Calcium reactor air bubbles.

[REEFRIED!]

I am fed up with my calcium reactor. It has had air bubbles since I set it up. About every week I shut off the recirc pump and purge the air out. If I leave it for longer than a week it gets super loud with the pump chopping the bubbles.

Everyone says that there has to be a small leak somewhere. Last week I removed it and cleaned it out. I checked every fitting on it and made sure all tubing/hoses were fit correctly. I also checked the feed pump in my sump that I use to feed it. Everything seems fine. I fired it back up and it’s the same as it was.

How can I tell if it is not air and it is just cO2 in there? Is there an easy way to install some type of bleeder valve or something? I am getting ready to go back to two part, which I hate as I don’t want to install dosing pumps.

 

[DanyL]

@Yanir34 had a similar problem, for months he pulled hair off of his head trying to solve it. Eventually, it was the CO2 regulator that was pulling air if I remember correctly.

I tagged him here to elaborate more if needed.

 

[REEFRIED!]

@Yanir34 had a similar problem, for months he pulled hair off of his head trying to solve it. Eventually, it was the CO2 regulator that was pulling air if I remember correctly.

I tagged him here to elaborate more if needed.

Wow I actually never checked the regulator. That will be my next step. Thank you

 

[fish_collector]

Perhaps you can reduce the amount of CO2 you are putting in, it may be saturated already and can't absorb any more so it builds up as a bubble. Verify the output drip is steady, maybe even increase it a bit and see if that corrects your issue. Monitor the pH of the effluent to see the results of changes you make if you don't do that already. Fwiw, my old Korallin reactor would always have an inch or so of CO2 gas at the top but it never made it's way to the bottom to be sucked into the recirc. pump. I got to know it pretty well, 10 bubbles a minute through the bubble counter was my sweet spot, any less and it never consumed media, and more just made the gas at the top increase.

In my mind, theres so little flow through the regulator it's unlikely to be drawing in air. Shut off the CO2 completely, purge the bubble and run it to see if air still accumulates inside.

Another thing I think of, perhaps your recirc needs to be slowed down. It could be swift enough that it is drawing some gas to the bottom with the flow and then into the pump. Reactors do take a while to get dialed in, be patient with it. Keep in mind it is all a balancing act, the more CO2 you add the more water you have to cycle through it but that increases the calcium levels. Only make what your tank is consuming. You may have to supplement with some 2 part while you mess with it. Keep an eye on the tank pH, the reactor's effluent is in the 6s and will bring down the whole tank.

 

[REEFRIED!]

Perhaps you can reduce the amount of CO2 you are putting in, it may be saturated already and can't absorb any more so it builds up as a bubble. Verify the output drip is steady, maybe even increase it a bit and see if that corrects your issue. Fwiw, my old Korallin reactor would always have an inch or so of CO2 gas at the top but it never made it's way to the bottom to be sucked into the recirc. pump.

If I reduce the amount of cO2 then my effluent is not strong enough and cannot keep up with demand. And honestly I am not using a ton of co2

 

[fish_collector]

Remember a calcium reactor is somewhat of a pressure vessel so a leak will manifest itself as an external water leak. The only place I could see air possibly being drawn in is at the suction side of the recirc pump. Is the pump mounted with unions? Use some silicone grease on the orings and on the volute oring, if the pipe fittings are threaded in make sure there's teflon tape on them. Is it plumbed correctly? The recirc pump should draw from the bottom and put the water back in at the top. Since it's a new piece of equipment for you I'm leaning towards an adjustment issue. That's all I got for now. Keep us posted on what you may find. :)

 

[DanyL]

Wow I actually never checked the regulator. That will be my next step. Thank you

See this thread.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/calcium-reactor-problems.1082318/page-5#post-13300575

 

[REEFRIED!]

Remember a calcium reactor is somewhat of a pressure vessel so a leak will manifest itself as an external water leak. The only place I could see air possibly being drawn in is at the suction side of the recirc pump. Is the pump mounted with unions? Use some silicone grease on the orings and on the volute oring, if the pipe fittings are threaded in make sure there's teflon tape on them. Is it plumbed correctly? The recirc pump should draw from the bottom and put the water back in at the top. Since it's a new piece of equipment for you I'm leaning towards an adjustment issue. That's all I got for now. Keep us posted on what you may find. :)

The recirc is mounted with unions. I will definitely put some teflon tape on the threads. The reactor has been running for a year. Other than air bubbles and chopping it is dialed in. The recirc pump def draws water from the top, and put it in the bottom of the chamber. Which makes sense to me as you would want the gas to come in contact with the media at the bottom and work its way to the top. It is an Aquamaxx reactor. I will check the recirc pump, and also disconnect the regulator and run it for a day or so to eliminate posssible air intake there

 

[REEFRIED!]

