Hello R2R,
I would like to discuss my current successful deployment of a calcium reactor. First a little about me and my background, I am by no means a reef expert as you think in regards to the giant list of well-known names in the industry, but I have kept marine animals since the early '90s and by nature am a very curious person in regards to how systems work and leveraging that knowledge to increase efficiencies (it is after all my profession). This is what has led me to share my experience in my reactor setup. Here is my current equipment list but this is applicable to most reactors, one key component is the use of a continuous duty peristaltic pump, it allows you to remove the need for a control valve (needle or ball) which will generally always need maintenance and does not provide means of repeatable setup. The other benefit that the pump provides which is important in our world is stability. In conjunction, if you have or decide to use the carbon doser regulator you can eliminate the use of a bubble counter which removes another thing that could leak.
Equipment List:
-- Display is 250 gallons with a total system volume of 400 gallons.
The first thing that is done after you have plumbed everything (I am not going into the installation of a calcium reactor as there are a ton of videos out there on this bit) is to run the reactor fully open without any use of co2 gas for 24hrs, we want to remove all air from the chambers and soak the CaRx media. Now here comes the import parts, decide at what level would you like to maintain ALK and stick with it. I like to keep my system at 8~8.2 (just my preference), something close to natural seawater but just slightly elevated. Next, let's back down the pump to about 30ml/min and through your control setting configure the ph range for the calcium reactor of "on @ 7.0 and off @ 6.9" the psi setting on the regulator should be around 6psi. Take a base measurement of your current ALK and then wait for 24hrs to see what the tank's ALK levels are afterwards also measure the effluent coming out of the reactor. If the levels of ALK in the tank are rising above what you need increase the ph range to "on @ 7.1 and off @ 7.0" in that same vane the inverse is true "on @ 6.9 and off @ 6.8". That is it, you know have the simplest approach to deploying a CaRx based on tank consumption. One thing to note the higher you push the ALK output the more CO2 will be introduced into the display tank depressing the PH of the system. This can be countered with the use of a refugium, macroalgae, and allowing the effluent line from the CaRx to flow through there as plants love co2.
The last thing to mention is if you are using media at the rate at which the tank consumes it your media tends to last a bit longer as the coral will only uptake a given rate, even with
rapid growth
Happy Reefing.
I would like to discuss my current successful deployment of a calcium reactor. First a little about me and my background, I am by no means a reef expert as you think in regards to the giant list of well-known names in the industry, but I have kept marine animals since the early '90s and by nature am a very curious person in regards to how systems work and leveraging that knowledge to increase efficiencies (it is after all my profession). This is what has led me to share my experience in my reactor setup. Here is my current equipment list but this is applicable to most reactors, one key component is the use of a continuous duty peristaltic pump, it allows you to remove the need for a control valve (needle or ball) which will generally always need maintenance and does not provide means of repeatable setup. The other benefit that the pump provides which is important in our world is stability. In conjunction, if you have or decide to use the carbon doser regulator you can eliminate the use of a bubble counter which removes another thing that could leak.
Equipment List:
-- Display is 250 gallons with a total system volume of 400 gallons.
- Aquamaxx ctech T-2
- Avast Marine secondary media reactor**
- Carbon doser electronic co2 reg
- Ecotech Versa dosing pump
- Two little fish Reborn media
- Free spot on your controller for an additional ph-probe.
The first thing that is done after you have plumbed everything (I am not going into the installation of a calcium reactor as there are a ton of videos out there on this bit) is to run the reactor fully open without any use of co2 gas for 24hrs, we want to remove all air from the chambers and soak the CaRx media. Now here comes the import parts, decide at what level would you like to maintain ALK and stick with it. I like to keep my system at 8~8.2 (just my preference), something close to natural seawater but just slightly elevated. Next, let's back down the pump to about 30ml/min and through your control setting configure the ph range for the calcium reactor of "on @ 7.0 and off @ 6.9" the psi setting on the regulator should be around 6psi. Take a base measurement of your current ALK and then wait for 24hrs to see what the tank's ALK levels are afterwards also measure the effluent coming out of the reactor. If the levels of ALK in the tank are rising above what you need increase the ph range to "on @ 7.1 and off @ 7.0" in that same vane the inverse is true "on @ 6.9 and off @ 6.8". That is it, you know have the simplest approach to deploying a CaRx based on tank consumption. One thing to note the higher you push the ALK output the more CO2 will be introduced into the display tank depressing the PH of the system. This can be countered with the use of a refugium, macroalgae, and allowing the effluent line from the CaRx to flow through there as plants love co2.
The last thing to mention is if you are using media at the rate at which the tank consumes it your media tends to last a bit longer as the coral will only uptake a given rate, even with
rapid growth
Happy Reefing.
