Calcium reactor low PH will dripping onto basket of media make a difference

The Opinionated Reefer

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I have recently added a calcium reactor to my tank, it's a skimz cm113 which is supposed to be self-feeding which sounded great but it turned out to be a pretty crappy reactor. I initially had a lot of problems with the effluent flow slowing down over time and I determined that it was due to lots of undissolved co2 building up inside the reactor and stopping the effluent flow. I added a second chamber at first but this just clogged with bubbles and made things even worse so got rid of it. I also think that my choice of media is compounding the situation, I got ARM extra course which is Calcite and I need an internal PH of around 6.2 to even get it to produce effluent of around 25dkh. I have to pump in lots of co2 to get down to this PH level inside the reactor but it seems that most of the co2 is wasted as every so often the gas vents out the effluent line. This does however solve the problem of the effluent slowing down and stopping.

I have the effluent set to a drip rate of 25ml per minute and about 65 bubbles per min of co2 entering the reactor for an internal PH of 6.15. This is at a point where it seems to be keeping up with the tanks demand now and the effluent rate is not slowing down. But my tank PH has taken a massive hit. It reached a low point of 7.76 last night and looks like it will only get worse.

I can't add a second chamber because the effluent line will just block so would dripping the effluent onto a small basket of reactor media work in the same way?

I read something about this actually causing precipitation of some of the calcium carbonate in the effluent and effectively lowering the dkh of the effluent, is this true? If so what is the solution? I don't really want to also have to add an additional Kalkwasser reactor.
 

lapin

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You could try the drip into media method or a secondary reactor chamber. You can also try to add some magnesium media to the reactor as a buffer. If you have a fuge with macro alage after the drip, can also help.
 

lapin

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The additional mag can help. It does not replace regular media. It just adds some mag. As with everything should test mag before adding.
 

2Wheelsonly

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Can you feed that reactor with a stronger pump? I feed mine with a strong pump but then I pull from the reactor with a kamoer peristaltic pump, it’s very accurate and never ever worry about clogs again. This would increase your options with allowing a secondary chamber.
 
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