Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

[soulpatch]

How big is the frag tank? If we are talking only 3-4 gallons then you wouldn't have to worry about it. If you are talking more then regardless of the constant 3 gallons coming in you will still have a decreasing level in the tank. Depending on where your drain is passively draining from this could cause a slight issue and increase the salinity in the tank as evap happens.

IE you drain from the top and the water level drops slightly during the day but you are still draining. You are pumping in more water and the next day you are down a gallon in the frag tank. Salinity would drift ever so slightly.

It doesnt matter where the water is coming from as you will have evap. If this were closed system with the frag tank draining back into the sump it wouldnt be a concern as the sump ato would handle all evap but as is you will need to monitor it or add another ato for your frag tank.

[BillFW]

Originally Posted by awais98

In the frag tank If the water will 'always be full' due to incoming 3 gallons, how will I ever 'dose' auto topoff water via float switch.



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That's why I said "dose" . You'll have to measure the rate of evaporation and "dose" that much topoff water using a dosing pump. You would set it up just like a dosing pump for calcium or alkalinity where you'd measure the uptake and match it with dosing the replacement.

[awais98]

Originally Posted by BillFW

That's why I said "dose" . You'll have to measure the rate of evaporation and "dose" that much topoff water using a dosing pump. You would set it up just like a dosing pump for calcium or alkalinity where you'd measure the uptake and match it with dosing the replacement.

Man!! That will be difficult.
How do you measure the rate of evaporation? Set the whole thing up and mark levels everyday. Or put a salinity probe?

Have another theoretical argument.
Say for example the salinity in the frag tank is 2.050 and now daily continuously 3 gallons of 1.026 water is coming in. Logic tells me that the salinity will try to come down to 1.026 and one day it will reach there and stay there..... unless the evaporation rate is more than 3 gallons in 24 hours.

Tell me where am I wrong.




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[soulpatch]

Any evap will cause your salinity to drift. Your input of water is not variable.

Say your drain is set up to drain when the tank is full. It drains 3 gallons of water at same rate you pump in. The frag tank starts to evap and your water level ever so slightly drops causing the drain to be less then that of the water pumping in. Sure that water is 1.026 but the water in the frag tank is constantly rising as water evaps but salt remains.

It is the exact same concept as a dt with sump or any other setup. You evap water but the salt stays and as such your salinity drifts.

[awais98]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

How big is the frag tank? If we are talking only 3-4 gallons then you wouldn't have to worry about it. If you are talking more then regardless of the constant 3 gallons coming in you will still have a decreasing level in the tank. Depending on where your drain is passively draining from this could cause a slight issue and increase the salinity in the tank as evap happens.

IE you drain from the top and the water level drops slightly during the day but you are still draining. You are pumping in more water and the next day you are down a gallon in the frag tank. Salinity would drift ever so slightly.

It doesnt matter where the water is coming from as you will have evap. If this were closed system with the frag tank draining back into the sump it wouldnt be a concern as the sump ato would handle all evap but as is you will need to monitor it or add another ato for your frag tank.

Thank you for your input.
Reply to your first 3 sentences:
Well if it doesn't matter for 3-4 gallon tank ..... well then it shouldn't matter for a larger 20g tank too with TIME....the 3 gallons of 1.026 will always try to pull the salinity back towards it......


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[soulpatch]

I say it doesnt matter with a 3 gallon tank since the flow in would perfectly match the capacity of the holding tank. You would still get some drift but it would be so miniscule that it would take quite a while to notice.

The smaller % of tank volume that 3 gallons coming in is the more of a concern evap and salinity swing becomes.

And you are incorrect with the salinity of water coming in pulling it back. The rate at which it would "lower it" would be nearly impossible to measure it woudl be so slow. That is why top off is straight RODI. You need to give it fresh water for the salt that does not evap out to mix in with and balance the levels. Sure you would export some of the higher salinity water via the drain which would slow the drift but you are going to have it. The rate of the swing is unknown as we dont know your tank size or evap rate. Once you know those 2 variables then you will have a better position to know the level of impact you are going to deal with.

But if this is a frag tank for SPS then I would want to incorporate some form of ATO to ensure salinity does not drift especially for new frags which are healing from a cut...

[Jstaff123]

Hey everyone, I am running 2 masterflex pumps for a calcium and sulphur reactor, and just noticed last night a green fluid leaking from the bottom housing on one of the pumps..it's antifreeze green color. Obviously this not good news, has anyone else experienced this?

I haven't had a chance to open up the unit yet so haven't seen exactly where the motor leak is coming from yet.

Thanks

[awais98]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

I say it doesnt matter with a 3 gallon tank since the flow in would perfectly match the capacity of the holding tank. You would still get some drift but it would be so miniscule that it would take quite a while to notice.

