calciuum reactor help

adidas · #1 02-29-2008, 08:12 PM

How low should the ph drop? what level should i set my ph to? and I have the bubble counter at about 80 bubbles per min, that ok?

Delphinus · #2 02-29-2008, 08:19 PM

Depends on the size of the reactor, 80bpm might be normal. When I had my larger reactor I had bubble rates around 120-150bpm, but with my smaller reactor (probably about 2l of media) I have it around 30bpm. The flipside to a smaller reactor is I have to refill it more often, but I don't mind.

I run my reactor at a pH of 6.7. You can get away with a lower pH but the more you lower it, the softer the media gets. Once it turns to mush you pretty much have to throw it out because the pump has a harder time pushing water through it.

You can also get away with a higher pH but you might have a harder time maintaining levels in the tank.

I find that 6.7 is a happy medium though.

Delphinus · #3 02-29-2008, 08:22 PM

One caveat: I use the older style calcium reactor media (2-3mm particle size). The newer medias tend to be things like really coarse crushed media (like 1/2" - 1" in size), you can run a much lower pH with that kind of media than you can with the smaller stuff. I'm not sure but you might even *need* to run the pH lower with the coarser stuff.

adidas · #4 02-29-2008, 08:29 PM

thanks for the help Tony

Its a GEO 612 rector, holds quite a bit of media.ome question, after the solenoid closes, is it normal for the bubble counter to take a few mins to stop?

Delphinus · #5 02-29-2008, 08:33 PM

Hmmm, I think it's normal for it to be non instant because what's happening is the valve is shut upstream of the needle valve, but there is still residual pressurized CO2 downstream and so however long it takes to reach equilibrium is how long it will take to stop bubbling .. a few minutes does seem sort of long though.. What's your outlet pressure set at? I run mine around 18psi, I found anything less I just couldn't really get a consistent bubble rate (I have a Milwaulkee brand regulator which is reputed to be not really one of the best, so that could be a part of it for me).

adidas · #6 02-29-2008, 08:38 PM

hmmm the guage on the right says 5, the one on the left we had at between 0.1 and 0.2. not sure which one is which

Pescador · #7 02-29-2008, 10:29 PM

I'm running the same reactor, what is your effluent flow?
Mine is on the high side I think about 200ml/min. Co2 is about 60bpm.
PH in the reactor is about 6.8. My Aquamedic regulator is preset at about 18-20psi. I open the needle valve on the reg to get a steady flow and fine tune it with a Redsea needle valve.
I'm pretty impressed with the larger media it's only gone down about an inch in 2 months I would have used 1/2 a chamber of the fine stuff in my K2R.

adidas · #8 02-29-2008, 11:34 PM

is psi the guage on the right? mine is at 5.and how do i know what my effluent flow is at?

Delphinus · #9 02-29-2008, 11:48 PM

I'm not sure what units 5 and 0.1 would be. The two numbers though, should represent inlet pressure (the pressure on the inlet side of the valve, the tank, basically) and outlet pressure. Tanks are usually around 800psi or so when full. The other pressure unit I know of is kPA (kiloPascal) but I think it's something like 1.5 psi per 10 kPA which means 800psi is something like 5500 kPA.

Unless the guage is reading in "thousands of kPA"? I guess that would explain the 0.1 reading though because 18psi is about 100-something kPA which would be 0.1 "thousands of kPA".

There's nothing on the guage itself that says what the units are?

adidas · #10 02-29-2008, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus

There's nothing on the guage itself that says what the units are?

lol it's all in chinese or something.. all i know is that the BPM is around 70-80...is there any dangers of having it run the way it is? the effluent is running at about the same speed as a 100gpd RODI filter