Calcium Reactor Set Up

[X-37B]

Thanks for all the great info. I have also been thinking about getting a calcium reactor so this is helpful I tend to like the simplest way to set things up so no PH probe or controller is nice. I currently dose kalkwasser 24/7 and use all for reef. I keep having to use more and more all4reef so its getting more expensive.

One question I have is do you need to dose trace elements when using a calcium reactor?

My system is easy to adjust. I just turn up the effluent flow to keep alk steady.
Trace elements may be needed.
I dose dsr ez-trace in my 150 due to the large acro population.
I have used it for 7+ years now and have never tried any other.
I adjust doesage based on Magnesium and Potassium levels which I can test for at home.
You can dm me if interested after looking at the product. The other 4 elements in the solution are in range when icp is ran by keeping mag and K in range. Has worked well. Currently I dose 2.5ml per gallon into my ato's rodi makeup water.

 

[Linden13]

Thank you I will look into that im not sure ive seen that or at least I didn't pay attention to it. Do you use a salifert potassium test kit?

 

[X-37B]

Thank you I will look into that im not sure ive seen that or at least I didn't pay attention to it. Do you use a salifert potassium test kit?

Yes salifert for K. I keep it at 420 and mag 1300-1400.
Dsr line is through Deltec USA.
I ordered my last 5000ml's from Europe.as they are not always fully stocked.

 

[Linden13]

Great! thanks again. I will be looking into that.

 

[Mongo1.0]

Ok, been tweaking this Ca Rx. I did the initial setting of 22ml/min and 10 bubbles/minute (as good as it will let me). Tank went below pH of 7.65 overnight with the Rx pH reading 6.5. Lowered the bubbles to maintain 6.8 in the Rx and tank still went below 7.65. Noticed one chalice and an acro not liking the change at all. Never had issue with either till I started this. I have a buffer tank and have now put the effluent at the intake of the skimmer to help scrub the effluent. The my low over night is tank 7.8 with Rx at 7.15. I realize I am probably not accomplishing anything since the Rx is above 7. Guess throttle effluent to less that 20ml/min? Everything I have read says 20 is the minimum.

Any ideas?

 

[Shirak]

Ok, been tweaking this Ca Rx. I did the initial setting of 22ml/min and 10 bubbles/minute (as good as it will let me). Tank went below pH of 7.65 overnight with the Rx pH reading 6.5. Lowered the bubbles to maintain 6.8 in the Rx and tank still went below 7.65. Noticed one chalice and an acro not liking the change at all. Never had issue with either till I started this. I have a buffer tank and have now put the effluent at the intake of the skimmer to help scrub the effluent. The my low over night is tank 7.8 with Rx at 7.15. I realize I am probably not accomplishing anything since the Rx is above 7. Guess throttle effluent to less that 20ml/min? Everything I have read says 20 is the minimum.

Any ideas?

You can slow the effluent down if you want. Maybe there is an increased risk of it clogging? I think it's unlikely if you are using a peristatic pump and letting it go into a high flow location like the skimmer intake. Your effluent rate really depends on how much alk you are trying to add. The higher the effluent flow the more CO2 you need to add to reach the correct pH and the more alk you will add at that pH. You do need the pH in the reactor around 6.5. You could try dropping the effluent down to 10 or 15ml/min at your current CO2 rate and see where the reactor goes on pH. Bottom line is you are going to need to add a certain amount of CO2 to your reactor to dissolve X amount of aragonite to correspond to calcium uptake by the corals to keep Alk stable. I would try a second reactor vessel with aragonite in it. Run the effluent through that after the CaRx then send it to your skimmer intake.

 

[Shirak]

Other options.. Run the CaRx during the day only? Refugium running at night? Increased aeration on the tank? CO2 scrubbing on the skimmer air intake line? Fresh air outside line for the skimmer air intake? Kalk dripping at night?

 

[Mongo1.0]

Other options.. Run the CaRx during the day only? Refugium running at night? Increased aeration on the tank? CO2 scrubbing on the skimmer air intake line? Fresh air outside line for the skimmer air intake? Kalk dripping at night?

Mixed aragonite with what was there when I got the tank. Did you the effluent at the intake of the skimmer which also has a CO2 scrubber on the air going to the skimmer. I'll run it down to 15 tonight and keep my fingers crossed. Been validating my new kalk setup (run times, flow and total flow) to run at nights if needed.

Thank you.

 

[Shirak]

What Alk level are you running on the tank? If it's NSW 7.5ish then maybe a little bump will help with pH?

 

[X-37B]

Ok, been tweaking this Ca Rx. I did the initial setting of 22ml/min and 10 bubbles/minute (as good as it will let me). Tank went below pH of 7.65 overnight with the Rx pH reading 6.5. Lowered the bubbles to maintain 6.8 in the Rx and tank still went below 7.65. Noticed one chalice and an acro not liking the change at all. Never had issue with either till I started this. I have a buffer tank and have now put the effluent at the intake of the skimmer to help scrub the effluent. The my low over night is tank 7.8 with Rx at 7.15. I realize I am probably not accomplishing anything since the Rx is above 7. Guess throttle effluent to less that 20ml/min? Everything I have read says 20 is the minimum.

Any ideas?

Whai is the efflient dkh?
Effluent speed and bubbles are set to achieve a dkh of 20 to start.
Keep the bubbles constant at 10bpm, dont worry about the reactor ph.
Slow the effluent down to say 10mlm, run for 24hrs and check effluent dkh.
Keep the bubbles as consistant as you can.
Once you know effluent dkh you can adjust based on useage.

This is what I do.
Im around 10bpm and 21mlm.
This keeps alk at 7.5 and effluent is 30+.
I have been increasing speed from 12mlm to current level for the past 6 months .
I have been at 10bpm for several months and just increase the effluent speed to keep alk at 7.5 while checking effluent dkh. I will only turn up co2 if effluent dkh drops below 30.
Keep it simple.

 

[Mongo1.0]

Was at 10bpm and 20ml/min and it drove the tank from 8 to <7.65. the tank alk got up 9.2. I back the bubbles back to let everything stabilize and try again. I'm not using the rx pH to go by except to make sure I don't go too low. I'll check the effluent pH and compare to yours. Thanks for the info

 

[Shirak]

If your alk jumped to 9.2 at 10bpm then you need to drop that down. Personally I would set the effluent to 10ml/min. Then start bubbles at 3 a minute and see what effluent dkh is and reactor pH after running overnight. You can always slowly increase bubble count from there.