calcium reactor help

[john90009]

Is it possible that when you run a calcium reactor with a ph monitor that if your bubbles per second is at 1, but your effluent is dripping faster then 1 per second that the ph in the reactor will never go down the tiny degree to tell it to turn off because the drip is faster then the c02 going in. This is kind of my situation i starts at 1 bubble every like 1.5 seconds and my monitor was up at 7.4 because my alk was high and not going down. I have the effluent at a super slow drip- alittle bit faster then my bubbler counter. Now that the alk is finally starting to go down i am turning the monitor down so the alk rises but i am noticing it is taking alot longer for the numbers to change and the monitor to tell the reactor to turn on. please anyone enlighten me.

 

[mellotang]

The number on your Ph controller is not the Alk level, its the Ph level inside the reactor. That number should be lower than 7.4, anywhere from 6.5-6.8 depending on media used in reactor.

You are correct, if your regulator is set to only let in small amounts of Co2 your Ph value will never get to the 6.5 range. Try running bubble rate around one per second if not a little faster, and your effluent at a steady drip. Set your Ph controller to 6.5 and see where you end up.

Calcium reactors are sometimes a little tricky in the beginning but once set and figured out they are great.

 

[john90009]

yeah i know the monitor reads the ph in the reactor i didnt mean it to sound like i ment it was the alk. for a long time my bubblers were at a fast 2 bubblers per second i would say and originally it was set to 6.8 and a slow drip. over the years i found my way to a stream coming out as my effluent and this made my alk to high so i kept raising the monitor(i was told should lower the concentration in the reactor. so im kinda back at square one where i slowed the bubbles and the drip and for awhile my alk stayed at 9.6 (even with the monitor at 7.4 and its calibrated)so after a week or two and corals are starting to show signs of improvement my alk is starting to be consumed. so i am lowering the monitor slowly to a point where my alk stops dropping but what concerd me last night is i increased the drip a tiny faster so its a constant drip drip drip like a drip every second. i noticed that the monitor would never turn off cause the effluent was faster then the bubbles that were just going in and being flushed right back out. So heres my adjustment question i got the alk slowly going back up. what would i adjust to keep the alk stable at a number? deff not the bubbles right i remember reading that is the course adjustment while the monitor is the fine adjustment.