Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

[royvoss]

how is the c02 solenoid being controlled, ie is on all the time or is it cycling on and off

[Reefer525XL]

I bought a 77301-20 benchtop system and some far things are not as stable as they should be, at least from what I've seen on here from other members.

I'm have the pump set at 50ml and the AP regulator at 1 bubble every 10 seconds. Output Co2 pressure it's about 6psi. I'm not worried about getting the pH to the correct level just yet. I first wanted to see how stable this thing was but so far I'm not impressed.

Tank pH swings from 8.2 to 7.8-7.9 thought the day.

Calcium reactor swings from 7.53 to 7.36

Anybody experience similar pH swings? Could I be doing something wrong or is this pH swing in the reactor simply due to the tank pH swing?

Originally Posted by royvoss

how is the c02 solenoid being controlled, ie is on all the time or is it cycling on and off

On all the time.... its not in the range that my apex would shut it off.

[swk]

If the reactor ph matches the tank ph swing then I would think there is not any issue here.

[slief]

Originally Posted by Affordable_Reef

On all the time.... its not in the range that my apex would shut it off.

For starters, your reactor pH will swing a bit and follow the swings of your display from day to night. That is normal. pH drops at night and increases during light on hours due to increased o2 from photosynthesis. I have to question the swings you are noting in the display though. That leads me to wonder if your display's pH probe is seeing interference or perhaps calibration is off. A .2 change is pH from day to night would be expectable but going from 8.2 to 7.8 is a bit excessive unless you have a major algae issue in your tank. In that case, I would expect similar fluctuations in your reactor. That said, what ever the cause is, it likely has nothing to do with you calcium reactor unless the reactor effluent is entering the sump right next to or up stream of the pH probe.

As a side note, 50 ml/min may end up being way too much flow but it all depends on the amount of SPS or calcium uptake and the size of the system. I run at 24 ml/min with 1 Co2 bubble every 6 seconds.

[swk]

Originally Posted by slief

For starters, your reactor pH will swing a bit and follow the swings of your display from day to night. That is normal. pH drops at night and increases during light on hours due to increased o2 from photosynthesis. I have to question the swings you are noting in the display though. That leads me to wonder if your display's pH probe is seeing interference or perhaps calibration is off. A .2 change is pH from day to night would be expectable but going from 8.2 to 7.8 is a bit excessive unless you have a major algae issue in your tank. In that case, I would expect similar fluctuations in your reactor.

My tank has always swung that much. Especially if windows are open during the day and shut at night.

If Windows are shut 24/7 then it's a smaller swing.

No algae problems either.


https://www.reeftronics.net/sa/sean-k/reefangel-history

[slief]

Originally Posted by swk

My tank has always swung that much. Especially if windows are open during the day and shut at night.

If Windows are shut 24/7 then it's a smaller swing.

No algae problems either.

Interesting. If that were the case, I would have expect to see a similar swing in pH within the reactor as well. There is a .4 swing in the display but only a .2 in the reactor. Then again, I just looked at my graphs and compared pH vs CaRxpH. I get a .2 swing from day to night in my display and about a .1 swing in the reactor. That's about 50% less swing in the reactor which in the case of the swings noted above, makes a bit more sense (.4 swing in the display vs .2 in the reactor). I would say that from what he is saying the reactor/pump combo is working great. Not sure what the concern was.

here is my pH graph for reference.

[hkgar]

Virtually no swing in my reactor. .02 and tank is .2

Why can't I paste my screen shot in a reply, can paste in into Word?

[hkgar]

Think I got it.

I made an increase in bubble count causing the increase.

[Reefer525XL]

Originally Posted by slief

For starters, your reactor pH will swing a bit and follow the swings of your display from day to night. That is normal. pH drops at night and increases during light on hours due to increased o2 from photosynthesis. I have to question the swings you are noting in the display though. That leads me to wonder if your display's pH probe is seeing interference or perhaps calibration is off. A .2 change is pH from day to night would be expectable but going from 8.2 to 7.8 is a bit excessive unless you have a major algae issue in your tank. In that case, I would expect similar fluctuations in your reactor. That said, what ever the cause is, it likely has nothing to do with you calcium reactor unless the reactor effluent is entering the sump right next to or up stream of the pH probe.

As a side note, 50 ml/min may end up being way too much flow but it all depends on the amount of SPS or calcium uptake and the size of the system. I run at 24 ml/min with 1 Co2 bubble every 6 seconds.

I don't run a light in my sump opposite of the display so that might be one of the reason for the pH swing. My skimmer also draws in air from outside and I did this because I couldn't get the pH to go pas 7.9 and during the night hours it would drop below 7.7.

I have no algae problems in my tank so thats out of the question. I have no calibrate the tank pH probe in about 6 months so I guess I could re-calibrate it and if the readings change. The tank pH probe is located in the middle section of the sump and that is the same section the Masterflex pump is taking water from. The effluent drops in the last section of the sump so it is downstream of the tanks pH probe.

