wasp Posted June 10, 2006 Report Share Posted June 10, 2006 Craig, Joe is Steve :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cracker Posted June 10, 2006 Report Share Posted June 10, 2006 Nice.....ok.....no probs....I thought you were doing a WC. Hi Steve!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay Posted June 10, 2006 Report Share Posted June 10, 2006 Just chlorides and baking soda, plus prodibio, amino acids, I copy Cracker I also use Cyclop-eeze. (just started with the amino acids after visit to Cracker will see how it goes, need to go good man it is big $) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted June 10, 2006 Report Share Posted June 10, 2006 just started with the amino acids I have found that amino acids are more for acropora. Have not noticed and major changes in other coral. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay Posted June 10, 2006 Report Share Posted June 10, 2006 I have found that amino acids are more for acropora. Have not noticed and major changes in other coral. Thats what I bought it for have got a few now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted June 10, 2006 Report Share Posted June 10, 2006 You should notice changes in the acropora within a month, however to get the maxium out of the aminos you need to get nitrate below 5ppm and po4 under .03. Higher levels will cause acopora to go brown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay Posted June 10, 2006 Report Share Posted June 10, 2006 You should notice changes in the acropora within a month, however to get the maxium out of the aminos you need to get nitrate below 5ppm and po4 under .03. Higher levels will cause acopora to go brown. Working on it look at my tank topic and see what I have been up to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted June 10, 2006 Report Share Posted June 10, 2006 Back to that effluent pipe clogging question, here is what I did to solve it. My reactor is a Deltec, which use a very fine media and actually keeps it fluidized. So as a result if pH goes too low the media softens and easily loses fine particles as it get tossed around, the water goes milky, and these little particles can start to clog the pipe. Due to my own ignorance of ca reactors I made this problem worse by positioning the reactor so the effluent pipe was about a meter long, and had to go uphill about 30 cm to get to the top of the tank. That, combined with a slow drip rate, was perfect conditions for matter to settle out in the pipe and block it. So, to solve this 2 things were needed, the first was to change the position of the reactor so the effluent pipe was as short as possible, it is now about 20 cm long, and also has a fall of about 10 cm on it. But the main thing is the chemistry inside the reactor. By coincidence I now have 2 reactors so have put them both inline, the first one is an aquamedic, which uses large size media and does not fluidize the media. The second one is the Deltec and is doing the job of a degasser. So because there is now a total of quite a large volume of water, and of media, in the reactors, relative to the volume of the tank, it is now possible to have a very low bubble count relative to drip rate, and correspondingly relatively high-ish pH in the reactor. ( Because there is not so much Co2 in there as normal ). As a result the media is dissolving slowly, but because there is a lot of it, there is still enough to come out in the drip & keep the tank levels right up. The water in the reactor is crystal clear, no particulate matter is in it at all, and the pH going into the tank is high by normal reactor standards. Doing all this, where I used to have to unclog the pipe fairly regularly, this set up has been running several months with no clogging, and in fact nowhere even close. I am still not 100% sure of all the chemistry that happens in a reactor, so the explanation I have given is why I THINK it works, ( doesn’t clog ), but if anyone can chip in with any useful comments / improvements on my explanation, please feel free. I won’t be back at the PC for a while for any further comment though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossco Posted June 11, 2006 Report Share Posted June 11, 2006 Dumb question for the day - I thought 'fluidized' was mostly getting water flow around the media (cause you can see what appears to be the media largely unchanged in most reactors). From wasp's comments it seems the media itself substantially changes, not just the outer areas of the particles in contact with the acidic water What happens and how do we use this to best effect? :oops: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted June 11, 2006 Report Share Posted June 11, 2006 Fluidized is when the media moves a little around the reactor, thus giving better contact and even ph, you don’t get any channelling. If water moves to slowly in a reactor the media will turn to dust and cause blocking. Reactor new about a ph on 6.5 inside to break the media down. to much co2 and ph drop to low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted June 11, 2006 Report Share Posted June 11, 2006 Reactor need about a ph of 6.5 inside to break the media down. Too much co2 and ph drops to low causing media to dissolve too quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted June 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2006 Steve, Im experiencing exactly how you have described your dilemma with your reactor. I'm running a Korralin C3001. I actually considered upgrading the pump on it to something gruntier. Wasp, thanks for the tips, I'll give some of those a try. Still, I think its just one of those things and the outlet will need unclogging regularly. Alternative is probably a much higher drip and bubble count combined with a gruntier circulation pump to turn the water over within the reactor more often (which should mean the injected CO2 should pass over the media more often too breaking it down faster to counteract the faster drip rate) In theory anyway. Problem I have now is my pH monitor is broken so I cant test the pH of the effluent :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetskisteve Posted June 11, 2006 Report Share Posted June 11, 2006 Some reactors have a slot for the PH controller to sit in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted June 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2006 korallin's dont need pH controllers supposedly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted June 11, 2006 Report Share Posted June 11, 2006 Whilst most calcium reactor allow for a ph probe it is pretty useless as you have to calibrate them all the time. best just to check the output once a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay Posted August 19, 2006 Report Share Posted August 19, 2006 Sharkey I dose with a 20ltr water pail with tap can you please tell me how much vinegar and kalk to put in it for 1000ltrs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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