Dialing in a Calcium Reactor

[mattseattle]

If there is a thread on this already could someone point me to it? I did a search and came up empty handed.

I just recently bought a calcium reactor. Finally, eh? I was so tired of additives and the constant changes in my alk and ca and all the other crap!

My reactor is only a day or so old and I'm still trying to figure out how to dial it in. I know I'm probably trying to over complicate this. I'm trying to find out how many drips and how many bubbles I should use.

Right now I have about 50 drips of output water and 1 bubble of CO2 every 3 or 4 seconds. I just bumped up the drips as well as the bubbles. Yesterday I was doing 40 drips and 1 bubble every 5 seconds. This morning I tested the output water and it was a pH of 7.2 and alk was only 15. I know the pH should probably be about 6.9. I'm using ARM media which says it dissolves at 7.5 but somehow I don't believe that.

also of course my alk in the tank dropped from last nights testing to this mornings testing so I know the reactor isn't even remotely keeping up with the needs of the tank.

so do the drip rate and the co2 bubble rate go hand and hand? if i bump one up should i bump the other up? or should i leave the drip rate at 50 drips a minute and bump up the CO2 till I get a pH of 6.9 or where do I want the pH at? also how long should i wait between adjustments and re-testing of the effulent (is that the word?)?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[Jeff]

Here is a pretty detailed thread on setting up and dialing in a Koralin calcium reactor. ClickMe I book marked it for when I got my calcium reactor, still waiting.

 

[mattseattle]

hey thanks for the link!!!

 

[DonW]

Matt,
I dont worry about the PH at all. I start with 30 dpm and adjust the co2 until the effluent is about 35dkh. Then monitor the tank if the dkh is falling I increase the dpm. Keep checking the effluent keeping it above 30 and keep checking the tank until it stabilizes at what your target is.
My:
Effluent DKH 35
Tank DKH 10.5
BPM I dont count
DPM 100

Hope this helps
Don

 

[mattseattle]

Don - thanks! that simplifies everything down to a level that I can understand quickly! I think right now I may have too many drips per minute versus bubble count. i'll slow down the DPM to see if the DKH of the effluent will come up.