeferBud]

I’ve been running this method for about 2 years and it was such an improvement over having to fiddle with the effluent rate every day, I loved it! I simply opened the effluent valve wide open, which is fed by a manifold and found that a Rx pH of 6.6-6.8 did the trick.

Fast forward two years and my frags and small colonies have turned into massive corals and I’m finding that my CaRx can no longer keep up. I’ve continuously lowered the Rx pH to about 6.4 and I’m having to supplement with 150 ml of sodium bicarbonate solution per day. With the Alk demands on my tank continuing to increase, I’ve started to think about upgrading my reactor. But... my ReefOctopus SRO-CR5000D reactor is supposed to be rated for 700-1000 gal and my tank is 450 gal, so I’m thinking something must be wrong.

I resurrected this thread and watched the video again after a couple of years and realized my mistake. The effluent should be a slight stream, not a wide open stream and I measured my effluent flow at a whopping 500 ml/min!!! And my effluent Alk, which I admit I had never measured before was a paltry 189 ppm (10.6 dKH). Ignorance was bliss... until it wasn’t.

I’m now trying to optimize the reactor to get the most all out of it and going through a test and happy to hear any suggestions.

Current effluent rate = 500 ml/min
Current effluent Alk = 189 ppm (10.6 dKH)
Current Alk delivered by the CaRx = 131,760 mg Alk per day

So, if I want to maintain the same Alk delivery from my CaRx, I calculated the effluent dKH I would need to achieve at different flow rates:

At 100 ml/min, would need a dKH of 51.2, which is higher than I believe is possible.

At 175 ml/min, would need a dKH of 29.3, which seems to be reasonable and in the range of what the ARM media I’m using is capable of, based on the recent video from BRS.

So I’ve set my effluent flow to 175 ml/min and I’m going to perform some measurements in a day to see if this is working. Brilliant idea about the MB glue filter, BTW. Looking into that.

Then I come to the next question I have, which is what is the minimum residence time in the Rx for equilibrium to be reached and still deliver a high Alk dKH in the effluent?

The BRS video and image above concluded that flow had a relatively minor effect on effluent dKH and that one could simply increase flow to increase the Alk delivered to the tank. While that may be true in flow ranges in which the minimum residence time has been met, it no longer holds outside this range, as I found at my very high flow 500 ml/min, which delivered only 10.6 dKH in the effluent. I would basically love to recreate the chart above for my reactor and keep increasing the flow until I find the optimum (i.e. maximum) Alk delivery potential from the reactor (how many dKH at a given flow and pH). I would expect this curve to follow a parabolic trend with a maximum vertex. I feel like the CaRx manufacturers should provide this curve and data with their equipment with a standard media, similar to the way pump manufacturers provide a pump curve with flow x head pressure. That we we could truly size the units and compare efficiency across models.

Wanted to share in case anyone else made the same mistake that I did . Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[PerplexyHexy]

Thank you this makes more sense to me I was just afraid of going down lower than 6.5 ph but my ph probe isn’t probably at its best calibration.. I bought it second hand from another reefer and calibrated it 3 days ago. I’ll attempt to drop my ph slightly lower and go from there. Maybe not enough media is getting melted.. not meeting the demands of the tank. Makes perfect sense to me to drop the ph slightly lower. Thanks again

I would test you effluent first... so you have an idea really what the ph is thats coming out of reactor... Im using the same reactor and it took me forever to dial in... kind of still am in a way... I used my tank ph probe and put the effluent in a cup and let it fill up... once I figured that out, then you can dial in ph probe in reactor for correct melting... my ph probe reads exactly like yours, and mine is brand new... so i was happy to see im not crazy... once you take the ph from the effluent sitting in the cup and the ph in the reactor, subtract that number and that will give you how much you need to lower ph in your reactor... go small ammounts though and test effluent make sure that its getting more potent... i tried the stream method in the korallin, didnt work for me... Im dripping 35ml/min on a 300 gallon lightly/mid stocked mixed growout system... @jda is a great guy to ask questions about korallin carx, he has alot of experience... hopefully he chimes in or you should PM him... Good dude... hope I helped a little... hahahahh

 

[AquamanE]

@ReeferBud - I tried the OP method for a while (with Maxijet feeding CaRx), and had constant issues. However when you see the great work BRS has done in their videos they are basically sayin the same thing as OP. Effluent rate isn’t as important as PH. You just need it to be constant, and constantly the same. That way all you mess with is PH. I ended up getting a Kaomer pump. I set it at approx 30-35ml.min so it would not clog and forgot about it. Now all I change is PH. You will notice the BRS system proves the OP correct. The difference is that the effluent has to remain steady.

I was a CaRx newbie when I saw this post, and after my modifications its right on point.

They also mention measuring effluent DKH, but I always forget how to dilute it since Hanna DKH only goes to 20DKH. Anyone know how tro dilute for higher readings?

Additionally, and this might seem basic but: I always thought increasing effluent increased ALK. That’s not the case, decreasing effluent rate increases alk. Rationale is the lower the effluent rate the more time the water sits in the CaRx therefore increasing ALK output. It seems this is part of @ReeferBud problem ay 500ml/min. It doesn’t allow the dwell time.