calcium drip rate

scubaninja

scubaninja

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Hi guys. when using a calcium reactor i believe you raise the calcium levels in your tank by increasing your drip rate from the reactor or somethin? meanin more kalk in per minute hence raisin the ca in the tank over all? this right? i was wondering what everbody's drip rate is and what system size you have? anyone ever tested what level the ca coming out of the reactor is?
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Hi Scuba - No - I have not actually "measured" my CaRX effluent drip rate, but, it is a very slow flow... not dripping....
And I have indeed measured my CaRX's effluent:
- pH: 6.5
- Ca: 500
 
thanks jb. it coming out at 500, wats the ca level in your actual tank? i just want to set my rate to be a good start off rate and don't want it to dose too much.
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how do you know its forty per second? seems pretty fast to be able to count it. i will up my drip rate after a while. amalick what calcium demand do you have in the tank? like how much sps and lps? coralline? jb can you tell me how much aswell?
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scubaninja said:
how do you know its forty per second? seems pretty fast to be able to count it. i will up my drip rate after a while. amalick what calcium demand do you have in the tank? like how much sps and lps? coralline? jb can you tell me how much aswell?
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Ag sorry man:p I meant 40 drops per minute NOT per second. I have no SPS mainly LPS / Softies. About 20 or so corals in all..
 
thanks guys. i don't have much in the lines of calcium demanding corals too, but my calcium is pretty mean. but consistancy is what i'm lookin for in my tank. runnin kalk through my top up was causing big swings. my tank does a lot of ro in a week, over a hundred litres so that adds to a lot of kalk gettin put into the system and causin quite a bit of trouble. what is the difference between kalk bein dissolved in ro and being dissolved in salt water? which has a higher solublity
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You can hook up your kalk stirrer to a p.H monitor and not through an ATO then you will have more control over your calcium. The p.H monitor will control when the stirrer adds water to the system. The only difference will be that the stirrer will take up and give off salt water.

Your's was the very reason why I stopped using a kalk stirrer as I didn't have control over how much calcium entered the tank as evaporation varied from day to day and season
 
thanks tony if you read what i wrote i said i WAS usin my top up and hence the swings. i have hooked it up to drip constantly into the tank very slowly so its more constant. it drips sea water in not ro. the atu is completely independant. any response onto whether or not kalk is more soluble in ro or salt water?
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Salt water or any water for that matter will only allow so much calcium to be dissolved. If the salt water is already high in calcium it will allow far less calcium to be dissolved and more if the water is low in calcium. So the answer is relative to the calcium in the system already. Your calcium however can get too high and cause precipitation so the drip rate, the amount of calcium in the stirrer, the frequency of the stirrer mixing up the water have to be carefully monitored. The p.H probe will remove a lot of the thinking and testing to be done by yourself
 
did some quick tests. water coming out is about 480. ca in the tank is 400. alk in the tank is 7.5. so doin well:) drip rate was slow, maybe a drip every second and a half. but i found the drip rate to have slowed over night. not sure what the cause is, maybe the valve is the culprit as i cannot see any blockages when i checked for them. will continue to monitor the levels.
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scubaninja said:
did some quick tests. water coming out is about 480. ca in the tank is 400. alk in the tank is 7.5. so doin well:) drip rate was slow, maybe a drip every second and a half. but i found the drip rate to have slowed over night. not sure what the cause is, maybe the valve is the culprit as i cannot see any blockages when i checked for them. will continue to monitor the levels.
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I doubt its a fault valve. I have a similar problem tweaking the drip rate. Are you controling the flow into the Carx out of it?. Control the flow out is a lot easier to regulate

You might find this link usefull..
A Guide to Using Calcium Reactors by Simon Huntington - Reefkeeping.com
 
The only "issue" I am experiencing with my CaRX setup, is that every now and again, I have to open the valve on my CO2 regulator every now and again, as the bubble count / bubble flow reduces slowly over a few hours/days.... then, I have to open the valve again....
 
amalick thanks for the link but i don't actually have a reactor;) i am running my diy stirrer off my return pump:) i put a t piece on the return and tapped a section off the t piece. the t is on its side so there are two vertical holes and one horizontal one. i have a little valve, for an ro sized pipe coming off that t which goes into my stirrer. the stirrer is a two litre bottle so it cannot handle too much pressure so the valve needs to be on the input.
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