OK. I have had my reactor running for about 1 year now. As expected, it took a couple months to get things adjusted.After that I noticed alk and CA was maintained almost perfectly. Here is the original reactor. There were slight modifications.
Since this photo, I have dropped the 4 wat at the top and drilled/threaded the flange for the effluent line. I also found that passing the effluent through more media would dissipate the residual CO2. So I built an effluent chamber into my sump. I also added a wodden airstone.
That helped PH quite a bit. I went from averaging a ph of 7.9 to 8.1 almost overnight.
I though at that point I was finished. It was working just fine. The only problem is that it took on air once in a great while (mostly overnight maybe once a month). In order to fix the propblem I had to bleed the air out by opening the needle valve that controls the effluent water. It wasnt too bad, it only happened once a month.
The problem occurs every night now. EDvry morning I have to burb the air out. I cleaned the valve. It looks clean. I switched from a mag 2 to a mag 4 last week to see if pressure would help. It did'nt I will go back to the mag 2. This is really screwing up my alk as it is now 2.0. CA seems fine so far at around 450. After taking the reactor apart last week (during the pump swap)I now notice that the water in the reactor is very milky.
The only things I can think of is to move the location of the CO2 input from where it is to brfore the pump thus creating more of a venturi action. It may be a good idea for me to swap effluent control valves. That reminds me. What about the location of the effluent valve. Sanjay shows his at the intake instead. Shoul I have mounted the valve there?
Sanjays Reactor
What kind of valves doyou DIYers use on your reactor. I have a 10.00 jobber from USplastics.
Thanks in advance,
Since this photo, I have dropped the 4 wat at the top and drilled/threaded the flange for the effluent line. I also found that passing the effluent through more media would dissipate the residual CO2. So I built an effluent chamber into my sump. I also added a wodden airstone.
That helped PH quite a bit. I went from averaging a ph of 7.9 to 8.1 almost overnight.
I though at that point I was finished. It was working just fine. The only problem is that it took on air once in a great while (mostly overnight maybe once a month). In order to fix the propblem I had to bleed the air out by opening the needle valve that controls the effluent water. It wasnt too bad, it only happened once a month.
The problem occurs every night now. EDvry morning I have to burb the air out. I cleaned the valve. It looks clean. I switched from a mag 2 to a mag 4 last week to see if pressure would help. It did'nt I will go back to the mag 2. This is really screwing up my alk as it is now 2.0. CA seems fine so far at around 450. After taking the reactor apart last week (during the pump swap)I now notice that the water in the reactor is very milky.
The only things I can think of is to move the location of the CO2 input from where it is to brfore the pump thus creating more of a venturi action. It may be a good idea for me to swap effluent control valves. That reminds me. What about the location of the effluent valve. Sanjay shows his at the intake instead. Shoul I have mounted the valve there?
Sanjays Reactor
What kind of valves doyou DIYers use on your reactor. I have a 10.00 jobber from USplastics.
Thanks in advance,