I agree with you that 50ml might be a bit too much. I have the 6-600rpm motor so the lowest I can go is 30ml. I will start there and increase it if I need more. I do have about 350 gallons and the tank is 95% SPS.

I guess what I wanted to know is if a .2 change in the reactor will cause a significant drop/increase in the effluent ALK concentration?

[hkgar]

Mine is 11.93 (Hanna checker)

My flow rate is 40 ml/min wit a reactor ph of 6.7.
Bubble rate 7.5/minute
CO2 PSI 2

[slief]

Originally Posted by Affordable_Reef

I guess what I wanted to know is if a .2 change in the reactor will cause a significant drop/increase in the effluent ALK concentration?

That won't really impact anything. I think pretty much all of us face the similar fluctuations in pH within our reactors. It's all about finding a balance of what flow works best to maintain the Ca and Alk levels that you are targeting in your tank . Different media has different recommended pH ranges and in my case, I loosely based my target reactor pH on those numbers as a starting point for my Reborn media. Some test the Alk from the effluent while others don't. I test my tank water and base my reactor adjustments on the tank water and never bother to test the levels of the effluent.

[Reefer525XL]

Originally Posted by slief

That won't really impact anything. I think pretty much all of us face the similar fluctuations in pH within our reactors. It's all about finding a balance of what flow works best to maintain the Ca and Alk levels that you are targeting in your tank . Different media has different recommended pH ranges and in my case, I loosely based my target reactor pH on those numbers as a starting point for my Reborn media. Some test the Alk from the effluent while others don't. I test my tank water and base my reactor adjustments on the tank water and never bother to test the levels of the effluent.

Same here... I only test the tank water. I also used Reborn media and Ive found that between 6.8-6.9 if dissolves great.

[ZenMan]

I'm bringing a 700 gallon tank back to life. Last time I had the tank running, I was dosing three part using a masterflex pump system. Based on this thread I decided to go with a calcium reactor instead.

Seems like one of the hard parts to getting this type of system going is the 24/7 pump, luckily my old dosing pump can be repurposed!

I knew Mark before he was famous, so I sent him an e-mail and he shot me over a shopping list. Two weeks later, I received everything on the list and found a MTC ProCal reactor on Craigslist.

So here are pictures of my setup. I'm amazed at how simple it was to get going. My PSI is 12 and I'm at 60bpm, which results in a stable 6.6ph at 30ml per minute. Also, it looks like it should be very stable and consistent over time.

Too bad I had to turn off the CO2 because I seemed to have jumped the gun in adding SPS colonies to the new tank. I guess my cycle wasn't finished and I had an ammonia and phosphate spike that took most of them out one night.....so I'm testing Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate daily and hoping the tank stabilizes so that I can get back into my SPS addiction and have the CA reactor running.

[Vinny Kreyling]

ZenMan,
Looks like a Mini Cal, if so it's way under rated for that system, you need the Pro Cal.

[hkgar]

Originally Posted by ZenMan

My PSI is 12 and I'm at 60bpm, which results in a stable 6.6ph at 30ml per minute. Also, it looks like it should be very stable and consistent over time.

That is what I don't understand. My PSI is 3 and 7.6 BPM and my PH is 6.6 at 40ml/min. If I ran at your numbers I can't imagine how low my ph would go, or maybe there is a floor?

[ZenMan]

Originally Posted by Vinny Kreyling

ZenMan,
Looks like a Mini Cal, if so it's way under rated for that system, you need the Pro Cal.

It is a ProCal, the Co2 tank is a 15#, and is 27 inches tall to give you a better reference point.

Originally Posted by hkgar

That is what I don't understand. My PSI is 3 and 7.6 BPM and my PH is 6.6 at 40ml/min. If I ran at your numbers I can't imagine how low my ph would go, or maybe there is a floor?

The ProCal is a big reactor, not sure if those numbers will hold up over time, as I had to shut it down as I have no SPS load on the tank. The pressure and bubble count were just what I need to get a stable PH over the 3 hours I tested....

[Vinny Kreyling]

I'm used to seeing the newer ones with a yellow pump on them & a different bubble counter.
MTC makes nice equipment.

[jimmy007]

Will this model 7523-70 work with a calcium reactor? Is this brushless?

[vhuang168]

It is brushless but only 100 rpm.


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[vhuang168]

I have a 7550-30 which is 10-600 rpm. Can I go lower than 30ml/min? Can't lower any lower than 30ml/min


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[ClownsRCoo]

I think that depends on what tubing size you are using


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[vhuang168]

Ls/17


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[ClownsRCoo]

That has a 2.8ml flow rate per revolution. So if you are at your lowest end of 10 you are doing 28ml of flow. Look back 2 or 3 pages and someone has the chart posted


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[vhuang168]

Cool. Thanks. I was looking for that chart but didn't find it.


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[jimmy007]

What would be the negative if the pump is only 100 rpm?