Schnitzel's Shallow Leemar 250

BlueTang · Jul 20, 2017

Remove that cover and you see more kick to your ph due to gas exchange.
How did you get your chaeto to ball like that? Mine never tumble like that.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

swnoob · Jul 20, 2017

SchnitzelReef said:

I was thinking the same when i was running at a similar ph. We always want more growth no matter how fast our acros grow. Almost nuked my tank by adding kalk to my ato container trying to raise the ph.

Running the air intake line to my skimmer to the outside helped a bit but not much so i figured a co2 scrubber would not be cost effective plus add more maintenance defeating the purpose of using a calcium reactor (set and forget for several months) as opposed to 2 part.

I will ignore my ph if you had those awesome results with a ph 7.5-7.8.

Will follow along

solitude127 · Jul 21, 2017

Since you run your effluent from your CaRx more open than a traditional drip, I wonder if that's your reason for low Ph? Since more water is passing through your reactor, you have to inject more CO2 to get the Ph down in the reactor therefore more CO2 getting into your system.

SchnitzelReef · Jul 21, 2017

i have a tunze powerhead pointed right at it. once it gets too big it stops tumbling, thats when its time to trim.

SchnitzelReef · Jul 21, 2017

solitude127 said:

i cant run my effluent any lower, it wont keep up with my alk demands. and yes i believe that to be the reason why my PH is so low.

swnoob · Jul 21, 2017

May i ask at what ph do you run your reactor?

Have you tried running it slightly lower to get a more concentrated effluent without melting the media in the reactor thus using less co2?

I tried that for a while and it worked but my reactor constantly clogged.

solitude127 · Jul 21, 2017

SchnitzelReef said:

what is your pH set at inside the chamber? and how many mls / minute for you effluent?

reefes pieces · Jul 21, 2017

maybe make a pvc chamber or modify a gfo reactor with some form of media in it and let the effluent drip into it and slosh around to release residual Co2 and raise the effluent ph. How big is your Cal Rx?

SchnitzelReef · Jul 21, 2017

reefes pieces said:

I already have a second chamber, but I may try a 3rd chamber like you are describing. When I first started running a calcium reactor I had one just like your describing. I made it from a dip and pour.
Reactor is a beast. 6"x24"

SchnitzelReef · Jul 21, 2017

solitude127 said:

Ph inside the reactor is 7.8. I've never checked the exact rate of effluent.

solitude127 · Jul 21, 2017

It would be interesting to test if you lowered your ph in the reactor and lowered you effluent drip. Any chance you could take a video of your effluent?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Jerry Williams · Jul 21, 2017

SchnitzelReef said:

You must be below a PH of 7.0 if you want calcium to melt/mix with the affluent. PH 7.0 is neutral. I run one of mine at 6.8/9 and the other at 6.7. My PH in one tank is 8.4 day in day out and the other one at 8.3. I have both skimmers pulling in outside air with a refugeum full of various types of chaeto.

SchnitzelReef · Jul 21, 2017

Jerry Williams said:

You must be below a PH of 7.0 if you want calcium to melt/mix with the affluent. PH 7.0 is neutral. I run one of mine at 6.8/9 and the other at 6.7. My PH in one tank is 8.4 day in day out and the other one at 8.3. I have both skimmers pulling in outside air with a refugeum full of various types of chaeto.

That was a typo Lol. PH is 6.8

swnoob · Jul 21, 2017

solitude127 said:

I was thinking the same. Like i mentioned above melting more media increases the chances of clogging up your reactor. The bad part is you'd never know it was clogged unless you see it or test your alk. A clogged reactor and away for the weekend can cause a disaster in short time.

solitude127 · Jul 21, 2017

swnoob said:

I think you'd be able to tell it's clogged if you look how many times your solenoid turns on/off

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

swnoob · Jul 21, 2017

solitude127 said:

You are correct but its not going to set off an alarm of low or high ph. Having to check to make sure your solenoid is acting normal is just as bad as having to visually see if the effluent is flowing.

I'm OCD with my tank and i check my apexfusion several times a day but there are those days i don't bother looking unless i get an alert.

If you do lower your reactor ph i would make it a habit of checking effluent flow every time you feed your tank.

Maybe we'll get lucky and have Neptune release a reliable alk monitor in the near future.

SchnitzelReef · Jul 22, 2017

solitude127 said:

I used to run my reactor with lower effluent and lower ph, but it wouldn't keep up with my alk demands. Even right now I think I am not keeping up, last time I checked my alk was 7. I usually try to keep it 7.5-8 if I can. This weekend I was going to test and adjust my co2 to lower the ph even more.

SchnitzelReef · Jul 22, 2017

swnoob said:

I used to run my reactor at 6.5 and lower flow, but it wouldn't keep up with my alk demands. My reactor never got clogged. Not sure how melting media would clog the reactor. Unless your effluent is running very slow.

SchnitzelReef · Jul 22, 2017

solitude127 said:

https://youtu.be/2j3B-hLWdUk

Jerry Williams · Jul 22, 2017

If your reactor is cloged wouldn't that prevent any flow of affluent? You can easily see if you have affluent flow,as in the video. Do you know that PH of the affluent as it enters your aquarium? That would help answer why you are having problem raising your PH.

SchnitzelReef said:

Schnitzel's Shallow Leemar 250

Member

New member

Instant Ocean User

Member

Member

New member

Instant Ocean User

Premium Member

Member

Member

Instant Ocean User

Member

Member

New member

Instant Ocean User

New member

Member

Member

Member

Member