How do calcium reactors automatically keep up with coral growth?

So does the Reactor HAVE to be at 6.5? I am running mine at 7 with a steady flow rate just past a drip and it is maintaining what I have in my tank. granted, I dont have a massive ammt of consumption but I am testing at 475CA with 11DKH

 

got a bit to technical for me but bottom line is the effluent rate does have to be adjusted for demand??

 

yes... but this is a very gradual process and it might only have to be tweaked just the slightest bit a few times a year

 

Yes, but dosing 2pt. only requires a few tweaks a year. When I tweak dosing we are talking maybe a 10ml a day addition more.... which only amounts to however much ca and alk at that concentration... if you tweak a reactor a few more drops... how many ML is that???

Point being when you talk about tweaking a reactor od a dosing amont how much does that add up to an how much is it different??? So how can it be said that a reactor automatically accounts for changes in demand???

What I heard you say was that at what ever PH we change the concentration and if we set a certain flow rate only what is needed will be added.... and if more is needed there is enough "headroom" that more can be added for minor changes in increased demand.

Yet if the numbers were actually crunched just how much head room is there if you have to "tweak" it from time to time. What quantity of ions are you actually making up compared to just putting another minute on the dosing pump timer?

 

A reactor keeps the Ca at a constant level all day vs. manual dosing. Say you dose of the morning the Ca will spike and then fade off at the end of the day. Running the reactor at 6.5 dissolves the agr. you adjust the drip rate on what your tank uses daily. Reactors are better just cost more to start up.

 

And yes pickupman all that i have read and seen the reactor runs at 6.5 and this is the best ph to dissolve the agr.

 

OK. I know I am running mine at 7 now and its effluent does register higher than the tank itself. I dont have a whole lot of coral in my tank yet. Maybe 15 frags and one colony. I have good coraline growth but it has not been exploding as of late.

when I tested yesterday, the CA was at 490 or so on salifert and the color shift on my API DKH test kit shifted from the blue to green at 10 drops (added one more to yellow it) so the KH is at 11.

 

Anyone that has the money to spend on a reactor has the money to spend on dosing pumps and a controller. If fact one drawback to reactors is higher initial cost. Comparing a reactor to manual dosing is like comparing apples to oranges.

As far as Ca goes.... there is no data that says calcium needs to be dosed over time. The reef chemists I have read all say dosing calcium once a day is perfectly acceptable.

I was dosing 60-70 ml a day of both.... but that is a minor ppm consumption rate per day. Calcium going from 450 at the beginning of the day to 445 at the end is not a big deal.

I dosed alk from lights off to lights on to offset the the PH swing over night. Most that dose 2 pt. prefer to dose this way. Alk and Ca are both able to be dosed once a day, but usually dosing alk at one time raises PH too much since most tend to dose a recipe specifically for that.

What you are saying as far as setup goes back to demand not being regulated automatically.... PH kept at 6.5 for a specific concentration of dissolved material and drip rate is adjusted for demand.... and changing demand requires a change in drip rate.

 

Every reactor media is different, some will turn to much at 6.5 while others wil be fine. Mine is best at about 6.7 and its Aqua Media HydroCarbonat large size media.

 

I'm using the ARM coarse at 6.9 / 7 and it seems very happy..going with 30 bubbles/min and efluent rate of approx 1-1/2 qt/hr...every couple months just recheck the flow rate and I'm good to go..keeps my tank at cal 420. Alk 9..(my tank seems happy here so. Have just left it alone)..very interesting thread tho..