Calcium reactor potency

[bhodges82]

So I've been running my reactor for several months now and have since refilled it once and changed co2 once. I have lowered the pH and also increased the flow to try to keep up with demand, I am noticing that the media is down to about half way in the reactor now. My question is this, is the potency of the effluent effected by the amount of media present? With less than full media chamber am I just melting what I have at an increasingly faster rate? Should I just increase the flow more?

 

[FutureInterest]

Mostly...

With less media the remaining media will just dissolve faster. Your effluent should otherwise be the same... unless there is not enough media to react with the carbonic acid.

 

[bhodges82]

I think I'll continue to increase effluent flow until I find a happy spot then.

 

[urbanknight]

Bobby, FWIW, I run that very same calcium reactor. I filled it with reborn and magnesium six months ago. It's still over 3/4 full of media. I have a 20LB CO2 tank so it's still going. I suppose your media usage could be attributed to a heavy calcium demand from SPS and /or other stony corals. My DT is predominately LPS with a couple of small SPS colonies and 10 or so sps frags. My total water volume is 138 gallons .

 

[bhodges82]

Bobby, FWIW, I run that very same calcium reactor. I filled it with reborn and magnesium six months ago. It's still over 3/4 full of media. I have a 20LB CO2 tank so it's still going. I suppose your media usage could be attributed to a heavy calcium demand from SPS and /or other stony corals. My DT is predominately LPS with a couple of small SPS colonies and 10 or so sps frags. My total water volume is 138 gallons .

I do have a good bit of sps and LPS and a ton of coraline, my total volume is around 170ish gallons. I suppose I do have a higher demand.

Side note, how do you like your reactor? I love mine.

 

[urbanknight]

I love mine too. It took about a month for me to get it dialed in because I was new to calcium reactors. It's simple and it works!