Geo 818/SMC415 Calcium Reactor Setup for my 240 Reef

[Cabinetman]

Looks good. I’m also going the carx route with my 560 so I’ll be following along. I wish Neptune would just give up on the 3 test and make an alk tester. If they don’t hurry up I will have an alkatronic myself

 

[mitch91175]

Looks good. I’m also going the carx route with my 560 so I’ll be following along. I wish Neptune would just give up on the 3 test and make an alk tester. If they don’t hurry up I will have an alkatronic myself

Bro you should just get the Alkatronic anyway and not wait on those jokers, . You will like that it DOESN'T rely on you Apex for anything for sure. Completely standalone unit so if my Apex freaks out for whatever reason, I know that the Alkatronic isn't as well.

 

[mitch91175]

Yes it’s hooked up but it’s so small it’s hard to see. I purchased it from aliexpress before coralvue started distributing it in the US. Sometimes the pump head makes a crunching noise and kamoer support hasn’t been much help. I have to grease the tubing with silicone lube and push the pump head in and it’s seems to quite the crunching noise for a couple or so weeks. Wish they had someone in the US that would help me out. I doubt coralvue would since it was purchased through aliexpress. Here’s a pic of it set up but without my secondary chamber hooked up.

You should give CoralVue a call since they are the likely US distributors. What is the worst thing they can tell you, NO?

 

[Bpb]

Bro you should just get the Alkatronic anyway and not wait on those jokers, . You will like that it DOESN'T rely on you Apex for anything for sure. Completely standalone unit so if my Apex freaks out for whatever reason, I know that the Alkatronic isn't as well.

How does the alkatronic work along with a calcium reactor?

 

[mitch91175]

How does the alkatronic work along with a calcium reactor?

This is how I plan to use it. I will increase my frequency of the Alkatronic testing my dKH to every hour but not dosing. I will have the Kamoer plugged into the BT power adapter for the Alkatronic. If my dKH goes out of my range I will have the Alkatronic turn of the pump. If the dKH is lower than my desired range, ill tweaks the CaRx and monitor the Alkatronic test. Once my dKH in consistently within my range, I’ll leave it there.

Then I’ll test for MAG and CAL to make sure that those are where I want them. Makes sense?

 

[mitch91175]

Here is the suggested setup directly from the Alkatronic manual (essentially what I mentioned in the last post):

Link to their latest manual: http://www.focustronic.net/media/wysiwyg/Alkatronic_User_Manual_5.2.pdf

 

[Bpb]

Ah ok just taking the place of manual testing then. Not actually automating.

 

[mitch91175]

Got my little stand made for the Kamoer pump. Things you gotta do when out of space, lol

 

[mitch91175]

Ok so finally got the CaRx installed. Gonna let the Kamoer and Sicce pump run for a little while before I start sending CO2 to the chamber. Right now the Sicce pump is noisier than I would like, but I think that may be because there is some air trapped the the reactor. That's why I will just let it run for a while before starting to tune it. Good times.

 

[mitch91175]

So after a little impatience with the Kamoer pump and removing and lubing the hose numerous times, I think I figured it out. You really need to do the pump calibration multiple times until you get the level of liquid you enter for the calibration. I had to calibrate mine 4 times to get the 50mls that I entered. My pump was getting stuck and I was wondering why. I think it was because it wasn't calibrated properly and was seizing on me. Getting the pH in the reactor dropped to 6.7 so it can start desolving the media. Also switched the Alkatronic to testing every hour until everything gets calibrated.

Currently have 15psi, 1 bubble every 2-3 seconds and pushing 20mls/min to the reactor.

 

[mitch91175]

So far so good with the CaRx. The Alkatronic has been testing every hour and has shown thus far that everything is pretty stable. Here is my graph from the testing:

You'll notice that on the right that the dKH isn't bouncing around like it was before. I will increase some but want to see how it continues to look for a few days. The pH in the Geo reached 6.7 right around the time you see the red dot showing that the Alkatronic dosed to put the dKH back to within my range that I want.

