Ca reactor adjustment

I dont have a reactor but will soon, I understand your Q. day or night

I would say night.

 

some of you are getting it and some of you are not getting it.
heres a different way to look at it.
the refugium, skimmer, controllers, air stones, second chambers and all other items other than whats listed are not part of this equation.

in order to ask the question here are the elements involved:
the effluents pH is to be set at 6.8
the main tanks pH level during the day is 8.3
the main tanks pH level during the night is 8.0.
day is when the main tank lights are on.
night is when the main tank lights are off.

option 1, day:
setting up the effluents pH during the day when the main tanks pH is at its highest level.
this option will have the main tanks water going into the reactor at a pH of 8.3 and the effluent set at a pH of 6.8

option 2, night:
setting up the effluents pH during the night when the main tanks pH is at its lowest level.
this option will have the main tanks water going into the reactor at a pH of 8.0 and the effluent set at a pH of 6.8

with that said, which option would you pick?

 

If I wasn't running a controller on my reactor than I would set it up and night. Since the PH going in is lower which would make the PH drop in the reactor melting the CA Media.

 

I dont have a Ca reactor, but I think I understand the Q. I would have to say at night is better. Luna

 

If there is no option 3, where the Ca runs 24x7 with a low pH safety to turnoff the CO2 should the tank pH drop to low....then I would chose option 1, so that I could keep a closer eye on the tank pH and have a larger pH band to work with before pH would drop too low.

Otty has made a good suggestion for post processing the Ca effluent to reduce the impact to the tank pH. If your skimmer has an input for the Ca effluent that works as well, but you need to be able to see the Ca effluent flow rate to make adjustments. Thus, Otty's suggestion...

 

so far we have:

night: 2

day: 1

 

I like all these trivia Q's, esp from RG, but for some odd reason, I never get to see the answer to any of them. This is like the 4th or 5th one that he does and I dont know what the conclusion was. Dont leave us hanging like that dude! Unless, these are Q's that you are asking b/c you want to know the answer to. Luna

 

its the opposite of peoples recommendation, odd isnt it.

 

So what's the answer? or was this just a discussion?

 

If you are only turning the CO2 on during the day while the corals are consuming the calcium due the photo period then you need to factor in some physics.

1. Once you shut of the Co2 off to the reactor then the pH in the chamber ends up being the same pH as the tank water from feeding high pH effluent in it.

2. Now you need extra time that reactor runs to get the pH back down to 6.8 for the media to dissolve and add calcium to the tank (during the day).

3. You will also need some kind of a timer, controller...etc to shut the solenoid on and off.

To me that is just something else to mess with that I don't need to. I have kalk going in the tank off a night to help keep pH up and I have code in the controller to shut CO2 and Kalk off if the pH get too low.