Calcium Reactor SMC PH

[islander84]

Looking into different CaRx options and stumbled upon this.....

How does the PH rise in the SMC on a CaRx if the effluent out of the primary Rx is 6.5. If the water going into the SMC is 6.5 ph, how does it rise before it exits? Is there another source of water or air being mixed somehow that I missed reading in descriptions?

 

[Water Dog]

We typically use finer media in the secondary chamber to take up excess CO2. Since they discontinued Caribsea ARM fine media, use dry Caribsea Florida crushed coral instead. Really, the pH improvement while there, is fairly minimal. Here’s a decent BRS video on the subject...

 

[ca1ore]

Yes, the 'idea' is that the secondary chamber adsorbs any remaining free CO2 - it has quite minimal impact on the actual effluent pH as Leon notes. If your CaRx is designed to ensure good initial CO2 dissolution, the role of the secondary chamber is diminished.