(upbeat music)
- It's BRS tv Reef FAQ Wednesday
and today we answer
what is a calcium reactor, how it works
and why it's essentially a on demand,
one part machine.
And I'm pretty sure answering if
a calcium reactor is right for you.
All that's coming up.
Hey I'm Ryan with BRStv Reef FAQs
where every week we do our best
to help you guys enjoy your tanks
and find new ways to explore the hobby
with quick, straight to the point
answers to your questions.
If you're exploring a calcium reactor
for the first time, this is it.
This video's gonna explain how it works.
Today I'm not just gonna share
how a calcium reactor works,
but I think maybe the easiest possible
way to understand it.
Hopefully I can live up to that challenge.
At first glance, a calcium reactor's
a ridiculous network of tubes.
It looks kind of intimidating.
I guess assembly does mean you need to
follow the directions.
But after that first 20 minutes,
it isn't rocket science.
It's just dosing calcium and alkainity to a reef tank.
So where the complexity often comes in
is listening to a dozen different people
with totally different methods
and trying to understand who's right.
The problem is, they're all right
for their own specific approaches, skill sets
budgets and desires for their tank.
But the mesh of conflicting advice
is hard to assemble and utilize.
So today is just a way that I approach
a calcium reactor and I'll just share
my own personal goal or priority
is the highest percentage path to success.
There are cheaper ways, or ways to take up less space.
But once you understand the easiest
or highest percentage path to success
it's easier to calculate the rest.
So how does this work?
I think I'll explain that in three quick steps
of why we do it,
what it's doing,
and then how it does it.
Starting with that why.
Last week we started the series off
with why reefers use calcium reactors
over common options like two parts.
So I won't cover that again in detail,
but it's typically savings with super high demand tanks.
Some amount of trace elements.
Done right, it can be lower maintenance,
cool factor with the natural approach.
Or you're a gear junkie where gear
is a big part of the hobby.
All of which are totally legit reasons.
Moving on to what a calcium reactor does.
Hopefully if you're considering a calcium reactor
you already understand the fact
that LPS and SPS stony corals in our systems
uptake calcium and alkalinity out of the water
to form their calcium carbonate skeleton.
As they deplete, the available calcium and alkalinity
in the water, you need to replace it.
There's a high likelihood that you're
currently doing that with either
dosing a two part liquid calcium and alkalinity additive,
or you plan on doing that with your system design.
Nice thing about two parts is they have
a stable concentration of calcium and alkalinity in each jug
so adjusting to slower or faster consumption
is as simple as testing
and occasionally adjusting your dosing pump
to dose just a bit less or a bit more
to adjust for growth or other changes in the tank.
I'm gonna know right now that one of the biggest
things you can do to make a calcium reactor easy
is make the solution inside the reactor
stable and consistent just like the two part in a bottle.
So a calcium reactor is just an alternative
to one to four part calcium and alkalinity additives.
The solution the calcium reactor doses to the tank
is often referred to the effluent and essentially
is an on demand one part calcium and alkalinity additive.
Might be easiest to think of it as something
that came to as one of those on demand soda makers
many people have at home rather than
buying endless cases of soda or carbonated water
which is just overpriced water, CO2 and flavoring.
Many people who get their own CO2 canister
have water at home already and then add their own flavoring
to create highly efficient
on demand, carbonated drinks at home.
After the equipment investment,
it's not just cheaper for a household
that drinks a lot of carbonated drinks,
but also easier and you can skip
the hassle of going to the store.
The calcium reactor is the same thing
but for your reef tank.
CO2 canister, water from your tank,
and then concentrated calcium and alkalinity
in the form of calcium reactor media.
Which is many cases is just old coral skeleton.
How it works is a bit different.
In this case your reactor is just lowering
the pH inside the reactor until the calcium media
or old coral pieces, dissolves into calcium and alkalinity.
So in many cases, while your tank
might be a 9 dKH alkalinity,
the water inside the reactor
is a concentrated solution and actually 30 dKH.
So dosing the influent or water inside the reactor
will raise the tanks dKH to match the daily consumption.
So that's really all there is to it.
Old coral skeleton melted into a dissolved liquid
and then dose the tank.
More less an on demand calcium solution
but better put, an on demand calcium reactor
for your reef tank calcium and alkalinity needs.
So that sounds simple enough
so why so much mystery
or why does everyone make it sound so hard?
Well are just easier approaches than others.
Here are two steps to making it easy.
Set the reactor up to make a stable concentration
and then just set the right dose.
Effectively the same mentalitiy as two part
but you have a system that produces
the one part on demand as you need it.
In that spirit, step one
is use the calcium reactor to make
that stable concentration of solution.
Just like two part, I want the reactor
to produce a solution with a known
and stable amount of calcium and alkalinity in it.
If you can do that, the only thing that will change
is how much that liquid you dose
which is the easiest way to approach this.
The easiest way to get a stable concentration
of calcium and alkalinity from your reactor
is use a pH controller to automatically
dose CO2 to your reactor.
If you use a pH controller to peg the pH to say 6.5
you're effectively pegging the concentration
of calcium and alkalinity in the solution as well.
This is something Randy showed pretty convincingly
in a BRStv Investigates episode
with our set up, if you peg the reactors setpoint at 6.5,
then the liquid in the reactor
in which dose the the tank will be 35 dKH.
That number scales up and down with pH changes
so it was stable concentration
it's easy as setting your pH controller to a specific pH.
We suggest 6.6 as a good number.
Once you use your pH controller to peg
that stable concentration inside your reactor,
it's now effectively that one part on demand machine.
All you need to do is figure out
how much to dose and adjust.
For instance, if you're currently
dosing 20 milliliters a minute
and your tanks levels are dropping
up it to 25 milliliters a minute.
Still dropping?
Go to 30.
Again, basically the same as two minute two part dose.
There are even calculators for this
if you want a more precise approach.
If you use a continuous duty dosing pump
like the one from Kamoer
to control the dose which gives you a dial
and a digital read out of the dose
and obviously easy.
But reactors like the Vertex Calcium Reactor
have a flow meter and needle valve on it
which is close to as easy.
You can also just use a needle valve
and measure how much effluent you get in a minute.
All easy and effective.
By the point, are you just saying,
"hey is this for me?" or not.
If it is, you might want to check out
this special playlist I put together
on our approach to tuning a reactor.
The information there will make it easier
and increase the success rate so check it out for sure.
I'll see you all next Wednesday
with the next batch of BRStv Reef FAQs.