Cal reactor help pls

[stang69]

I have my calcium reactor up and running but my DKH is up there 15 last test. HOw in the heck do I get it down. I talked to Reefcam about it on msn and he said to speed up the drip and I did that but still to no avail. Ideas or suggestions? Bubble rate is about 20 per min and the drip rate is just about too fast to count. If I had to guess I would say 180ish That was the last adjustment to tthe drip

TIA
Jeff

[dougchambers]

Jeff,

We need a little more information to see what your balance point is on the tank. Lets look at a couple of things;

What are your Calcium level?

What is the pH levels in the tank?

What is the pH of the effluent coming off the reactor.

When was your last water change?

The balance between the Alk and Ca is rather delicate. With a Alk that high, I would suspect your Ca level is quite low. 340? 350?

Shoot back your numbers and it should help.

Doug

[stang69]

Cal is 340

PH is 8.0 at night and 8.1 to 8.2 in daylight

Eff drip ph is 6.9

Last WC was about a week ago was only 10% though

Thanks Jeff

[dougchambers]

Jeff,

It looks like you are out of balance between the Alk and Ca. If it were me, I would do another small water change and add Kent Turbo Calcium to start raising the Ca level back up. As you raise the calcium, the Alk will start to drop off.

As for your reactor, it sounds like it is running well. Most people will tell you that reactors are great for keeping the levels balance, but not very effective at creating the balance.

Once you have your Ca and Alk balanced out, you may need to adjust your reactor output. The effluent pH looks good so you have it running well, but it may be running to much effluent which is throwing off your balance. Remember that if you turn down your effluent drip rate, you will need to drop your CO2 rate too.

Try the water change and Tubo Calcium. It worked for us when we were getting our reactor running.

Doug

[stang69]

I did have the drip rate slower but thought if I increased the drip rate it would slow the media from disolving as much and would therefore get the alk close to where it needs to be. I will try the Kent Calcium and see what happens. Thanks for your time and patients with me. I will keep you posted as to the results in a cpl daz


Jeff

[dougchambers]

Jeff,

You are right. Increasing your effluent drip rate it will decrease the rate at which the reactor media is disolved. It does it by moving more water through the reactor which decreases the pH. If you want to keep the same efflent rate and decrease the disolve rate, you will need to turn down your CO2 bubble rate.

In all honesty... Calcium reactors are a pain in the rear to get dialed in! Once you do, you will wonder how you lived with out one. Especially if you have heavy SPS or Clam populations.

When we added all of our new SPS and two more clams recently, we had to increase the output on our reactor by ~30%. It's a tricky balance to get the reactor at a good pH and get the effluent rate where it needs to be to keep up with the tank.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out...

Doug

[golfish]

How long has it been running. I agree that the Ca and ALK are out of balance a bit but I don't see any reason to worry, YET....

I try to keep my dkh around 14-16 and your calcium isn't really that low.

[stang69]

Reactor has been running constant now for 2 weeks. Had some minor problems with setup but it is handled now

Jeff

[stang69]

Wohooooooo It worked I added the calcium and alk is now 12.4 and cal is at 420 wohooooo thanks guys. I wil keep an eye on it for the next cpl of days and let ya know. ;)


Jeff