Is your Ca reactor not producing enough

[Willito]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

Will
I had that problem with my reactor when I first started out. It has the capacity to be filled with three gallon jars of ARM but initially, I wanted to replace frequently so I had only put one gallon into the reactor. I had the effluent pH close to 6.4 and my alk/cal kept going down. Eventually I had to put three gallons of media in, and kept pH efluent at around 6.7 to maintain my alk/cal. The output is a steady stream out of a 1/4" tube and my bubble count is about 90-100 bph.

I figured after 3 months of running this thing would be stable by now but something is still not right. I measured my effluent and it's at 600ppm Ca. Not bad, but I think the drip rate is the reason why my levels are as low as they are. With a tank full of SPS and the drip rate it's current at, there is just not enought to feed the corals. I will double up of the drops/minute and increase the bubbles a tad and re-test the water in few days. Hope that the solution because I don't want to end up running a kalk reactor.

[BMW Rider]

Are the CA and ALK levels steady at those numbers, or do they drop down to that? If they're steady, then the reactor would seem to be providing the correct amount to the tank, you just need to use a suppliment to boost the values up to what you want. After that the reactor should hold it there. If the levels are dropping back to that after you boost them, then you need to dial up the reactor a bit. If the levels are out of balance, the reactor will always maintain them out of balance. You need to use a suppliment for the low value to bring it in line.

My reactor was holding my tank at 350-360 Ca and 8.5-9.0 ALK. I wanted the CA to be higher but not the ALK so I dosed some turbo calcium to bump it up to 425. Now its holding there with no change to the reactor settings.

[Delphinus]

Will, don't even bother measuring effluent in drips per minute. I have mine at a fairly steady stream. Measure more in ml per minute maybe. I would indeed step up your rate at least 1.5x or even double, and adjust the bubble rate so that the effluent is pH is 6.7, and see where things are at after that.

[Chin_Lee]

Originally Posted by Willito

I figured after 3 months of running this thing would be stable by now but something is still not right. I measured my effluent and it's at 600ppm Ca. Not bad, but I think the drip rate is the reason why my levels are as low as they are. With a tank full of SPS and the drip rate it's current at, there is just not enought to feed the corals. I will double up of the drops/minute and increase the bubbles a tad and re-test the water in few days. Hope that the solution because I don't want to end up running a kalk reactor.

Will
i just measured my effluent rate at 200 ml/minute. very steady flow - not anywhere near a drip of any rate. hope that helps you out.
BTW i also have the effluent fall into the body of water near my skimmer pump intake. this ensures as much of th co2 is removed and its more oxygen rich before going back into my display tank.

[Willito]

It's been about 2 weeks now since I've incresed the effluent (to almost a steady stream) and bubble count to see if that would help. I measured the levels 5 days ago and found the hardness has gone up to 7dkh, but calcium is still around 300ppm. Megnesium at 1290ppm. I decided to leave that the way it is and have been adding Seachem Advanced Calcium for 4 consecuitive days. My calcium is now at 400ppm. Today I did a 20% water change (haven't done one in a couple months) in hopes that will boost up the hardness a little more to maybe 8-9dkh and leave the rest to the reactor to do. I think part of my problem was not changing the water often enought. I going to test the water again in a week to see if the levels hold, if notk, I will just have to add a Kalkreactor. SPS are darn calcium hogs.

[Chin_Lee]

Will
I use the reactor to maintain the levels. I use the supplements to get it to the level I want then just use the reactor to maintain the alk/cal at that level.

Also i am going to start changing my ARM media every 3-4 months if I can afford it. I noticed a growth spurt right after I changed the previous 7 month old media.

Originally Posted by Willito

It's been about 2 weeks now since I've incresed the effluent (to almost a steady stream) and bubble count to see if that would help. I measured the levels 5 days ago and found the hardness has gone up to 7dkh, but calcium is still around 300ppm. Megnesium at 1290ppm. I decided to leave that the way it is and have been adding Seachem Advanced Calcium for 4 consecuitive days. My calcium is now at 400ppm. Today I did a 20% water change (haven't done one in a couple months) in hopes that will boost up the hardness a little more to maybe 8-9dkh and leave the rest to the reactor to do. I think part of my problem was not changing the water often enought. I going to test the water again in a week to see if the levels hold, if notk, I will just have to add a Kalkreactor. SPS are darn calcium hogs.

[Willito]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

Also i am going to start changing my ARM media every 3-4 months if I can afford it. I noticed a growth spurt right after I changed the previous 7 month old media.

Do you mean replacing all the media or just partial? What is the reasoning behind this? My results are the opposite, whenever I change the media (partial) I find that it take a upto a month for thing to be back to normal. Hence I often just add more media on top to avoid any kind of growth slowdowns.

[Jaws]

I was hoping I could revive this thread and check on your progress. I've got a 180G tank stocked fairly heavily with sps. I've got a dual stage Ca reactor and would like to maintain calcium levels of around 400 and Alk around 10. I'm still trying to figure out how much flow to allow, how many bubbles per minute and what pH level should be coming out of the second chamber. Any suggestions?