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Ca reactor not keeping up

T

TheGuyFromNJ

I have a K2R calcium reactor rated for 350 gal that seems to be losing it's ability to keep up in my 120g volume system, I have been tuning it, but Ca still drops.

I am using standard ARM media
effluent ph 6.8
CO2 120-130 bpm
effluent is a small steady stream

Ca 360
Alk 10
Mg 1200

I dose with kalk in my ato water. I know the mag is a bit low, I'm dosing to bring that up.

I have a few sps and lps but mainly softies and zoas. I have upped the bpm from 60-80 to 120-130 about 2 weeks ago along with dropping the effluent from 7.0 to 6.8. I also dosed with bio calcium before this change to bring levels up to normal, but they drop before the reactor can catch up.

Any suggestions?
 
jimroth

jimroth

Honestly, unless you have a giant halimeda bush or gigas clam you haven't mentioned, I can't imaging what would be depleting your calcium. Have you checked your test kit, can you borrow a different brand and try that?
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
You need to bring your magnesium up. Your system will have a difficult time keeping your Ca up with a mag at 1200. You want that number to be 1350-1400. They are tied together and one helps keep the other in check.
 
T

TheGuyFromNJ

phil519 said:
have you ever read this article?

Not sure if it helps you in this situation or not.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm
Click to expand...
Thanks I will chew through that article.

jimroth said:
Honestly, unless you have a giant halimeda bush or gigas clam you haven't mentioned, I can't imaging what would be depleting your calcium. Have you checked your test kit, can you borrow a different brand and try that?
Click to expand...
I do have a few large caps, but nothing huge. I have tried 2 different test kits, both show about the same.
 
T

TheGuyFromNJ

Just tested for today and the levels are:

Ca 380
KH 10
MG 1260

I am dosing with Brightwell Magnesion to bring MG up. How fast can I safely bring this level up to 1350?

Also, what is all this effluent doing if it isn't raising the ca? It has to be doing something even though the mg is low right?
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
The calcium can't hold in the water without the Magnesium. ... I expect STC will be here momentarily to describe the reaction and the reason behind the issue!

I do know that it is a typical solution to the problem of not being able to keep Ca up though.
 
dnov99

dnov99

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
I agree with the MG being your issue, but also when was the last time you changed your reactor media??
 
T

TheGuyFromNJ

dnov99 said:
I agree with the MG being your issue, but also when was the last time you changed your reactor media??
Click to expand...

I added the media about 7-8 months ago.


Is there a better media than Caribsea ARM?
Also with water changes every 10-14 days (reef crystals) shouldn't I expect the MG to be higher?
 
C

concept3

I have the same reactor, and found that my corals weren't growing as fast as before when I was adding numerous buffering additives. I had 6500K's so I know the PAR was there. I resumed the Kalkwasser drip, and not much happened. AND and then I slowly started adding Driveway salt (MgCl2) and Epsom salts (MgSO4) on a daily basis since I wanted to raise this slowly. Lo and behold, in 3 weeks, I am noticing once again that Calcareous algae is growing on the front glass, and on new spots on my Liverock. Growth has also increased termendously. here's an example: (disregard the lighting, I just recently switched from 6500 to 12000K

oct-7-to-nov-3.jpg
 
S

stcreef

OK Phyl....STC present and accounted for.

Mag has two purposes in our tanks. Biological and chemically. So you need it. There. Done. :p Kidding

Biologically all life needs mag in some form or another. The main use is in the skeletal structures.

Chemically, in our tank we rely on calcium ions and carbonate ions for out inhabitants. To do this we need to saturate the water with both these ions. Its a delicate balance that is typically supersaturated. And as we supersaturate the water with these ions, it tends to precipitate calcium carbonate. WOO HOO SNOW!!! I like snow, but not in this case. Bad, very bad. In fact most have this going on in their tank and dont know it. Enter the miracle of magnesium. OK not so much a miracle as much as a coincidence. Mag is highly attracted to the calcium carbonate crytals. It deposits itself on the surface of these crystals. When this happens, it kind of corrupts the crystal. Making it dirty. But this prevents the calcium carbonate from precipitating. So since it prevents the precip, that means we can add more and continue to saturate the water even more. Which means we need to add more mag. But too much mag can be detrimental to our reefy's.

I typically leave mine around 1350 - 1400, i try to maintain 1380, when it drops to 1350, I boost it back up. This way I can keep my calcium levels up around 460-480 and not worry about any precip. I have even had it up as high as 520 without any precip. But there was definitely a ring around the moon when it was that high. (meaning snow was imminent)

If you continuously add calcium and you cant get the level any higher, it means two things. One, your mag level is too low and two, all that calcium you are adding is precipitating out. You may not see it all the time, but its happening.

Hope this clears things up.


How was that Phyl?
 
T

TheGuyFromNJ

thanks for explaining, its makes a lot more sense now. I am going to continue to dose daily with mag to bring that up and see if the reactor can keep up.
 
T

TheGuyFromNJ

OK after 2 days of using the max dosage of the MG, with no changes to the Ca reactor here are my readings:

Ca 360ppm
KH 110ppm
MG 1080ppm

The max dosage of MG is 60ml/day for my system, but after 2 days of the max dosage I am still not getting anywhere. ???

What am I missing?

Should I just do a big water change and start over? Is there any problems with exceeding the max dosage of Mag?
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
The max dosage is X and if adding is only bring you back to Y you need to be adding 2X to get to X more than Y. It is a max INCREASE, AFAIK, not a max DOSAGE that you need to focus on. First step is to get it increasing.

What corals are you growing in there?
 
T

TheGuyFromNJ

I'm growing a bit of everything. Sps, lps, leathers, toadstools, zoas. Growth on my caps and coraline growth has slowed considerably but nothing is losing color.

So your saying I can exceed the max dosage as long as tests show I am not exceeding 1350? I can just add 200ml in a day w/o destroying anything? I usually add to the sump to things get mixed well before it gets to the display.

Thanks for the help.
 
S

stcreef

Well considering you say you have 120g total system volume and you are using Brightwell's mag. Brightwells claims their product is 100,000ppm. Starting at 1080 ppm and wanting to end at 1350 ppm, you will need about 1250ml of the supplement. You can dose this all at once, but I would highly recommend dripping it in a high flow area, not just dumping it in. To be safe, dose half and see if you see the rise. With half the dose you should be at about 1215ppm
 
T

TheGuyFromNJ

Thats 2.5 bottles! Does anyone make a stronger bottle? Maybe a water change with a better salt? I know there have been problems with RC having low Mag.
 
S

stcreef

I dont think so. 100,000ppm is pretty darn high for a mag supplement. I would really like to see if it raises your mag to the calculated levels using the calculations I gave you. I would really shake the bottle vigorously for quite some time before using too.

Kents Tech M is 70,000ppm and Randy's Two Part Mag is 47,000ppm
 
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