Air trapped in Canreef Ca Reactor

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I have a canreef Ca reactor which for the past 3 months has been working great, but I may now have a bit of a problem....

-The pump is now making a constant, rapid clicking sound.

-There seems to be air getting into the reactor somehow. My co2 bubble count is steady at 8/min, so it's not excess co2. In the 3/8" hose that goes from the pump to the bulkhead (Jaco Tee 2), There are now hundreds of little air bubbles. These air bubbles are now present in the main reactor chamber

-The are also larger almost constant airbubbles in the hoses coming from Holes Jaco 3, and Jaco 2 on the top plate (The hoses that go into Jaco Tee 1, which is on top of the bubble counter).

-Finally, the PH of the effluent is slowly rising.

Has anyone else had the condition? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
J-boy

[titus]

Hello,

It sounds like the setting for the CO2 rate was too high, and overtime too much CO2 was accumulated within the system. Have CO2 re-circulation prevents pump from cavitating but mis-tuning can lead to the build up of more and more CO2 overtime. Try opening up your effluent valve all the way to drain as much CO2 as possible and increase internal pH, which allow more CO2 to be dissolved at the same time. Do this for say a minute or so and see if it helps to correct the problem. Then also slow down the CO2 rate.

The rise of pH appears to come from the slower turnover by the pump from a lowered efficiency (because of bubbles).

Titus

[Anonymous]

Titus

I closed off the co2 completely, and left the effluent wide open all night. The PH of the effluent dropped as low as 6.44, but in the morning was back up to 7.35.

I do think you were right because before I opened the effluent, there was a precipitate in the effluent line which was quite gummy. Now however, it is all gone. While the effluent line was open, quit large air bubbles were coming out of the effluent line quite frequently.

This morning, I set the effluent to 60 drops/min, and tuned the co2 back on to 4 drips/min. I still have air bubbles however in all my tubes (but especially in the tube from the Jaco 2 tee to the bulkhead), and although the punp sound is quieter, it still is running whit a sound like there is air in the punp.

How can I rid the pump of this remaining air/co2? Again, although the pump is quieter than before, it is somewhat "gurgly" with air, and louder than before.

Thanks Titus, I appreciate the support.

J

[titus]

Hello,

It sounds like you now know the general steps to remedy future problems like this. The very last amount of CO2 trapped in the pump is very hard to get out just by opening up the effluent line. The only 100% sure way is to take it apart and re-prime the pump again. But I don't think it's necessary unless you are annoyed by the noise.

You brought up a good point in this that I always forget to tell customers. The effluent line does clog up. This happens because the slow drip rate coupled with the high calcium content helps the build up. You need to check the effluent line once in a while to make sure this doesn't happen.

Titus