ok, so I finally set up my CR this weekend. I read Acroholic's sticky as much as I could and I followed directions. I set my pH set point at 6.6 with hysteresis of 0.02. I saw my pH in the CR starting to drop slowly from 8.15 (11am) to 6.78 (10pm). However, this morning I woke up and the pH is reading 6.95 in the CR. The solenoid is still on and the it's still bubbling at 60 BPM, effluent rate is still looking the same (around 60 ml/min) although I did not actually measure the effluent rate this morning. Should I reduce the effluent rate? Or should I increase the bubble rate?
Calcium reactor - need help
- Thread starter demifelix
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What's the calcium reading in your tank? Increasing co2 will lower pH in your reactor but will raise your calcium in the tank which in turn in lower your alk if there's not sufficient buffer ( I. E mag)
Before yesterday I had mag 1300 ca 430 alk 10. I did not test this morning. Will test again when I get home this afternoon. What puzzles me is the pH inside the reactor actually went up from 6.78 to 6.95 while the CO2 been bubbling the whole night
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Means you need to look at your pH at night as well. There's only a few reason that's happeneing, reactor leaking or tank pH is going up at night ( highly unusual)
skriz
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That can happen for one of two reasons (well, the third is a leak): Effluent drip rate too fast for the given CO2 bubble rate. So, either turn up the CO2 (I keep mine on the higher end) or adjust the effluent. I keep the CO2 rater higher as the controller will turn it off when it's not needed anyway, so I'd rather set it to drop the ph faster rather than slower.
I increased the bubble count last night and pH is now hovering around 6.6. I tested my water last night. Alk 10.5, Ca 400, Mg 1400. Are these numbers ok for the 2nd day running the CR? Is there anything I should be watching out for? What's the optimal parameter that I should be aiming for (if there's one) when using CR?
Felix...sounds like you got it. As an FYI...it can take as much as 2 weeks to dial it in to it's "sweet spot".
