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SMARKHAM
08-04-04, 19:59
I am just setting up my reactor and need a bit of help with fine tuning. Its an aquamedic 400 I am running it from a dosing pump so it getting about a drop of water every second and am adding co2 at about the same but the ph in the reactor is about 6.6 and the ca comming out is about 450. ? is this ok or should i adjust anything i would like to get a ca of about 500 out of the reactor but not sure if i need to up the water flow or slow it down even more or if i should add more co2 or less ?????? help help help
Kevin Douglas
08-04-04, 20:38
I never check the calcium out of a reactor always the dKH. You need to get 40 dKH plus(even up to 50 or 60 in some reactors) from the reactor. It also depends on your tank requirements. Once you get the dKH above 40 you just adjust the time you have your Co2 on. I run mine for approx 14 hours during the day. But I leave the peristaltic on all the time so that water is flowing continuosly.
Reactors take time to get set right. You have to leave them for 24 hours between adjustments for the adjustments to take effect so that you can measure the difference.
I use Salifert dKH test kit.

Hope this helps.

Atb
SMARKHAM
08-04-04, 21:00
Will have to get a test kit I only have a kh test kit at the mo and thats coming out at about 150 ish
elliot
08-04-04, 21:04
150?.... are you sure?!!!

Elliot
SMARKHAM
08-04-04, 21:05
yeh but not sure if the test kit is in date had it a while why is that bad ?
SMARKHAM
08-04-04, 22:21
just worked it out the dkh is kh devided by 10 so just done another test and its up to 17 dkh so what do i need to do to get upto 40-50 is it more or less co2 ? Can someone confirm the dkh -kh theory ?
Kevin Douglas
08-04-04, 23:47
just worked it out the dkh is kh devided by 10 so just done another test and its up to 17 dkh so what do i need to do to get upto 40-50 is it more or less co2 ? Can someone confirm the dkh -kh theory ?


Sorry I can't comfirm your conversion. But I do know that calcium reactors need to be run at 6.40pH to 6.50pH to get the required dKH. Even with Carabsea ARM (which is what I use) which states on the packet 7.50pH (that's a joke) you have to run at 6.40 to 6.50 to get the right results.

Atb
sparky
09-04-04, 08:31
Cheers Kevin I was going to post to see what people run ARM at,been using the korralin stuff previous.

I thought the packaging was a bit suspicious disolving at around ph7.5

Looks like Ill be using just the same amount of gas.

Cheers

Andrew