Calcium Reactor Help

[kraigrrr]

when the feed pump is running and the co2 is off... recirc pumpm running to leak check... and water is coming out the effluent out valve... is anything going into the tank?
Marc has said he ran his for a couple of days before turning on the co2... so is this ok?.... if you have a calcium reactor and are reading this now if you could give me a call before 10pm that would be great... 903-267-5159 Kraig

 

[kraigrrr]

anyone????

 

[timthetoolman]

Glad we could work it out on the phone.
Here's one of the posts viewtopic.php?f=94&t=53453
Here's the how to post viewtopic.php?f=1&t=54030&p=448790&hilit=calcium#p448790 on adding a probe in the reactor.
Like I was saying, if you ever cracked the lid, the engraving place in Arlington can laser cut a new acrylic lid. I'll stop by and ask them about it for my own curiosity.

Tim

 

[kraigrrr]

Thanks Tim... Great talking to you last night...

 

[melev]

So you are all okay now? Yes, running it with or without CO2 is fine, no harm comes to your tank since water is simply passing through the media. The CO2 drops the pH in the reactor to dissolve the media very gradually, and this is added to your tank 24 hours a day at a meager trickle or even at a drip rate.

 

[kraigrrr]

ok... I am up and running with co2... effluent is dripping in at 50ml per minute... maybe a little more... the ph in the reactor is at 6.7... why will it not drop to 6.5? Do I need to slow the effluent drip? I have the co2 pres. at 12lbs and bubble counter at 1 every 3-4 seconds... Tank ph is 8.2-8.4, I will recal. the pinpoint tonight... nothing has changed yet... but all does seem to be working well...
BTW Thank you to all who have helped me get this up and running... I could not have done it without you all!

 

[timthetoolman]

Either the ph contoller is set too high or you need to slow the drip. How slow is it dripping?
Good to hear it's going.

 

[kraigrrr]

50-60 ml per minute... I will try around 40 ml per minute...

 

[kraigrrr]

ok this may sound stupid, but, should I be able to see the media move??? I can feel the pump running but does not look like anything is moving... is this common?...

 

[bimmerzs]

The media does not usually move around, just sit's there like....well media.

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Cheers,

 

[Guest]

If you have the small arm you might see alittle bit move.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[melev]

If it was Deltec media, you'd see it tumbling. For lower pH in the reactor, slow the output or increase the bubble rate of CO2. However, 6.7 is probably fine. I'm currently running mine at 7.1 only because I need to lower the alkalinity in my tank. Matter of fact, I turned off the CO2 for the next day or two to make sure it comes down a bit.

I'm running NP pellets in a different reactor, and was warned that alk over 8 dKH can lead to sps tips getting burnt, so I'm trying to bring it down from 10 to 8.