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Help - Calcium Reactor APEX Program
- Thread starter koifour
- Start date
If your effluent drip rate is too high and bubble count too low, then the Co2 that's coming in can't keep up with what's going out which will lead to your PH not dropping fast enough or never reaching your desired end/low point. I set mine up to be super simple.
Fallback OFF
If pH > 07.05 Then ON
If pH < 06.90 Then OFF
My reactor bubble count was 60 bubbles per minute and effluent drip rate was 50ml per minute.
Fallback OFF
If pH > 07.05 Then ON
If pH < 06.90 Then OFF
My reactor bubble count was 60 bubbles per minute and effluent drip rate was 50ml per minute.
koifour;1000578 wrote: so if I held the drip rate and bubble count steady, then I need to lower the low set point to increase the ALK and CA correct?
In simple terms, yes. The tricky part is adjusting your drip rate and bubble count to where your cal and alk rises or lowers at the same rate, not one over the other. Once you've gotten that down, it's as simple as rising or lowering your PH end/low point.
Dave (acroholic) has a good write up that's on the reef discussion forum explaining when and why you should increase/decrease your drip and bubble rate.
The most important thing is to test your water every day for about a week until both cal and alk increase/decrease together. Don't stress if the parameters are dropping, that can be fixed by dosing later one once everything is stable. Once they are in sync, you can adjust the PH end point up or down depending on what the parameters are. If they were dropping, then lower your PH, if their rising then increase your PH. After that, slowly dose cal and alk to bring your parameters to the level you want. It is important that you dose and not try to just drop your reactors PH to try and bring it up. Your reactor was designed to keep your parameters stable and not increase them like manual dosing does.
Further daily testing is required to determine if you need to increase or decrease your PH end point. This should be done for about another week or until you notice things are stable for a few days in a roll. After that, testing every other week or once a month is required. As your corals grow they will take up more cal and alk but that doesn't happen over night so the monthly or bi-monthly testing is enough to give you an idea.
Another thing to keep in mind is to start out with your PH higher and then slowly dropping it to desired level. It's easier to dose cal and alk in your tank to rise the levels then it is to lower it due to your reactor putting out too much.
Thank you for the explanation and it make sense now. so is my current drip rate of 60 ml per minute and 95 bubble counts not balance? should I lower the the drip rate to 40 or 50 in order to have more contact time for the PH to go beyond my high set point?
I would decrease the drip rate to 50ml and see. 95 bubbles per minute seems pretty high to me so I don't understand why it's not keeping up. Can you post details of your set-up? Brand and all equipment? Picture of it and how it's set-up?
Also, (dumb question) but did you calibrate your PH probe? If so, did you use calibration solution 4 & 7 and not 7 & 10? Is the probe new or used? Has it ever been dried out?
Also, (dumb question) but did you calibrate your PH probe? If so, did you use calibration solution 4 & 7 and not 7 & 10? Is the probe new or used? Has it ever been dried out?
My cal reactor is a Reef Octopus Dual Chamber setup. I have the drip rate set at 50ml and 95 bubble and solenoid controlled by a Reef Fanatic PH controller for over a year and everything is stable.
I switched the solenoid to be controlled by APEX PM1 two weeks ago and start having problem keeping up with ALK and Cal demand. I calibrate all three of my PH probes with calibration 7 and 10 solution per the APEX reference guide.
I switched the solenoid to be controlled by APEX PM1 two weeks ago and start having problem keeping up with ALK and Cal demand. I calibrate all three of my PH probes with calibration 7 and 10 solution per the APEX reference guide.
koifour;1000593 wrote: My cal reactor is a Reef Octopus Dual Chamber setup. I have the drip rate set at 50ml and 95 bubble and solenoid controlled by a Reef Fanatic PH controller for over a year and everything is stable.
I switched the solenoid to be controlled by APEX PM1 two weeks ago and start having problem keeping up with ALK and Cal demand. I calibrate all three of my PH probes with <span style="color: Red">calibration 7 and 10 solution</span> per the APEX reference guide.
I believe that may be your problem right there. You're suppose to calibrate your reactors probe with 4 & 7 solution and not 7 & 10. Since the range you're trying to read is in the lower range (below 7) you need to calibrate it as such. 7 & 10 is what you need to use when calibrating a probe that will go into your tank to read tank PH since you're reading around 8.
The same goes for calibrating your refractometer. You want to buy solution that will allow you to calibrate it to 1.025 instead of calibrating to zero with RO/DI water. Doing so will never give you an accurate reading.
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