Dialing in CA Reactor - seeking confirmation asap

[Dingo]

Started calcium reactor up yesterday afternoon and been fine tuning it since. Think I am finally at a decent point though. Unfortunately I did drive my alk up to 14 dKH at first. Monitored until about midnight and all was still okay when I woke up at 2am to check on stuff, however this morning at 6am I did see some rtn starting on a mille frag.
I noticed the water is slightly cloudy which I assume is probably Ca precipitating out as my solution reaches equilibrium?
Anyways, I don't want to run this high so how can I bring the alk down to a safe level?

Current change: increased the pH set point in reactor by 0.1- effluent is exiting at 6.5 but I want to target 6.7 for effluent. pH is fluctuating from 7.9 to 8.0
I am thinking to do a water change tonight but reef crystals is all I have on hand and it runs with high alk so I would knock it down to about 7 with HCl (calculated 4.3 ml in 6 gallons which is 9% of the tank volume). Do you guys concur? I do not want to go and take any drastic steps here.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd turn off the CO2 to the reactor and let the alk fall on its own.

 

[Dingo]

Thank you for the quick response Randy.

I will be back here in a few days once all settles back to normal to get with you on settings.
Is effluent flow from reactor a function of your demand in tank, assuming conditions are always constant in the reactor?

And why am I having cloudiness in the tank? If alk is about 250ppm shouldn't that allow for up to 750 ish+ ppm of Ca able to be in suspension? When I tested this morning it was 470ppm. Did not test mag. You don't have to simplify the chemistry for me.

 

[billwill]

You should do a search in here on calcium reactors. Definitely not as simple as setting your effluent ph and walking away. I agree on unplugging the co2 and letting it get down to where you want. Adjust alk and cal manually once you dial in the effluent rate that makes for a stable alk. Do not try to adjust your levels via your reactor.

 

[Dingo]

Thank you for the reply Bill.
If Randy has published it, I have read it.
In the past, my tanks have all been 200+g which as you know are much easier to dial in than a small tank like this.

 

[hybridazn]

I highly recommend setting up your CaRX this way. It makes it much easier to control and dial in.