I didn't get 'guy' training in my formative years, so keeping a reef tank has been an uphill struggle. By Guy training, I mean all the plumbing, motors, electrical, and other essential knowledge.
I've wished a million times some forum would have a "Clueless DIY" section for people like me.
Anyway, I've had a Calcium problem for the last few months. My corals are getting huge and I figured my Ca reactor couldn't keep up with it. I started making homemade 2 part Ca/alk supplement to augment what the reactor puts out, but was having to add something like 2/3 cup of double-strength Ca additive per day, to keep levels up in the tank.
Anyway, yesterday, I replaced the reactor media with new ARM media. And, after putting the reactor back in the sump, I was looking at it and thinking..., and realized the Eheim pump at the top of the reactor wasn't priming. I leaned the reactor this way and that, and finally by tilting it 90 deg., managed to get it to prime itself.
It's not all that apparent on the reactor whether the Eheim is pumping or not. You can see, in the pics, that there's only one tiny place to check, and even there it's hard to tell, because there was a bit of gurgling in the little section of the hose you can see thru, even when the pump wasn't pumping and was trying to prime itself.
Also, when I checked a couple of hours later, to see how the bubbling rate was doing, if I watched the dang reactor for a couple of minutes, I could see the CO2 perking up thru the media - although that's not very obvious either.
So, all these last three months, I've been struggling to keep my Ca/alk levels up because the CO2 wasn't perking thru the media, it was just bubbling at the top (thru that little black gizmo with the hole in it) then getting pumped out with effluent. I'm sure that slightly lowered the pH level in the reactor, but it mainly lowered the pH in the effluent - where I was checking the pH.
Grrrr!
When I checked Ca & alk levels, this morning, the levels were right up there where they should be - for the first time in months.
One clue I had, but didn't figure out fast enough, was that I had to replace the Eheim pump a few months ago because it burnt out it's bearings. Other than that hint, it vibrated just like it does when it's primed, didn't make any 'unprimed' noises.
Anyway, I figured this might be worth a mention, so other people with low mechanical skills won't make the same mistake.
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