Apex Ph/Calcium Reactor Question

[Brandon Maddison]

I have now had my apex and calcium reactor on my 300 gallon tank for 3 weeks. I was wondering how long in between on and off your reactor goes... ex. Mine goes about 10 mins between turning off and coming back on... now of course I have more of a open flow coming out instead of a slower drip rate which would influence the timing but I was wondering what everyone else looks like.....pictures please

My alk level has been at 8.2 for three weeks (Hanna Checker)

 

[GoVols]

Hello Brandon,
Run a constant stream too. Sicce .5 for the feed pump.

If you have a good regulator your can dial it in so that your solenoid stays on just about all the time.
Quick screen shot taken earlier this week.

Makes for less ware and tare with the Apex and solenoid switches.

 

[JAMSOURY]

Hello Brandon,
Run a constant stream too. Sicce .5 for the feed pump.

If you have a good regulator your can dial it in so that your solenoid stays on just about all the time.
Quick screen shot taken earlier this week.

Makes for less ware and tare with the Apex and solenoid switches.

Amazing! Do you just dial it down on the regulator? Didn’t have to mess with the bubble count part?

I got a dual stage regulator so I think I should be able to somehow get it at this level

 

[DiZASTiX]

If it's been at the same alkalinity for 3 weeks, I'd just leave it the way it is. Three weeks at that value is pretty rock solid, so as great job. Using any other strategy for tuning will likely require re-tuning the reactor. If that's not really an issue, then proceed.

For me, I have the a good dosing pump and a good regulator on a tiny tank, so I can't pin down the effluent rate. Instead, I have the pH oscillating between 7.00 and 7.25 at 20 mL/min, and that equates to around 5 pH "cycles" per day. This is using CaribSea ARM REACTOR MEDIA - EXTRA COARSE. I hold an alkalinity of 7 dKH with Tropic Marin Pro salt.

Two of my three systems are currently rigged to do an auto water change, using the same salt, which has a 7 dKH. AWC will affect the amount of dosing or tuning you'll need to do.

Either method will work great, though if you have a tiny tank (16 gals in my case), pinning down effluent rate won't work as well.

My other systems: one uses Balling and the other uses calcium reactor.

 

[ecam]

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[ecam]

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[GoVols]

Amazing! Do you just dial it down on the regulator? Didn’t have to mess with the bubble count part?

I got a dual stage regulator so I think I should be able to somehow get it at this level

Once you find the melting point just slow down (fine tune) the bubble count and leave the output stream alone.

But... I have an Alkatronic that holds the dkh at right about 9, so I dialed up the bubble count and lowered the on and off melting points, just a tad.

You can see at 8am the Alkatronic shut the regulator off. It should kick back on at 10am.

 

[JAMSOURY]

Once you find the melting point just slow down (fine tune) the bubble count and leave the output stream alone.

But... I have an Alkatronic that holds the dkh at right about 9, so I dialed up the bubble count and lowered the on and off melting points, just a tad.

You can see at 8am the Alkatronic shut the regulator off. It should kick back on at 10am.

Cool thanks!!!

Tried to do it earlier today but I think I stopped all bubbles completely. I swear there was a little coming out at a time. Also, I heard you can dial back how much pressure you are releasing to the calcium reactor. Does that work too?

 

[authentic]

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[GoVols]

Cool thanks!!!

Tried to do it earlier today but I think I stopped all bubbles completely. I swear there was a little coming out at a time. Also, I heard you can dial back how much pressure you are releasing to the calcium reactor. Does that work too?

Every regulator is different.

I have the "dual stage" GLA SS Pro at 25 psi with the Sicce .5 for the feed pump
https://greenleafaquariums.com/products/gla-pro-1-ss-co2-regulator-two-stage.html.

Been rolling like the below video for over 18 months.



One tip on keeping your cal in balance with alk:
Keep your main display's salinity at .35ppt.

 

[JAMSOURY]

Every regulator is different.

I have the "dual stage" GLA SS Pro at 25 psi with the Sicce .5 for the feed pump
https://greenleafaquariums.com/products/gla-pro-1-ss-co2-regulator-two-stage.html.

Been rolling like the below video for over 18 months.



One tip on keeping your cal in balance with alk:
Keep your main display's salinity at .35ppt.

I’ll have to play with it! Two weeks inn! Same method, same pump, and a dual stage regulator as well!