Hey all. So the SPS growth in one of my tanks has really started to take off and I'm having a bit of trouble dialing in the calcium reactor. When the demand was lower my DIY Carbon Doser was more than capable of keeping up. Once the sticks really started taking off, I had to peg the doser and even still with rate and duration maxed I could not keep the PH in the reactor stable (it would swing along with the tank during the day). In fact it couldn't even bring the reactor down to the desired range of 6.55. I realized the issue was the CO2 pressure. I had it at 5PSI going off the instructions and a few youtube vids. First thing I thought was that maybe the pressure wasn't sufficient to crack the check valve (Dennerle CO2 valve) so I swapped it out with the cheaper one that came with the reactor and kept the same PSI. After about a day and a half I saw little to no difference. So going against everything I saw/read/manufacturer's instructions I decided to dial up the PSI. Sure enough as soon as I got to around the 10-15PSI range my reactor PH stabilized and DKH has been rock solid. So, long trip to the question: Does anybody else safely run their calcium reactor at a similar PSI?? And if so for how long and have you had any issues with leaks or something else I'm not thinking of??? Thanks guys. -A
Calcium reactor PSI question...
- Thread starter amnesiac
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dank reefer
IG: dankreefer_IG
I am new to the CalRX game myself as I started using one right before Christmas time, and I have my PSI set at 18-20 psi. I am using a Carbon Doser regulator, and a Geos Reactor. So I think you should be just fine where you're at and might be able to go higher.
I actually ended up figuring it out. My drip rate and target PH were too low. This was causing the pressure in the chamber to build so high it was actually fighting the CO2 entering it. I depressurized the chamber and started over again, but this time started my drip rate at 80ml per minute. With the flow that high anything over 10psi just sprayed CO2 into the chamber. After tinkering a bit I now have it set at 20ml per minute and 3-4psi. Still tuning a bit, but I'm very close to set it and forget it :)
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