I built a Ca Reactor,

[BCOrchidGuy]

But I won't post pics cuz too many people have built them, mine is pretty simple, just a 2ft tall 4 inch dia tube with a cap on it. The plumbing is simple, input goes in the bottom, and blows up through a screen and Carib Sea ARM, in the center of the screen a 1/2" PVC pipe goes up with in a few inches of the top, that is where the water returns to the pump. In the cap there is a nipple for the effluent to return to the tank. The water goes in the bottom of the tube on one side and returns to the Mag2 on the other side of the pump. The entire foot print of it is 7 x 10 inches and I think I figured out how to get it close to 7x8... so I may change some things.

ARM says to have your pH around 7.5, mine shows 7.48, I have 20 bubbles/min through the counter... it has only been running for 2 hours so I can't tell you how the Ca levels are in the tank yet. But, I'm one happy camper.

Thanks for all the help suggestions and pictures folks, it really did make the job..... almost simple.

[StirCrazy]

wait a week and see how your tanks Ca/alk levels have reacted.. if they are not satisfactory try get your effulent PH to about 6.8 or 6.9.

what I do is make a adjustment, wait 1 week and test.. if I am not happy I adjust again and wait a week. the worst thing you can do is start chasing levels by adjusting to frequently.

Once you get it dialed in you will realy love being able to hole 13 Alk and 450ppm Ca :lol:


Steve

Sorry typing under the infulance so I am not responcible for any gramatical/spelling errors tonight :evil:

[BCOrchidGuy]

Steve, during that week how often do you check your Ca Alk?.

As far as spelling and grammer I think my favorite saying is

"I may be a bad speller but I'm a gooder grammerer"

[StirCrazy]

I only test it once per week, that way I don;t get into the habit of chasing levels.. so lets say I tested tonight and my Alk was 9.4 and my Ca was 420, I would bump up my bubbles a little (say from 30/min to 40/min wait a week and test again. this will alow time for thw whole system to readjust and stabalize..

now having said that if you are having a problem and are trying to fix it then I would test a little more often and then try to resist any frequent adjustments, but as long as the levels are "close" then once a week would be plenty in my opinion.

Steve

[BCOrchidGuy]

The only problem I see is the copious use of calcium, which isn't really a problem as long as I keep dosing Ca additives (but no more).


Thanks for the insight.

Doug

[Jack]

Well, how's the reactor doing Doug?

[BCOrchidGuy]

So far so good, tank Ca seems to be around 440-460 and Alk is 12 dKH, pH is pretty much unchanged, still drops just below 8 at night and comes up to around 8.19 during the day.

Still dripping 1/2 gallon/hour and using 19 bubbles/min...

I'm pleased with it.

Doug

[Jack]

Gotta be pleased with those numbers, eh? I can't wait to get a reactor up and running. Do you still not want to post pictures? :wink:

[BCOrchidGuy]

I actually did get some pics but I need to get organized and get them put somewhere where I can host them.