GEO Calcium Reactor with Secondary Chamber at Reef Corner

[geo]

I want to say thank you to Ken at www.ReefCorner.com for his business and support of the GEO calcium reactor line. He has a serious SPS system powered by the GEO CR818 and UMC618.

 

[Ken Hahn]

Thanks again for the quick-turn on a semi-custom setup. I needed the height of reactor to be adjusted to fit in the space I had available under the stand.

I couldn't get rid of the dosing system I had fast enough and glad to be back on a Calcium Reactor setup. The setup was quick and easy and it is handling the heavy system load without any problems. I will be converting a second system over to the same setup in the near future.

--- Ken

 

[revhtree]

Very nice and welcome to R2R Ken!

 

[gus6464]

Why is the second chamber running that tiny media? Just because or is there a practical reason?

 

[hybridazn]

Looks great!

 

[Breadman03]

Why is the second chamber running that tiny media? Just because or is there a practical reason?

That second chamber is likely being used to use up excess CO2. I assume the small media is just more effective.

 

[locito277]

Is that the 1218? Looking forward to setting mine up. Got the exact same setup!

 

[Ken Hahn]

I am running the smaller ARM media in the 2nd chamber as it is acting mainly as a CO2 scrubber to raise the pH of the effluent as well as to increase the overall capacity of the setup. The smaller grain size increases the contact time between the effluent and the media which in theory should help with raising the pH. Main reactor runs at a pH of 6.4 to 6.5. The 2nd stage raises that by about 0.3 to 6.7 to 6.8. Since the pH is higher in 2nd chamber the small media is less likely to turn into mush like it might in the 1st chamber.

The main chamber is running TLF Reborn coarse media with about 10% of the TLF Remag to increase the magnesium output. These were Geo's recommendations and they have worked great for me. Alk is running 9.5, Calcium 450-460ppm and Magnesium is around 1380 which is right around where I like to keep things.

This is running on a holding system of about 275g that is heavily loaded with Acros.

 

[Ken Hahn]

It is the CR818. Geo made a custom one for me that is a couple of inches lower so that it would fit under the stand where the dosing buckets were which makes it looks more like the CR1218

 

[locito277]

It is the CR818. Geo made a custom one for me that is a couple of inches lower so that it would fit under the stand where the dosing buckets were which makes it looks more like the CR1218

Looks great man! The tank residents look amazing!

 

[Ken Hahn]

I thought I would mention my reason for migrating from a dosing setup to a calcium reactor setup in case it is helpful to anyone else who may be having a similar experience to my own.

I have used dosing on smaller tanks that I have had in the past up to 70g and used calcium reactors on larger 200-300g tanks that were primarily mixed or SPS systems.

When I setup my commercial systems which were about 275g each, I decided to go with dosing as I figured it would be easier to adjust the chemistry if needed to as I expected the system load to fluctuate up and down over time. There was also the lower initial setup cost and no worries about the pH being depressed due to CO2 saturation. The downside I realized going in was the higher running cost for the chemicals.

The dosing worked well for some time, but I started having various issues that seemed to increase over time.

1. Being an electro-mechanical setup, there were several electronic failures with the dosing controllers that caused large swings before the failures were detected. Tubing stretched over time which affected the dosing settings and motors failed. I was constantly fiddling with a system that I figured would be more set-and-forget than it was. Repair parts also seemed overpriced.
2. Occasional forgetfulness on my part allowed the dosing containers to run dry. They were large 5g buckets, but I was going through the chemicals pretty fast.
3. Over time and with the same basic system load, it seemed like the dosing amount required was continuing to climb to keep the same chemistry targets which were 9 Alk, 450 calcium and 1400 magnesium. This meant the cost of the chemicals was also increasing.
4. The higher dosing levels was increasing salinity pretty fast if I did not keep a close eye on it.
5. Calcium/carbonate buildup became an increasing maintenance issue on all pumps in the system, requiring more frequent tear down of skimmer, wave maker and return pumps.
6. Final straw was when I did a 10% water change and the next morning the glass in the tanks was almost completely white due to some type of rapid calcium/carbonate precipitation.

It seemed to me that despite relatively large water changes that averaged about 10% per week, the water chemistry was being altered by the dosing in ways that that I was not able to measure with standard test kits.

I talked this over with an owner/friend of an LFS that has been in business for 20+ years. He mentioned that he is seeing more issues with people who have dosing setups on larger tanks who are reporting similar problems. he is recommending using salts that mix to NSW levels such as the standard Red Sea salt for those customer rather than using salts that mix to elevated levels such as the Red Sea Pro or the Kent salt that I typically use.

I did try the NSW level salt for a few water changes to see if it had any affect on the issue, but I continued to get the massive precipitation with each water change. BTW, the white showing at the bottom of the glass in the pictures at the start of this post is from that precipitation problem which is almost impossible to remove and is not from coralline algae.

Since the migration to a calcium reactor setup a few weeks ago, that problem has gone away. Now I just need to finish cleaning the glass.

 

[geo]

Is that the 1218? Looking forward to setting mine up. Got the exact same setup!

You have the reactor when are we going to get a photo of your GEO CR1218 set up? locito277 we will have to start a new thread for yours

 

[locito277]

You have the reactor when are we going to get a photo of your GEO CR1218 set up? locito277 we will have to start a new thread for yours

Hoping to add water working 2 weeks. Everything is almost set

 

[locito277]

Hoping to add water working 2 weeks. Everything is almost set

Within

 

[gus6464]

So if I add say the umc415 to my 612 all I need are 1/4 push connect fittings?

 

[geo]

So if I add say the umc415 to my 612 all I need are 1/4 push connect fittings?

If your GEO CR612 has 1/4" push connect fittings when you order the UMC415 choose the option for secondary chamber and it will come with the 1/4" push connect fittings installed.

 

[swk]

Calcium reactors are better for many reasons but the biggest benefit is that they are practically impossible to nuke a tank with. Not the case with 2 part dosing.

And honestly geo is the best of the bunch when it comes to calrx.

 

[Ken Hahn]

I tend to agree about calcium reactors being less likely to nuke a tank especially when using an auto dosing setup. There are lots of ways for the dosing setups to fail and it can easily go unnoticed for a while until stuff starts looking bad or you happen to check levels. Logically, dissolving coral skeleton should also provide a more balanced and natural water chemistry than adding a couple of specific chemicals.

With a calcium reactor, a quick visual check of the pH of the reactor and the effluent rate pretty much tells you that the chemistry should be about right before even measuring anything. A pH controller is an important safeguard on these setups I think to avoid the most likely catastrophic type failure. A high quality regulator like the Carbon Doser also helps to ensure general stability of the setup.

I ordered my 2nd setup from Geo last weekend to switch my second system over. Same custom setup as the first which has been working well. Looking forward to getting it installed once it arrives.

 

[geo]

And honestly geo is the best of the bunch when it comes to calrx.

Thank you that is very kind of you to say.

I ordered my 2nd setup from Geo last weekend to switch my second system over. Same custom setup as the first which has been working well. Looking forward to getting it installed once it arrives.

Its built we just need to get them cleaned up and packaged. Should go out by Wednesday! Thank you again for the business...