BraveHeart
04/12/2001, 01:54 PM
Guys,
As many of you know, I've been struggling with the dial-in on my reactor ever since I set it up some four or five months ago. I'm still thinking I've got a long ways to go, but I seemed to have finally cleared a big hurdle.
I've been whining about low calcium readings (e.g. < 300 ppm ) ever since I fired the thing up and started testing regularly. Alkalinity seems to gradually slip, as well, but it's not too difficult to keep it between 8 and 10 dKH with monthly water changes and a spoon of buffer once in a while.
About a week ago, I made some adjustments after researching everything I could find on this board. I had been running about 50 bpm of CO2 and about 5 ml/min of effluent. Tests of the effluent showed a dKH content of nearly 55. And, when I last tried to test the effluent for calcium content, my SeaChem Ca test went nuts -- the solution turned to a milky blue color at around 250 ppm!
What did I change? Well, I cranked up the effluent flow rate to about 10 ml/min. All my research indicated that the effluent should come out at about 35 to 40 dKH, instead of 55. So, I must have been running too hot. I could have turned down the CO2 rate, but I was afraid that alkalinity in the tank would suffer.
I tested after last night's meeting and found that my tank alkalinity had fallen from 9 dKH to 8 dKH in a week's time. But, that sort of behavior has been pretty commonplace over the last several months. However, calcium had gone from 315 ppm to 375 ppm! I couldn't get the calcium that high when I was hammering the tank with liquid calcium chloride every day!
I didn't have time to test the new effluent dKH and Ca readings, but my guess is that they are more in line with what they should be. I'll post back when I get them checked.
So, what's been wrong? My guess is that the extremely high alkalinity content of the effluent was causing the calcium to precipitate out before it even hit the tank. Or, maybe it was precipitating out after it got into the tank. Any ideas?
Jim: you didn't say anything last night. How's your reactor doing?
Bryan
As many of you know, I've been struggling with the dial-in on my reactor ever since I set it up some four or five months ago. I'm still thinking I've got a long ways to go, but I seemed to have finally cleared a big hurdle.
I've been whining about low calcium readings (e.g. < 300 ppm ) ever since I fired the thing up and started testing regularly. Alkalinity seems to gradually slip, as well, but it's not too difficult to keep it between 8 and 10 dKH with monthly water changes and a spoon of buffer once in a while.
About a week ago, I made some adjustments after researching everything I could find on this board. I had been running about 50 bpm of CO2 and about 5 ml/min of effluent. Tests of the effluent showed a dKH content of nearly 55. And, when I last tried to test the effluent for calcium content, my SeaChem Ca test went nuts -- the solution turned to a milky blue color at around 250 ppm!
What did I change? Well, I cranked up the effluent flow rate to about 10 ml/min. All my research indicated that the effluent should come out at about 35 to 40 dKH, instead of 55. So, I must have been running too hot. I could have turned down the CO2 rate, but I was afraid that alkalinity in the tank would suffer.
I tested after last night's meeting and found that my tank alkalinity had fallen from 9 dKH to 8 dKH in a week's time. But, that sort of behavior has been pretty commonplace over the last several months. However, calcium had gone from 315 ppm to 375 ppm! I couldn't get the calcium that high when I was hammering the tank with liquid calcium chloride every day!
I didn't have time to test the new effluent dKH and Ca readings, but my guess is that they are more in line with what they should be. I'll post back when I get them checked.
So, what's been wrong? My guess is that the extremely high alkalinity content of the effluent was causing the calcium to precipitate out before it even hit the tank. Or, maybe it was precipitating out after it got into the tank. Any ideas?
Jim: you didn't say anything last night. How's your reactor doing?
Bryan