The smaller % of tank volume that 3 gallons coming in is the more of a concern evap and salinity swing becomes.

And you are incorrect with the salinity of water coming in pulling it back. The rate at which it would "lower it" would be nearly impossible to measure it woudl be so slow. That is why top off is straight RODI. You need to give it fresh water for the salt that does not evap out to mix in with and balance the levels. Sure you would export some of the higher salinity water via the drain which would slow the drift but you are going to have it. The rate of the swing is unknown as we dont know your tank size or evap rate. Once you know those 2 variables then you will have a better position to know the level of impact you are going to deal with.

But if this is a frag tank for SPS then I would want to incorporate some form of ATO to ensure salinity does not drift especially for new frags which are healing from a cut...

Thank you for your advice, will definitely measure the evaporation rate and go from there.
Happy reefing!!


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[tkeracer619]

Originally Posted by Jstaff123

Hey everyone, I am running 2 masterflex pumps for a calcium and sulphur reactor, and just noticed last night a green fluid leaking from the bottom housing on one of the pumps..it's antifreeze green color. Obviously this not good news, has anyone else experienced this?

I haven't had a chance to open up the unit yet so haven't seen exactly where the motor leak is coming from yet.

Thanks

It could possibly be grease coming from the gear box. Otherwise I don't think there is anything else that could possibly leak.

[Jstaff123]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

It could possibly be grease coming from the gear box. Otherwise I don't think there is anything else that could possibly leak.

OK, I'll try to pull it apart this weekend and check it out, and see if there's something user serviceable on it. Thanks

[BillFW]

Originally Posted by awais98

Man!! That will be difficult.
How do you measure the rate of evaporation? Set the whole thing up and mark levels everyday. Or put a salinity probe?

Have another theoretical argument.
Say for example the salinity in the frag tank is 2.050 and now daily continuously 3 gallons of 1.026 water is coming in. Logic tells me that the salinity will try to come down to 1.026 and one day it will reach there and stay there..... unless the evaporation rate is more than 3 gallons in 24 hours.

Tell me where am I wrong.




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@soulpatch has it nailed. It's not that difficult, just estimate a starting point and monitor salinity daily and tweak it until it stabilizes. Then monitor maybe once a week to watch for seasonal evaporation changes. The only other option is manually topping it off which would be difficult to keep up with.

[tkeracer619]

Hey everyone I decided to start up a repair thread for our pumps. If you make any successful repairs please document them in the repair thread!!!! Enjoy

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2611468

[awais98]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

Hey everyone I decided to start up a repair thread for our pumps. If you make any successful repairs please document them in the repair thread!!!! Enjoy

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2611468

Awesome



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[souk]

So I have been running my unit for a couple months now and I just can't seem to get my dkh to stay at 7 or higher. its been pretty much sitting at 6.5-6.8 every time I check. I'm currently running the cole unit at 35 mils per min and the reactor has a ph reading of 6.5.

I would like to be at 7-8 dkh. Would you guys rec on bumping the mils on the cole unit and also bump the C02 to make up for the difference?

TIA

[tkeracer619]

What media are you using?

Have you done any manual dosing?

[souk]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

What media are you using?

Have you done any manual dosing?

I'm using Reborn and I've been dosing alk to keep up. Most of my sps has been showing new growth and at a higher rate. I didn't want to just give it more C02.

[tkeracer619]

How much alk are you dosing (media type and amount) and over what time period?

What regulator are you using? @ what PSI?

[souk]

I'm currently using BRS soda ash and I'm using their calculator to bing it back up. my current water vol is about 180gal and the amount of dosing is usually about 50-70ml of mixed soda ash. I let it go for a week or week and a half and it usually away goes back down to around 6.5-8.

[tkeracer619]

Bump gas pressure by 12% and effluent flow by 10%.

If that doesn't hold it bump them both by 10% again. If that doesn't get you there report back.

This is assuming your mag is at an adequate level.

[souk]

I'll bump up the levels to see if it'll hold.

Thank you, I REALLY appreciate your help and the super fast response!

[tkeracer619]

You're welcome! I think you're real close.

[vhuang168]

Is this the 80g in your profile? 35ml at a ph of 6.5 is a pretty large dose of alk for that tank unless it is brimming to the rim with acros.

Since the tank looks to be stable at that alk level, I would say to manually dose up the the level that you want to keep and it should stay there.


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[souk]

Didn't update my profile yet. It's a 185 gal setup.

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[vhuang168]

Ok, that sounds about right.


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[souk]

I've been manually dosing for a while now and wanted to try to dial it in so I wouldn't have to manually dose it weekly.

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