Apex Calcium Reactor Configuration

[treylane]

I installed a Trident and Apex DOS earlier this year. Alkalinity / Calcium levels in the tank were actually stable for more than a few days at a time, for the first time ... ever?

The corals noticed

Alk consumption started to get kinda ridiculous. I finally had to admit defeat and switch to CaRx.

Technology has changed somewhat since last time I ran a calcium reactor - we have nice continuous duty peri pumps (kamoer) and electronic CO2 regulators (carbondoser) available these days!

I started with some strange (and buggy!) programs I copy-pasted from forums and had to throw them out. After some trial and error I have a program that's been doing reeeasonably well at keeping alk stable. I've been aiming for 9ish since that's what I had the DOS set up for before the switch, but at this point I might try slowly dropping it and see how the corals respond.

Alkalinity (per the Trident):

There's a pH probe in the reactor (CaRxPH) and Alkx4 is the name of the trident's alk measurement. Here's what I have set up for the Carbondoser (CO2 regulator w/solenoid) and Peristaltic pump (kamoer) pulling water through the reactor:

This means that there's water from the reactor being fed to the tank normally at intervals of 15 minutes on, and 10 minutes off. If alk drops below 9, the pump goes full ON. If alk rises above 9.5, the pump goes full OFF

CO2 is normally added to the reactor in 5 minutes on / 5 minutes off intervals, but if alk is below 9, CO2 will be turned on whenever the peri pump is running. CO2 also needs to be shut off when the pH inside the reactor hits a low point (really I think 6.5 is closer to the danger zone) to prevent the media from going to mush.

For a 200g softies-heavy tank, I've got the bubble rate at about 1 bubble per second, and the peri pump set to 60 ml/min.

What programs is everybody else using? Are these swings still too wide?

 

[A Aaron]

so I’m using same equipment that you are but I’m not using a trident. If I was using a trident I would not use it to turn the carbon doser and all the in and off. I was use it to help me tune the reactor. It’s much simpler that way. For me I picked what I thought would be a good ph for my low demand tank. I have it turn my carbon doser on at 6.68 and off at 6.71 to give me about a 6.7 reactor ph. I also set the carbon doser so it’s on almost all the time to keep it at the 6.7 that way if all the controls fail or the carbon doser is stuck on hopefully ph won’t go too much lower then 6.7. Fail safe. Just like having your apex control heat at 78 and set the heater for 79 as a back up. Hope that makes sense.

Then I picked a ml/ minute I thought might work. tried 20mls per minute and I tested the alk multiple times a day(You can look at your trident) and got it settled at 16mls per minute. Then I tested once a day then every few days and now once a week. If it drops a .1 over the week I turn it up 1-2 mls per minute and check again.

I was able to set this up in a few minutes with drop down Menus only. No advanced programming. I feel it’s very consistent because your getting effluent that is consistently dripped, consistent ph in the reactor all day at the same rate. That’s the advantage of the reactor over dosing at intervals during the day in my opinion. I hope this makes sense and it’s just the way I did it but I haven’t had to touch it in literally months except turn up the knob one ml per minute maybe 3 times.

 

[A Aaron]

I wish I had a trident to prove it but I don’t think I have swings like that. It should be much more consistent with a reactor. Just try setting it up the other way and luckily since you have a trident you will know if it’s better. You don’t have to guess. I whole heartily think it should be more flat then what you are getting

 

[A Aaron]

If you did set it up the way I have it the tighter you make your carbon doser ph threshold the flatter your alk will be. It just puts more wear on your stuff because it’s on and off constantly. If you set it on at 6.69 and off at 6.7 your effluent should be rock solid. A .3 swing is good enough and your electronics aren’t going on and off as much