Ca Reactors and CO2

[Mr.X-ray]

Researching Ca reactors I've found most if not all manufactures require/need/want a CO2 set-up with them. Is this necessarally true? Can someone set up one without the bottle and it still be useful equipment? If so what brands are working for you?

 

[Serk]

The CO2 is pretty central to how a calcium reactor works. The carbonic acid (CO2) is what is used to acidify the water, thus dissolving the calcium media...

Now, a kalk reactor doesn't require CO2, but it's a totally different animal from a calcium reactor...

 

[Mr.X-ray]

Thanks... Question 2... But if the CO2 drops the Ph to desolve the Calcium, will the Ph auto rise to previous levels or higher or lower in conjuction with the higher Calcium once desolved? Assuming all other parameters are maintained at the same levels. Or does a person adding this have to counter act the reactor with another piece of equipment or doseing of some sort?

 

[DaveJ]

@Mr.X-ray wrote:

Seems it would do that, but its doesn't happen. There simply is not enough reaction distance for the pH to rise to normal levels before it enters the system and the CO2 does not get removed. This is the basis for people using effluent reactors that their Ca Reactors feed into. They contain Reactor Media which brings the pH back up while keeping the ca and alk in solution.

If you want a system for adding ca and alk to your tank that does not require CO2, you either go with a Kalk reactor (for low usage situations) or you dose 2 part solution (Ca and Alk components) on a daily basis.

 

[Ashlar]

Some folks also pipe the effluent from their ca reactor into their skimmer to 'blow off' as much of the excess co2 as possible.

 

[ss95003]

@Ashlar wrote:

This is what i do, and i have not had any issues with Ph levels. I just run a line for the effluent cup right to the intake of my skimmer pump.

 

[kwl1763]

Yes that actually does happen but you have flow through there so the water is injected with CO2 at that point the ph is real low like in the 5's this melts the media and then the pH raises to the 6's before entering into your tank. You are dripping a low pH extremely slowly into the tank. This quickly mixes and then gets "blown off"/stablized through other process and doesn't effect the tank much at all. It might take you to 8.0 instead of 8.1 or 8.2 but not enough to be an issue.

One way to counteract is to use in conjunction with kalkwasser. Kalwasser has extremely high ph and balances it out.

For the record I've had a calcium reactor for almost 10 years now and have never used kalk.