Setting up the CaRx was really easy. I am running into a low pH issue that I will have to deal with by dosing kalk (was hoping that I wasn't going to need to do so). Will also see what I can do with my CO2 scrubber to try to get my tank pH back closer to 8. This morning it is at 7.67. I calibrated the pH probe at the same time I calibrated the one for the CaRx chamber to make sure that everything was reading appropriately.

Today I will test my calcium/magnesium and make sure that they are where I want them and if not bring them up and not worry too much about them from there. Good times.

 

[mitch91175]

Just for reference, here is the graph of the pH probe that is controlling the CO2 levels in the Geo:

 

[mitch91175]

Well quick update. Man I love my Alkatronic (as well as the new Geo 818/SMC415 setup). Mainly focusing on dKH right now and all I can say is WOW ;Joyful;Smuggrin). What took me sooooo long to get this setup and get it going. Alkalinity thus far has been rock solid. FOr those thinking about going the CaRx route and feel that it is too complicated, with the right equipment in place, not so much (at least from my initial thoughts ).

You may have noticed that I have changed my Alkatronic testing interval to every 2 hours now instead of every hour. I will likely bump that to every 4 hours sometime tonight or early tomorrow if everything remains consistent like I am seeing thus far.

Life is good.

 

[mitch91175]

nice...... welcome to stable parameters.

You hit the nail on the head with that statement. So far so good.

 

[mitch91175]

Hey y'all just a quick update on how things are going with the Alkatronic and the Geo 818. I have decided to bump my dKH up closer to 8dKH so I can get the best benefit of dissolving the remag and reborn media and it's looking very promising pushing the dKH to 8dKH. Here is a graph from the Alkatronic testing helping me get to where I am thinking that I'll settle on my dKH.

NOTE: I increased my range from 7.5-8.5 in the Alkatronic because I do nt want it to do any more dosing while I get everything settled in.

Going to continue down this path for sure. All coral are looking good so no worries about increasing the dKH closer to 8dKH. I use LiveAquaria salt and it has a 8dKH so it makes perfect sense for me to keep my DT around that mark. FYI, I do not do any water changes though, but just in case I do need to do a water change for whatever reason, I will not have a spike in dKH.

I will say this, without the Alkatronic, for me this switch would have been nearly impossible. Yes I could have measured dKH manually and did my best doing it that way, but with the Alkatronic I can adjust the testing schedule however much I need to to ensure that any changes that I make to the CaRx do what I think it should. Great combination.

 

[mitch91175]

Here is the CaRx chamber pH graph to match the above Alkatronic test:

The increases in pH were me testing the method of having a higher pH in the chamber and attempting to use only the effluent amount to keep the dKH levels based on my tank usage. To me I feel that didn't work and went back to the manufacturer recommended pH dissolve rate and just adjusted the effluent to keep the display tank dKH in my desired range.

 

[mitch91175]

Well y'all here is an update. Think that I have the CaRx dialed in nicely:

pH:

 

[solitude127]

Looking good. Hopefully it'll be little to no maintenance until you need to refill the reactor

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

Finally someone else using a calcium reactor. I have the smaller version of the geo for my 120 and has been amazing unit and an amazing way to keep alk and calcium. I use one of those big co2 bottles and have been getting 8 months before getting it refilled for $12. I’m done with 2 part forever.

 

[mitch91175]

Finally someone else using a calcium reactor. I have the smaller version of the geo for my 120 and has been amazing unit and an amazing way to keep alk and calcium. I use one of those big co2 bottles and have been getting 8 months before getting it refilled for $12. I’m done with 2 part forever.

That's sweet bro. That's the plan is to get away from 2 part (can't completely yet though have frag tank that I'll need to still dose :mad.

I am surprised that there aren't more people using calcium reactors too. From the looks of everything, if it is setup properly it can be soo much benefit for overall system stability.