Questions for large sps tank owners with calrx

[Emac909]

So I was just wondering how fast do u go through a your co2 tank? Also what size tank? Also what size is your reactor and about how many cups of media do burn through in a month?

I just was wounding cause I'm lazy and don't want to test my perimeters. I went through a 20lb co2 tank in 2 months and about 8 cups of media last month.
Here's a little info about how I run my reactor. I run it full stream on the effluent 24/7 (no drips). It runs in between 6.75 and 6.65 on the pH. The reactor hold abound 18 cups of media.
I'm just wondering.

 

[gumbii]

interesting....

 

[mark.a.smith405]

How long is your regulator on for? If I remember correctly dropping the ph in the chamber too quickly will burn through media. I might be remembering this wrong though hahaha

 

[Emac909]

How long is your regulator on for? If I remember correctly dropping the ph in the chamber too quickly will burn through media. I might be remembering this wrong though hahaha

Idk. It just runs as long as it takes to drop it down a tenth a point.

 

[watchguy123]

With 8 cups of media utilized in a month, you must have a huge tank with lots of sps.

 

[ERIC1975]

I have a 180 with lots of medium colonies and I run thru a 20lb CO2 tank every 10 months or so with a setting of about 60 bubbles per minute. The reactor probably hold a full 5bls of media. I also have a DIY 2nd chamber which holds another 2 lbs of media. My ph for the effluent is set for 6.8 and I have a fast drip almost a light continuous stream but not quite.

 

[Emac909]

With 8 cups of media utilized in a month, you must have a huge tank with lots of sps.

It's a 300. With a lot of medium size colones. But I was thinking the same thing "dam I'm way over doing it" but nothing is showing signs of high alk and everything is growing like weeds. Today day when I get home I'll finally break out the test kits and see where everything is at.

 

[cymaster007]

I go through a 5lb co2 tank every 4-6 months. About 8 cups or media. My pH in the reactor is about 6.5-6.4 I run it on the controller and it's on about 22 hours a day. I also am wondering What the effluent alk coming out of everyone's reactors is? Mine was around 17 and I heard it's actually supposed to be around 30??

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk

 

[Emac909]

I go through a 5lb co2 tank every 4-6 months. About 8 cups or media. My pH in the reactor is about 6.5-6.4 I run it on the controller and it's on about 22 hours a day. I also am wondering What the effluent alk coming out of everyone's reactors is? Mine was around 17 and I heard it's actually supposed to be around 30??

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk

I never thought about testing the effluent alk. I'll do that right now while I have my kits out.

 

[pciscott]

That sounds like way too much CO2 for 8 cups of media, check your regulator seal, a squirt bottle with light hand soap mixed with water, I would rule out a leak first. Then maybe dial back your effluent flow and your C02 bubbles for similar results. I have not put my reactor online yet, but a 10lbs C02 tank should last at least 6 months on your size system. What is your PH at, going through that much C02 I would suspect it in the lower range? Testing your effluent flow rate by how long it takes to fill up a gallon jug, and the effluent alk would allow the math to cut flow rate in half and double alk while using less CO2????? At least my sleepy mind thinks that

 

[Emac909]

Ok so I just finish testing here we go

Alk- 12.6 dKH (4.5Meg/L)
Cal- 285ppm I think my test kit is bad
Mag- 1160ppm a little low but not bad.
Po4- 0.1
Effluent Alk- 16.4 dKH
And that's all I did

I will add I will never run a reef tank with out a calcium reactor. They make life so much easier. The last tests I did were back in November of 2014 and everything was on the low side. So now that I got my alk where I want it. Ill manually dose some calcium (if I need to, need to get it tested with another kit) and magnesium and let the reactor do its thing like always.

 

[Emac909]

That sounds like way too much CO2 for 8 cups of media, check your regulator seal, a squirt bottle with light hand soap mixed with water, I would rule out a leak first. Then maybe dial back your effluent flow and your C02 bubbles for similar results. I have not put my reactor online yet, but a 10lbs C02 tank should last at least 6 months on your size system. What is your PH at, going through that much C02 I would suspect it in the lower range? Testing your effluent flow rate by how long it takes to fill up a gallon jug, and the effluent alk would allow the math to cut flow rate in half and double alk while using less CO2????? At least my sleepy mind thinks that

I did that and couldn't find any leaks. The only think I can think is the tank wasn't completely full. I got it at work and maybe it wasn't weighed right. At work they fill the tanks to weight. So say your standard 20lb aluminum tank weighs 27lb empty well then they will fill the tank with 20lbs of co2 liquid so that it weighs 47lbs. Well the last tank was a steel tank witch r slight heavier. So maybe they just filled it to 47lbs and call it a day. Cause the tank be for lasted me 5 or so months.
Actually the tank pH runs pretty good. 8.1 to 8.3 now that I'm running the algae turf scrubber. They r really good at gas exchange.
Ok so my effluent runs at 11 minutes and 55 seconds a gallon. The reason I run it full stream and not doing the whole so many dips per-minute thing is cause it always got clogged and slowed down for me. I could never keep the drips at a constant rate. So going full stream I didn't have to deal with fighting to keep the drips at a constant rate and I've been so much happier sense.