What to do with effluent?

SO by now I know the #1 concern about Ca reactors is the low PH effluent bringing down ph in the system water. As far as I know there are 3 ways you might counter excess CO2 from messing up your tank.

They are:

1) drain effluent into a refugium so Macros can use the CO2 to grow.

2) drain effluent into skimmer so it gases off the CO2 into the atmosphere.

3) use a second chamber of reactor media without CO2 to raise the ph before it exits.

Obviously the easiest solution is just drain it into my fuge but im worried the effluent will just kinda hang around in there and only a limited amount will get into the tank while the fuge is overdosed.

Getting it into my skimmer wont be too hard either cuz I have a tall downdraft model and i could possibly drill a hole in the downdraft tube and add the effluent that way.

Using a second chamber on the reactor wouldnt be hard either, I could just use my singular DI chamber that goes with my RO unit.

Any suggestions on this guys?

 

you could also use a cup with an air stone let your effluent flow into there

 

I think your concerns about it "hanging around" in the refugium are unnecessary, as long as there is flow through there the effluent from the reactor will mix with the refugium water and will get back to the sump/display tank. You may want to make sure you have adequate circulation and flow through the refugium but with those two things I don't see an issue.

I personally am using a 2 stage reactor because you get more efficient use of your CO2 and don't have to worry as much about effluent pH, but I really think either of the other 2 options are good.

The only thing I would be concerned with is if you put the effluent into the refugium, I would put the feed pump in there so if the return pump dies or stops for any reason you aren't drawing water from elsewhere and potentially drying up a chamber or flooding the refugium (depending entirely on the setup of course). There might be a better way to handle it but it's something to keep in mind anyway.

 

I have mine go in a second chamber to make use of the CO2 and then I have it discharge in a container that I have 2 air stones in so they help blow off the excess CO2. It then flows back in the sump.

 

when I had a CA Reactor I just had it go into the sump, in the same chamber as the overflow. Never had a problem with low PH

J

 

Thanks guys. yesterday I had it going into the refugium input. it goes down a baffle and gets pulled through a foot of cheato before it overflows to the tank. It could be my imagination but there seems to be a hell of alot of extra green growth overnight. This would be great during the fuge's day cycle as it uses CO2 and releases O2. But what happens in its night cycle where it takes in O2 and releases CO2?

When refugium is in dark will there be a CO2 overload?

BTW, what a frikkin difference. I was skeptical about this $400 purchase at first. But after a couple days of running it I am truley impressed at what these simple devices can do. All coralline algae has very bright pigmentation, corals are lovin it. In the year this tank has been set up and almost a month since the crash (80% of tank water on floor for 6 hours), the tank looks as good as I could ever hope for. A used reactor system is def worth the money!

 

The slow drip rate of a properly adjusted reactor never had much effect on my systems pH. I started out with two chambers but once one lid cracked I never replaced the second one and never had a problem with pH.

 

So I guess now its just a mtter of monitoring PH, Alk and Ca and increasing or decreasing effluent or the amount of CO2 bubbles inside a minute. Im just going to rely on the media to keep the Mg balanced. Im looking at the label right now actually, CaribSea Ultra High Purity Aragonite "containing not only Ca and Carbonate but essential trace elements as well!" Strontium, Mg and K (symbol for Potassium?) in much lower quantities - 7k ppm, 1k ppm and 50 ppm respectively. Next time I fill this thing any suggestions on a better reactor media?

Test Kits arriving any day now. Hopefully the parameters dont get screwed up before then. Thanks for advice all.

 

If it were me I wouldn't run it without testing personally. There is potentially a lot more harm that can be done by running it without testing than not running it IMO.

Also I'm going to be using Gen-X media for my first reactor full with ZeoMag to help with magnesium supplementation.
Gen-X Calcium reactor media - appox 10lbs: Premium Aquatics
Korallen-Zucht ZEOvit ZEOmag Magnesium Granulate - 1kg