I was wondering what is really needed with a calcium reactor... is it necessary to have say a controller such as a Aquacontroller to monotor and control PH as well as have it hooked up to you PC for long term graphing...just to keep track of the ph swings? Or is a controller as simple as a Miwaukee PH/ORP controller ($179) sufficient.. and is ORP really something that one needs to control and monitor.. thanks!
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Calcium Reactors and automated PH controlling....
- Thread starter Pman
- Start date
No, a controller is not "required" to run a Calcium Reactor. It will help, and having a printable or viewable graph of many days would be awefully useful.
I do think a Ph probe is required. You will want to make many Ph tests while your dialing in the reactor, I just set mine up and I'm doing 2-5 tests a day; but I have a probe now so I just open the cabinet door and see what the Ph is. It is also very useful for getting the reactor effluent to the desired Ph. Ph test kits are just time consuming and inaccurate or hard to read IMO.
If you have and are willing to spend the money, a controller can be very useful I think.
I do think a Ph probe is required. You will want to make many Ph tests while your dialing in the reactor, I just set mine up and I'm doing 2-5 tests a day; but I have a probe now so I just open the cabinet door and see what the Ph is. It is also very useful for getting the reactor effluent to the desired Ph. Ph test kits are just time consuming and inaccurate or hard to read IMO.
If you have and are willing to spend the money, a controller can be very useful I think.
so which water are you testing ph...the reactor output....and/or the main tank water....I guess it would make sense to run the controller testing the main tank water...the controller will just keep the CO2 on till proper PH levels are reached right? Another thing.....does one want to both control the effluent and the CO2 output with a controller as well?
i have a Pinpoint pH controller that turns on and off my selenoid to the CO2 tank when my pH drops below a certain number.
i have done this two ways:
1. Have a little container where your effluent goes into, where you know the pH probe will always be submerged. Generally you want the effluent pH to be between 6.6-6.8 to break down your calc reactor media.
I had pH controller set up where if the pH dropped below 6.5 my controller would shut off my selenoid so no more CO2 injected, but still get the effluent dripping out. When the effluent raised to 6.6 again, the controller would turn on the selenoid and inject CO2 again. Did not have the greatest success with this, seems my media just was not breaking down enough to keep my alk up.
2. currently, i have my pH probe in the sump and selenoid cuts off CO2 when my tank pH drops below 7.95 and turns on above 8.0, i believe. Leaves more time for the reactor to be ON.
I say use a controller, so much easier to see pH of tank all the time. You can definitely do without but i have heard of accidents happening where CO2 just stayed on and of course pH would drop drastically, etc, etc.
What you need for a setup is calcium reactor with decent media (hear CaribSea ARM and Koralith media are good), bubble counter, CO2 tank(5,10,20lb), selenoid, needle valve. do not think i am missing anything there.
really hope this helps and if i missed something, let me know.
i have done this two ways:
1. Have a little container where your effluent goes into, where you know the pH probe will always be submerged. Generally you want the effluent pH to be between 6.6-6.8 to break down your calc reactor media.
I had pH controller set up where if the pH dropped below 6.5 my controller would shut off my selenoid so no more CO2 injected, but still get the effluent dripping out. When the effluent raised to 6.6 again, the controller would turn on the selenoid and inject CO2 again. Did not have the greatest success with this, seems my media just was not breaking down enough to keep my alk up.
2. currently, i have my pH probe in the sump and selenoid cuts off CO2 when my tank pH drops below 7.95 and turns on above 8.0, i believe. Leaves more time for the reactor to be ON.
I say use a controller, so much easier to see pH of tank all the time. You can definitely do without but i have heard of accidents happening where CO2 just stayed on and of course pH would drop drastically, etc, etc.
What you need for a setup is calcium reactor with decent media (hear CaribSea ARM and Koralith media are good), bubble counter, CO2 tank(5,10,20lb), selenoid, needle valve. do not think i am missing anything there.
really hope this helps and if i missed something, let me know.
i have just heard that Caribsea and Koralith are really good media of choice for reactors. i have used SuperCalc Gold and do not like at all, need way too low of a pH to break down media. I have just ordered Caribsea ARM and will try that to see what happens.
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