Arm Coarse Media for reactor. What changed.

[jda]

I would try and use natural media if you can. As long as Reborn is available, I would try and get it and even wait if you have to. Calcite is fine. This is where you check your local shops since they have will have stock sometimes... one of our local shops still has natural ARM on the shelves and is only a few bucks more than online.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Before any hobbyist goes and uses straight dolomite, I will reiterate on of my key points about farms/shops not being the same as a hobbyist tank. While vendors move out a lot of water when they sell frags (as well as massive water changes), the high levels of magnesium probably do not have a chance to accumulate like they would in a hobbyist tank.

I took a trip down the man-made reactor media highway (AquaMedic) which was pure calcium carbonate. It had no strontium or magnesium (or other traces), so I had to use some Dolomite in with it. If I used too much Dolomite, the magnesium level would slowly rise in the tank and could have gotten dangerous.

In short, if you are not moving out water or watching your tanks as much as WWC, then don't try to be too much like them - study and learn, but understand that a hobbyist is not a retail shop.

Same experience, I don’t know how they are running thoes reactors completely full of dolemite, even with moving water in and out a lot.

I have always wanted to try the sand from deltec, I wonder if they even sell that anymore. Friends who ran that in a reactor had some amazing tanks.

 

[jda]

You can use coarse crushed coral substrate too. That is what we used to use. This is better with a reverse flow reactor since it can get compacted pretty well as it melts.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have seen this in the past raising question on which is which. In turn I turned to Reborn by two little fishies which seems to be consistent. Although dolomite can be used, it does offer up and down results with PH and dissolves quicker.

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

What internal reactor PH are you guys requiring to melt the ARM Calcite media? I have the ARM extra course and I am at 6.15 internal PH to just get an effluent output of 25 to 30dkh

 

[chicago]

I hoover around 6.38 to 6.42... 6.15 seems pretty low and when I went that low I did not notice a worthwhile improvement. what do you get when you keep it at 6.4 ?

 

[jda]

6.15 to somebody can be the exact same as 6.4 or 6.6 to others. Please do not use readings from these low quality hobby grade instruments as absolutes across tanks.

 

[JMetaxas]

I just filled my Ca+ reactor with both Reborn (the new less coarse stuff) and ARM Coarse and keep playing with the CO2 flow and drip rate. I had it putting out 40dkh @ pH 6.55 with 1 drip per second and a bubble a second, so turned down the Co2 to one bubble every ~2 seconds, but now it's at 20dKh @ pH 6.92. (the reactor is the MTC Pro-Cal)

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

The ph probe is recently calibrated but i do generally just go with the effluent dkh. The ph probe and controller is just a safety measure.

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

I hoover around 6.38 to 6.42... 6.15 seems pretty low and when I went that low I did not notice a worthwhile improvement. what do you get when you keep it at 6.4 ?

I increased my effluent flow to 45ml per minute and the PH to 6.3 to 6.35. It wasn't keeping up with demand. The tank had dropped 0.7dkh after one day. Dropping back to down to 6.25

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

I increased my effluent flow to 45ml per minute and the PH to 6.3 to 6.35. It wasn't keeping up with demand. The tank had dropped 0.7dkh after one day. Dropping back to down to 6.25

Only getting 16dkh at 6.25 PH