Calcium Reactor Effluent CO2 Off-gassing (outgassing?) Chamber

[Kjames]

Hello calcium reactor users - I recently posted an STL file of my take on an airstone-powered off-gassing chamber for calcium reactor effluent. Initial results are promising! Look for it on printables.com and let me know if you try it. It is deceivingly small but effective on my 135-gallon system. $14 of air pump and limewood airstone plus this print, and you are in business.

Printables

www.printables.com

 

[jda]

If you can gas off the co2, then you likely have a poor tune that puts too much co2 into the chamber, or are using a regulator with dump and quit type of deal. Either waste co2 and it gets into your tank. If you are interested in how to tune the reactor to where a gas off will not move the pH at all, then there is a link to a google doc in my signature.

 

[Jamie814]

airstone-powered off-gassing chamber for calcium reactor effluent.

What's the DKH of the effluent before and after the degassing chamber? I've tried this years ago and found in less than a week my degassing chamber and maxijet I was using to inject air was covered in calcium precip because of the increased ph. This also caused a much lower DKH effluent being dosed to the tank.

 

[14 foot reef]

If you can gas off the co2, then you likely have a poor tune that puts too much co2 into the chamber, or are using a regulator with dump and quit type of deal. Either waste co2 and it gets into your tank. If you are interested in how to tune the reactor to where a gas off will not move the pH at all, then there is a link to a google doc in my signature.

As always the best knowledge and advice comes from the mentors at Reef2Reef. Bravo on this advice

 

[Kjames]

If you can gas off the co2, then you likely have a poor tune that puts too much co2 into the chamber, or are using a regulator with dump and quit type of deal. Either waste co2 and it gets into your tank. If you are interested in how to tune the reactor to where a gas off will not move the pH at all, then there is a link to a google doc in my

What's the DKH of the effluent before and after the degassing chamber? I've tried this years ago and found in less than a week my degassing chamber and maxijet I was using to inject air was covered in calcium precip because of the increased ph. This also caused a much lower DKH effluent being dosed to the tank.

Great questions. I’ll inspect and do some effluent DKH testing when I get back in town this weekend. I get the perfect tune goal but the reality of swapping CO2 tanks, media types and removing huge colonies makes me glad to have a tool like this. Not to mention the fact that there are 10 people and 2 dogs in my office adding to the CO2 in the air.

The best process is no process, and I’m more than happy to scrap gear that doesn’t serve.

 

[Dburr1014]

You can also dump it into the skimmer intake and if you run a refuge or algae scrubber, dump it into that intake.
One less plug and one less thing to maintain.

 

[Kjames]

You can also dump it into the skimmer intake and if you run a refuge

Yes, my effluent goes into a refugium, upstream of the skimmer compartment. Wanted to avoid sending it directly into skimmer pump.

 

[Kjames]

covered in calcium precip because of the increased ph.

I pulled this unit from the system during a CO2 tank swap last week. I did not get an "after" Alk measurement, but I can confirm that plenty of white precipitates were in the bottom of the chamber. Significant slime was growing on the airstone - guessing it is due to light ingress from the refugium light. Black PETG would have been a more sensible material choice for a chamber in a lighted area.

I took the opportunity to restart the tuning process based on the above comments during this CO2 bottle changeover. Cleaned all the media chambers, rinsed the media, and topped up. The system is using about 1.6-1.8 meq/L/day from the reactor based on current measurements. Effluent is going directly into the refugium with no air stone chamber. Using bubble count, and drip rate to establish a ratio of what works without adding excess CO2.

Currently:
30 bubbles/min at 6psi
24ml/min effluent
31.58 meq/L effluent

I'm keeping the excess CO2 bypass in the reactor lid closed to see gas building up at the top of the reactor. I think the effluent Alk is sufficient, so I plan to leave everything else alone and reduce the bubble count if I see gas accumulating in the reactor. Sound right?