Calcium Reactor Effluent pH?

[Cedric]

Hi,

I was searching around and found that most ppl keep the effluent pH from the first chamber at around 6.5. I am wondering whats the pH effluent coming out of your 2nd chamber???

[robe]

It will depend on how u configure ur second chamber if u do not recirculate the second chamber then u should get a ph of 7+ but if u recirculate it u can get 6.5 if u increase ur CO2 bubble rate.

My second chamber is recirculating and my effluent is 6.8 at around 2 drops per second and bubble at 1 every 1 to 2 seconds.

[Cedric]

Thanks Robe!

I am recirculating my 2nd chamber. But having it at 6.5 is pushing my pH to the lower ends of 8.0 in at day break and 8.15 peak at noon. Hence I was wondering should I increase my pH effluent from 2nd chamber since it is suppose to help against low pH due to a Cal Reactor.

[Tanzy]

1-1.5 meq/L of Reef Buffer or Borates concentration in the water might help with the low pH, but you will still need to deal with the increased CO2 concentration.

[Cedric]

Tried the marine buffer, but the effects are short lived, hence I was wondering would the enormous constant amount required be detrimental? Perhaps I'm justing chasing numbers?

Thanks Tanzy!

[Tanzy]

The borates in the water aren't depleted, it's quite a one off thing and shouldn't require constant addition.

[robe]

Hi cedric,

Don't worry about your ph going down to 8 in the morning. Mine fluctuates between 7.9, 8.0 to 8.3, 8.4 at peak.

So far my acros are sprouting tips like crazy. It's normal for the ph to fluctuate down to 7.9 to 8.0. You can put a refugium on reverse lighting to compensate.

[nannochloropsis]

Hi cedric,

Don't worry about your ph going down to 8 in the morning. Mine fluctuates between 7.9, 8.0 to 8.3, 8.4 at peak.

So far my acros are sprouting tips like crazy. It's normal for the ph to fluctuate down to 7.9 to 8.0. You can put a refugium on reverse lighting to compensate.

Hi guys,

Have to be a little careful with calcium reactors as it will bring down the Ph in your main tank. Learnt the hard way recently as I notice filamentous algae growing back a little on my rocks. P04 went up and my Ph went down to 7.6 when light was on! Funny thing calcerous algae growing well on the back of my tank and rocks but filamentous appear on some.

Reason: As you know calcium reactors is basically calcium carbonate and in order for the corals to absorb calcium, calcium carbonate need to be converted to calcium hydrogen carbonate by adding CO2 and of course water, which will then be easily absorb by corals. However, when the corals absorb this, the reverse reaction takes place, thus releasing CO2 back. This is OK if the CO2 released is small, since zooxanthallae in the corals needs CO2 for photosynthesis.

However, when you have too much of HCO3, and when the CO2 release is much more, then, all hell will break lose.

I learn this from Nilsen's book vol 1, as it exactly happens to my tank. To me, this is the best book, better than Julian Sprung when it comes to water chemistry.

I'm controlling my CO2 to pump in for a couple of hours. Those better German calcium reactors, strongly suggest having a Ph controller but then again, this is too expensive, but now I understand why. However, I'm using timer to control my CO2. Hope this works