Is your Ca reactor not producing enough

[Willito]

It's been about 2 weeks now since I've incresed the effluent (to almost a steady stream) and bubble count to see if that would help. I measured the levels 5 days ago and found the hardness has gone up to 7dkh, but calcium is still around 300ppm. Megnesium at 1290ppm. I decided to leave that the way it is and have been adding Seachem Advanced Calcium for 4 consecuitive days. My calcium is now at 400ppm. Today I did a 20% water change (haven't done one in a couple months) in hopes that will boost up the hardness a little more to maybe 8-9dkh and leave the rest to the reactor to do. I think part of my problem was not changing the water often enought. I going to test the water again in a week to see if the levels hold, if notk, I will just have to add a Kalkreactor. SPS are darn calcium hogs.

[Chin_Lee]

Will
I use the reactor to maintain the levels. I use the supplements to get it to the level I want then just use the reactor to maintain the alk/cal at that level.

Also i am going to start changing my ARM media every 3-4 months if I can afford it. I noticed a growth spurt right after I changed the previous 7 month old media.

Originally Posted by Willito

It's been about 2 weeks now since I've incresed the effluent (to almost a steady stream) and bubble count to see if that would help. I measured the levels 5 days ago and found the hardness has gone up to 7dkh, but calcium is still around 300ppm. Megnesium at 1290ppm. I decided to leave that the way it is and have been adding Seachem Advanced Calcium for 4 consecuitive days. My calcium is now at 400ppm. Today I did a 20% water change (haven't done one in a couple months) in hopes that will boost up the hardness a little more to maybe 8-9dkh and leave the rest to the reactor to do. I think part of my problem was not changing the water often enought. I going to test the water again in a week to see if the levels hold, if notk, I will just have to add a Kalkreactor. SPS are darn calcium hogs.

[Willito]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

Also i am going to start changing my ARM media every 3-4 months if I can afford it. I noticed a growth spurt right after I changed the previous 7 month old media.

Do you mean replacing all the media or just partial? What is the reasoning behind this? My results are the opposite, whenever I change the media (partial) I find that it take a upto a month for thing to be back to normal. Hence I often just add more media on top to avoid any kind of growth slowdowns.

[Willito]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Anytime in the past that I've found my levels not at target I would just dial the reactor up. I don't really see how a reactor couldn't be adjusted upwards. About the only thing is a psychological barrier of not wanting to set the CO2 level high enough.

Maybe look at a bigger reactor with more media capacity if you find this to be a recurring problem. Or look at Magnesium levels ..

My meg level is at 1275ppm and I have 2.5 containers of ARMs in my reactor. Bubble count is at 70/minute and drip rate at about 100 drops/minute and I have been hovering around 300ppm of Ca and a dkh of 4.

[BMW Rider]

Are the CA and ALK levels steady at those numbers, or do they drop down to that? If they're steady, then the reactor would seem to be providing the correct amount to the tank, you just need to use a suppliment to boost the values up to what you want. After that the reactor should hold it there. If the levels are dropping back to that after you boost them, then you need to dial up the reactor a bit. If the levels are out of balance, the reactor will always maintain them out of balance. You need to use a suppliment for the low value to bring it in line.

My reactor was holding my tank at 350-360 Ca and 8.5-9.0 ALK. I wanted the CA to be higher but not the ALK so I dosed some turbo calcium to bump it up to 425. Now its holding there with no change to the reactor settings.