Bubble Counter & Fresh Water
 

I have a Precision Marine 622 Ca reactor. The instructions say the bubble counter must be half filled with fresh water. Anyone know why it has to be fresh water?

Density of water may affect bubble size or frequency? any reason to not use FW?

Wrong density of water may affect bubble size or frequency? :lol::lol::lol:

I think Brads right on this one, I don't run a calcium reactor but If I'm correct you are dissolving gaseous CO2 to create H2CO3 which in turn dissolves your media. If your bubbling through saltwater any additional ions could interfere with this process. (I am by no means an expert on reactors though so If someone can clarify that would be nice)
Levi

From a practical standpoint, I can't see where using FW or SW would make an appreciable difference. Bubble counting isn't exactly a science :)

I always used saltwater, filling mine was a total PITA.

My new calcium reactor automatically fills the bubblecounter with salt water, a great feature that I wish my old one had

You can also use glycerin, (called bubble counter fluid) it doesn't evaporate as fast in bubble counters that don't fill themselves.

Filling it with fresh water is a PITA. Only reason I asked. Didn't want to bother unless some had a real good reason to fill it with FW.
Sounds like others use SW so SW it is.
Thanks everyone.

Interesting. I simply filled my GEO calcium reactor with SW and the bubble counter gets filled along with eveything else. Since you just have to know how many bubbles you have relative to your last adjustment to dial in the reactor you only need to have the bubbles going through the same medium each time. The medium itself doesn't really matter as long as it is the same thing.

My Geo is the same but my K2R you have to manually fill it when it evaporates kind of a pain in the butt. The glycerin helps, it lasts alot longer.