Coming up.
We're going to talk about how I plan to supplement calcium and alkalinity for
this tank.
[Inaudible] [inaudible].
Okay. Right now I have a young tank that is only two months old,
but it is never too early to have a calcium and alkalinity
supplementation plan in place for my 187 gallon
SPS dominant display. I use to part and the tank has been doing great,
but it is sucking up the two part to the tune of 250 MLS per
day. And that is not cheap to maintain. So with this new tank,
I thought it would be more cost efficient to use a calcium reactor.
I have used calcium reactors in the past, and I've had really good results.
However, they will lower a tank's pH it potential drawback.
How does a react or lower pH well,
carbon dioxide is injected into the reactor to lower pH to help dissolve calcium
based media inside this calcium rich liquid or effluent is then
dripped back into the tank. Nonetheless,
there are some things you can do to elevate the pH coming out of a reactor.
One is to use calc Wasser,
hydroxide ions in the cop Wasser use carbon dioxide to increase
alkalinity. And as a result,
removes excess CO2 and increases pH Coq Wasser
can be added by running auto top off through a calc reactor.
I had this one from my reef creation sitting around,
so I decided to put it back into action.
I set the blue line pump to run four times during the overnight hours for 15
minutes, a pop to stir the cup.
I did this to counteract the drop in pH when the tank lights are off.
Anyway, the pump has been acting up despite a good cleaning,
so we will see how long it will last and believe it or not.
I'm using this 15 to 20 year old. I don't know exactly how old it is.
Leader meter three for my auto top off.
Let's keep the fingers crossed on that one. Okay.
A second way to elevate pH is to have a second chamber on a calcium reactor
to help absorb the excess carbon dioxide.
I had good luck with a dual chamber Kasmin reactor in the past.
So it is an important feature in my book.
What you are looking at here is a brand new model of calcium reactor
manufactured by a reef, octopus and distributed by coral view,
both chambers on this reef,
octopus Varios CR 3000 reactor are seven inches wide and 19
inches tall. So you can fit a lot of media inside.
My tank is 225 gallons,
but the unit is actually rated for tanks up to 580 gallons. So, yep.
I plan to have eight,
a lot of SPS and a heavy demand for calcium and alkalinity.
A couple of cool features.
I'd like to point out here is the built-in pH pro Boulder.
I like it because it will allow me via my GGL controller to shut off the CO2.
If the pH inside the reactor gets too low. Hey, who knows?
But it would be a bummer. Something went wrong with my CO2 regulator.
I really don't want to have a whole bunch of CO2 dumped into the tank.
Another great feature or the screw on lids. They are very easy to use.
No annoying thumbscrews to deal with.
This reactor also comes with a variables for variable speed pump that maxes out
at 40 Watts,
the pump recirculates water upwards in a reverse flow,
which is great since it prevents the media from compacting down on the bottom of
the chamber. This not only improves the efficiency of the reactor,
but it makes it much easier to clean when it is time to swap out the media.
One other thing to note here,
there is an effluent control valve that comes with this reactor,
but I opted to pick up this Camorra peristaltic dosing pump for extra dosing
precision. Even though I have no corals at this point,
I had been running the reactor for the past few weeks and I have to say,
I am loving it. It really has been a set it and forget it. Piece of equipment.
My alkalinity has been rock solid and now I'm starting to see a bunch of Corleen
algae grow in the bottom of the tank, a big shout-out to reefing buddy,
Greg Carroll for turning me on to reef octopus, calcium reactors.
He knows his stuff. Lastly,
I do want to mention that I'm in the process of having an air exchange unit
installed in the house to help bring fresh air in and reduce the amount of
carbon dioxide inside the house. This should certainly help boost pH,
especially now that the windows are shut tight in a winter. Anyway, many.
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See you next time.