Full vs. half full calcium reactor

[JAMSOURY]

Tuning calcium reactor to its melting ph level.
If the calcium reactor is full, would the alkalinity and calcium be more potent, considering it has more media to melt at the same time? Whereas if it’s half full, there isn’t much to melt, so there won’t be as much calcium and alkalinity which is melted off? Or does it not work like that?

Thanks!!

 

[Will Gorgan]

Tuning calcium reactor to its melting ph level.
If the calcium reactor is full, would the alkalinity and calcium be more potent, considering it has more media to melt at the same time? Whereas if it’s half full, there isn’t much to melt, so there won’t be as much calcium and alkalinity which is melted off? Or does it not work like that?

Thanks!!

Hello. So the answer to that is 50-50. Any amount of media will be beneficial to your tank, yes the more media will be better, but half full will also work just fine.

 

[o2manyfish]

Having been using Reactors for almost 20 years - The size of reactor only affects how often you have to open it up and add more media. For 15 years I used a small 4"x20" reactor on my 1100g system. Then I went to an Aquarium Engineering monster, and then last year a Dastaco. I switched to the Dastaco for more control and because it's sexy.

But the production of Calcium and Alkalinity is based on maintaining the proper pH for the media you are using. Regardless of quantity of media, maintaining the pH where you need it and adjusting the effluent is all you need to produce almost any quantity of alkalinity.

The best advice I can give is 1) use a pH probe in the main chamber to control the pH (then you never have to worry about bubble counts). And 2) switch to Dastaco media. Dastaco media is a solid limestone - it burns 99% pure Calc and Alk - you can burn 20lbs of it and add another 20lbs without having to clean and residual crap out of the bottom of the reactor. The Dastaco media won't turn to sludge if the pH goes low. And the Dastaco Media is solid. That means that in my 1100g system after 2 years I used only a few pounds of media - rather than 20+lbs of any crushed coral based media.

Dave B

 

[ca1ore]

I think you will get mixed views on this. I generally have found that once the volume of media falls below about half of the reactor volume, it begins to fall behind demand. Not immediately and catastrophically so, but measurable. Thus, the half way point triggers media cleaning/replacing. I have recently built a larger unit for my system, so it will be interesting to see how or if that dynamic changes.