I thought I understood how the chemistry and reactor worked, but now I am questioning how much I really understand. I am no idiot, but there was a really cute girl in my high school chemistry class that made it hard to concentrate so.... here is my story...
Geo 618.
Before Reactor:
So, my tank consistently hovered around 7.9-8.0 PH each day. I was dosing manually with buffers every other day or so to creep it up to the 8.2-8.1 range.
Calc was around 370-380 each day, I dose both Kalk via a dosing pump each hour in addition to a generous dose of 2 part calcium and Alk liquids each day manually.
The result is I am able to keep PH at about 8.1, Alk around 8-9 and calc around 400 each day without stressing the tank considerably from swings.
The tank is not very heavily stocked, but between to coraline, and several LPS and SPS colonies the calc demand was enough to need to dose and the Alk constantly creeped down each day. I have a bunch of fish which no doubt affects PH.
After Reactor:
Anyway, enter the new calc reactor. I set it up on Monday and let it adjust @ 1 bubble per second overnight and all day tuesday. Picked that number because that's what I read on the internet... after all, everything you read online is true right? I get home tuesday night and measure both the effluent and the tank...
Effluent:
PH 6.24
Alk - off the test kit
Calc - off the test kit
Tank:
PH 8.2
Alk 9
Calc 420
I continue to dose Kalk in addition to the reactor for the time being, mostly because I want the PH + thinking the reactor effluent would cause the tank PH to come down slowly and I already have trouble keeping PH above 8. But also because I expected some ramp up time for the reactor and could phase out the KALK by lowering the dose over time.
So, overnight the tank went to ideal levels and the reactor effluent measured in the right place. One might think..SWEET! It works as advertised, all is right with the world! But no....
This scared me.... too acidic in the chamber too fast. I realized I may have not let the reactor work its way down in PH slow enough to be stable or within my control. I'm afraid it would have continued to drop and melt the ARM. So I reduced the bubbles per minute as well as the pressure for size of bubbles to 3 per minute. I will let this stabilize hoping that the PH of the effluent slowly creeps up to 6.5. I'll let that work itself out over a few days and then slowly increase the bubble count it needed to again start dialing in the PH to just below 6.5. The digital solenoid I got is very sensitive and allows for finite control. PH controler is on the way anyway as a backup for the solenoid and my RKL can regulate the effluent to the tank using the tank PH probe if the tank creeps low. If so, it will shut down the feed pump and thus the effluent drip.
Anyway, what baffled me is that the reactor came low that fast and dumped 6.25 water to the tank, I see the Alk and Calc has risen to normal levels as expected but...
To do that 6.25 water went in and I struggled with lower Ph to begin with yet my tank PH INCREASED to 8.2?
Add to that this morning when I checked the tank PH I did not see the nightly drop to below 8, it stayed stable at 8.1. So something is offsetting the reactor PH effluent and stabilizing my PH.
I assume the rise in ALK provided more buffer which stabilized the PH but I am shocked this happened so fast, and to such an ideal parameter. How could it have gone THAT right overnight? This rise in PH seems counter intuitive to adding LOW PH effluent but maybe I underestimate the ALK rise ability to buffer the tank.
It seems too good to be true, I am scared that I am going to get home to find a huge swing in PH or ALK because something is happening too fast that I didn't understand or I will come home to a reactor full of melted ARM. I'm seeing visions of $100 bills disolving in acid in my head as my tank crashes away
So, I look to you BRS, to make me sleep at night
In summary, WTF?
Geo 618.
Before Reactor:
So, my tank consistently hovered around 7.9-8.0 PH each day. I was dosing manually with buffers every other day or so to creep it up to the 8.2-8.1 range.
Calc was around 370-380 each day, I dose both Kalk via a dosing pump each hour in addition to a generous dose of 2 part calcium and Alk liquids each day manually.
The result is I am able to keep PH at about 8.1, Alk around 8-9 and calc around 400 each day without stressing the tank considerably from swings.
The tank is not very heavily stocked, but between to coraline, and several LPS and SPS colonies the calc demand was enough to need to dose and the Alk constantly creeped down each day. I have a bunch of fish which no doubt affects PH.
After Reactor:
Anyway, enter the new calc reactor. I set it up on Monday and let it adjust @ 1 bubble per second overnight and all day tuesday. Picked that number because that's what I read on the internet... after all, everything you read online is true right? I get home tuesday night and measure both the effluent and the tank...
Effluent:
PH 6.24
Alk - off the test kit
Calc - off the test kit
Tank:
PH 8.2
Alk 9
Calc 420
I continue to dose Kalk in addition to the reactor for the time being, mostly because I want the PH + thinking the reactor effluent would cause the tank PH to come down slowly and I already have trouble keeping PH above 8. But also because I expected some ramp up time for the reactor and could phase out the KALK by lowering the dose over time.
So, overnight the tank went to ideal levels and the reactor effluent measured in the right place. One might think..SWEET! It works as advertised, all is right with the world! But no....
This scared me.... too acidic in the chamber too fast. I realized I may have not let the reactor work its way down in PH slow enough to be stable or within my control. I'm afraid it would have continued to drop and melt the ARM. So I reduced the bubbles per minute as well as the pressure for size of bubbles to 3 per minute. I will let this stabilize hoping that the PH of the effluent slowly creeps up to 6.5. I'll let that work itself out over a few days and then slowly increase the bubble count it needed to again start dialing in the PH to just below 6.5. The digital solenoid I got is very sensitive and allows for finite control. PH controler is on the way anyway as a backup for the solenoid and my RKL can regulate the effluent to the tank using the tank PH probe if the tank creeps low. If so, it will shut down the feed pump and thus the effluent drip.
Anyway, what baffled me is that the reactor came low that fast and dumped 6.25 water to the tank, I see the Alk and Calc has risen to normal levels as expected but...
To do that 6.25 water went in and I struggled with lower Ph to begin with yet my tank PH INCREASED to 8.2?
Add to that this morning when I checked the tank PH I did not see the nightly drop to below 8, it stayed stable at 8.1. So something is offsetting the reactor PH effluent and stabilizing my PH.
I assume the rise in ALK provided more buffer which stabilized the PH but I am shocked this happened so fast, and to such an ideal parameter. How could it have gone THAT right overnight? This rise in PH seems counter intuitive to adding LOW PH effluent but maybe I underestimate the ALK rise ability to buffer the tank.
It seems too good to be true, I am scared that I am going to get home to find a huge swing in PH or ALK because something is happening too fast that I didn't understand or I will come home to a reactor full of melted ARM. I'm seeing visions of $100 bills disolving in acid in my head as my tank crashes away
So, I look to you BRS, to make me sleep at night
In summary, WTF?
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