I am also drawing water to the reactor in my sump, fairly close to my skimmer. The sump is only so big, and I have it as far away from skimmer output as possible with sump direction flow heading g away from calcium reactor feed pump, so any skimmer output bubbles don’t naturally head towards the calcium reactor feed pump. There could just be micro bubbles coming from the area where water enters my sump.

 

[fish_collector]

I guess I should have looked at how reactors are plumbed these days, you’re right the pump does draw from the top, my mistake. The reactor I used drew from the bottom so? When you find the issue let us know you’ve got me interested now, I have been entertaining using one again.

 

[Yanir34]

Hello , good morning.

What type of calcium reactor is that ?



Please take good pics of the reactor, lid , pipes , recirculating pump , CO2 regulator and upload to this thread .

 

[Yanir34]

Also please film short video of the bubbles counter of the reactor and the co2 regulator.

Please test dkh of the effluent of the reactor.
It should be somewhere between 25 to 35 dkh (depending on media type)

 

[REEFRIED!]

Also please film short video of the bubbles counter of the reactor and the co2 regulator.

Please test dkh of the effluent of the reactor.
It should be somewhere between 25 to 35 dkh (depending on media type)

it is an Aquamaxx reactor. I don’t want to bother with uploading to YouTube to get the video on here. My effluent dkh is around 22. I am currently Dosing a little more than one bubble per second.

 

[Yanir34]

it is an Aquamaxx reactor. I don’t want to bother with uploading to YouTube to get the video on here. My effluent dkh is around 22. I am currently Dosing a little more than one bubble per second.

I'm not familiar with this type of reactors, but 22 dkh effluent sounds normal to me.

It's important to see video of the reactor while it is working .

 

[fish_collector]

If the pump is getting bubbles sucked in it’s possible the water is already saturated and can’t absorb any more co2, try reducing your co2 rate by 25% and see if that corrects your issue. If it does and you still need more calcium you can increase the feed water a bit more.

 

[backbayreef]

it is an Aquamaxx reactor. I don’t want to bother with uploading to YouTube to get the video on here. My effluent dkh is around 22. I am currently Dosing a little more than one bubble per second.

Check this out? I have an AquaMaxx T-3 and the same thing happened - the fix was to tilt the whole reactor toward the left. This worked for me! Good luck with yours.

Post in thread 'Bakbay's 450g - Final Upgrade?'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bakbays-450g-final-upgrade.1066683/post-13360828

 

[REEFRIED!]

Check this out? I have an AquaMaxx T-3 and the same thing happened - the fix was to tilt the whole reactor toward the left. This worked for me! Good luck with yours.

Post in thread 'Bakbay's 450g - Final Upgrade?'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bakbays-450g-final-upgrade.1066683/post-13360828

I have thought of doing that. The thing that stinks about this reactor is that where the effluent leave the reactor is the same location the recirc pump draws from. Obviously the I take pump is much stronger that the effluent exit so it sucks bubbles right past the exit. Causing the pump to chop them up even more.

I did comeplety take the regulator off and I may have found one of my problems. I used cO2 safe tubing leaving the cO2 tank, and the John guest fittings don’t seem to grab them as well as they do for standard RO tubing. So I placed a little teflon tape on the outside of the cO2 safe tubing and it made a better seal. Hopefully today I will see a difference.

 

[backbayreef]

I have thought of doing that. The thing that stinks about this reactor is that where the effluent leave the reactor is the same location the recirc pump draws from. Obviously the I take pump is much stronger that the effluent exit so it sucks bubbles right past the exit. Causing the pump to chop them up even more.

I did comeplety take the regulator off and I may have found one of my problems. I used cO2 safe tubing leaving the cO2 tank, and the John guest fittings don’t seem to grab them as well as they do for standard RO tubing. So I placed a little teflon tape on the outside of the cO2 safe tubing and it made a better seal. Hopefully today I will see a difference.

I’ve spent days doing that before - checked tubings, replaced JG connectors, moved input/output tubes around, etc. Everything went fine for a day/two but started to draw air again. My bet is that you will have to tilt the reactor.

Hope I’m wrong though…good luck! ;)

 

[REEFRIED!]

I’ve spent days doing that before - checked tubings, replaced JG connectors, moved input/output tubes around, etc. Everything went fine for a day/two but started to draw air again. My bet is that you will have to tilt the reactor.

Hope I’m wrong though…good luck! ;)

I definitely see why tipping the reactor so the bubbles are more forced to go towards the exit of the reactor will help. However that does not explain why there are bubbles (assuming they are air and not cO2) are present in the first place.

 

[REEFRIED!]

I believe I am getting air into the reactor from the cO2 side of things. I am an idiot and I just set the cO2 safe clear tubing into the John guest fittings, on both the check valve and I take to bubble counter directly. I should have used the John guest 1/4” straight to 1/4” barbed fittings to changeover from clear tubing. I have ordered some of those fittings and I believe this should solve my issue