Calcium Reactor To much for my tank? Help

[demariners]

So I decided to bite the bullet and remove my dosing and do a Calcium reactor. I got the Vertex R6 model I think it is called. Been running it for a few days and for some reason my Alkalinity keeps going up. I was wondering if it is possible the calcium reactor is just too much for my tank?

My consumption is currently about .7 dkH per day. In the last 2 days it has went from 9.0 dkh to 10.3. I just shut it down today since it just keeps rising. Also my mag (I am using Mag media as well) has went up about 20PPM in 2 days. I have a 55 gallon tank. I am going to add bunch of SPS and Clams to counter this but I was just not sure if It is too much or I am doing something wrong. My effluent is about 21 dKh (6.9 ph in reactor, Reborn media) and my drip rate is 10 ml/min. I can go lower on the flow rate (I have a Kamoer pump) but not sure how much higher I can go on the pH in the reactor with the reborn.

Any suggestions?

[slief]

Originally Posted by demariners

So I decided to bite the bullet and remove my dosing and do a Calcium reactor. I got the Vertex R6 model I think it is called. Been running it for a few days and for some reason my Alkalinity keeps going up. I was wondering if it is possible the calcium reactor is just too much for my tank?

My consumption is currently about .7 dkH per day. In the last 2 days it has went from 9.0 dkh to 10.3. I just shut it down today since it just keeps rising. Also my mag (I am using Mag media as well) has went up about 20PPM in 2 days. I have a 55 gallon tank. I am going to add bunch of SPS and Clams to counter this but I was just not sure if It is too much or I am doing something wrong. My effluent is about 21 dKh (6.9 ph in reactor, Reborn media) and my drip rate is 10 ml/min. I can go lower on the flow rate (I have a Kamoer pump) but not sure how much higher I can go on the pH in the reactor with the reborn.

Any suggestions?

You can certainly increase the reactor pH if your alk and mg are climbing. When you calibrated your reactor pH probe, did you calibrate with pH4 and pH7 or pH7 and pH10? 4 & 7 is critical for accurate pH readings and the calibration solution needs to be the same temp as the water where your temp probe is. If you can slow your effluent down some, that will help too though I think 10ml/min is about the bare minimum for the Kamoer so raising the pH level is about your only option. The other option is to only run the Co2 for part of the day.

[demariners]

Hello, it was calibrated with 4 and 7. The ph is accurate inside the reactor. Just wasn’t sure how high I could go on the ph with the reborn and mag media. Also as you said not sure how low I can go on the flowrate. I will give raiding the pH first a try.

[murphreef]

CA Reactors are neat and all but from my previous experiences they are too finicky and need too much constant adjustment and messing with.

When I had my 180 SPS tank it did work really well but I had to constantly tweak it, I mean daily which was very annoying.

Ever since then I just do automated dosing of 2 part and then add Red Sea Coral Colors ABCD and some Mg randomly. My tanks stay really stable and I dont have to constantly worry about an out of control Rx.

But you should slow down your effluent some. It will take some time to get used to it and as your calcium demand changes so will your reactor

[demariners]

Totally understand.

Today however I checked alk and it went up and I have nothing at all dosing. I have the calcium reactor offline. I just tested my RoDi and it has a dKh if 3! It must have been from the time I put some Kalk in the reservoir but that was months ago. So going to do a water change and get everything back to normal. My reactor might be doing fine but with the ATO dosing some alk that might have been the culprit the whole time.

[slief]

Originally Posted by demariners

Hello, it was calibrated with 4 and 7. The ph is accurate inside the reactor. Just wasn’t sure how high I could go on the ph with the reborn and mag media. Also as you said not sure how low I can go on the flowrate. I will give raiding the pH first a try.

If you can drop your flow rate, that is the first thing I would do while trying to maintain the same pH. I just don’t recall the minimum ml/min of the Kamoer.

That said, if you had Kalk in your ATO water, that is going to make it impossible to tune the reactor so you need to address that first.

[slief]

Originally Posted by murphreef

CA Reactors are neat and all but from my previous experiences they are too finicky and need too much constant adjustment and messing with.

When I had my 180 SPS tank it did work really well but I had to constantly tweak it, I mean daily which was very annoying.

Ever since then I just do automated dosing of 2 part and then add Red Sea Coral Colors ABCD and some Mg randomly. My tanks stay really stable and I dont have to constantly worry about an out of control Rx.

But you should slow down your effluent some. It will take some time to get used to it and as your calcium demand changes so will your reactor

You likely never ran a calcium reactor with a variable speed peristaltic feed pump. I use a Masterflex pump and my reactor is so set it and forget it that it’s a dream and I’ve been running this setup for years now. I can adjust my reactors effluent rate in 1/10th ml/min increments. My reactor pH is damn near flatline and my controller never needs to shut the Co2 off because the effluent rate and Co2 rate are always spot on. Since my effluent rate never varies, I never have to make adjustments. The only thing I do is change my 20 pound Co2 bottle every couple years and add new media to my Geo 818 every 6 or so months. My Alk, Ca and Mg are always consistent and have been for years. If I need more alk, I can just push a button to increase my effluent rate or turn the knob on my carbon doser regulator to lower the reactors pH. It’s far easier than dosing for me on my system not to mention less risky and less maintenance and my system is packed end to end with all kinds of thriving coral.

[demariners]

I have the same setup basically with the Kamoer pump and the Carbon doser on my Apex.

I just have to get it dialed in. I do not have anymore kalk in the ATO but there might be some residue so I am not sure that is the culprit. On the same note however. How does one use both Kalk and CaRx which I see everywhere which leads to higher pH.