Calcium Reactor and Hair Algae

[Lockart]

I have a 125 gl reef which I was using a self maid calcium reactor (can be seen on my home page) on. The reactor seemed to work well, keeping the calcium at 450+. I developed a bad case of hair algae and fought it for some time. All of my perameters were great. I was really stumped as to why I couldn't get rid of the algae . So I decided to turn of the reactor. Since then almost all of the hair algae has died off. I'm thinking that I wasn't getting Co2 into the tank and there by promoting the algae growth. I would really like to use the reactor. I was dripping the out put (PH 6.50 - 6.75, Tank PH was stable at 8.2 - 8.4) straight into the sump before. Any ideas on a better way of doing this?

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[Road Runner]

One of my friends had that same problem, with the algae and it started to get a lot better when we turned off his reactor.
First he stopped using the Carib Sea media and went to the Knop Koralith and the algae came back again. Then we slowed down his bubble rate to as slow as possible but keeping the low PH in the reactor, still it grew.
Finally we started dumping the effleuent into the skimmer where it would release the dissolved CO2 and alas.........never came back!!

 

[Lockart]

Thanks for the info RR. Do you know how you friend set the out put up? How did he get it into the skimmer?

 

[Road Runner]

Actually his was quite easy.He has a small tank and the Bak Pak in sump model skimmer, so we just drilled a hole just big enough to get a rigid airline 90 through the back of the skimmer and sealed it with pvc glue right above the bottom of the collection cup where there is no opposing water pressure from the skimmer but the effluent will mix with the skimmers air bubbles and release dissolved co2.
What kind of skimmer are you running?

 

[Tangy1]

I also had problems with GHA when I increased my CO2. It was very hard to control. Although I knew that the CO2 from the reactor would promote algae growth, I did not think that much of the CO2 was dripping back into the tank since my Ph never went below 8.25. (effluent Ph ~6.7)

My effluent drips back into the sump past the pump for the skimmer and the output of the skimmer. The reactor effluent is right near the return to the main tank.

Should I move the reactor drip closer to the skimmer pump? This area of the sump has a lot of bubbles because the drain from the main tank enters the sump in this area. Perhaps the bubbles from the drain will help diffuse any excess CO2...? Or is it common practice to have the effluent drip into the actual skimmer?