Calcium Reactor / PH Controllor users, I need some advice.

[bassking16]

Hello fellow reefers. I am in the middle of an upgrade right now, and on my new setup I plan to use a calcium reactor to maintain Alk/Cal. The reactor is on it's way, but I got my PinPoint controllor today, and have been playing around with it the last hour or so. I just have the probe in my sump right now monitoring my overall PH.

I know Tank PH can drop when using a Calcium Reactor, and I plan to drip kalk to combat this drop. I also plan to run my efluent right into my skimmer's clean water discharge in an effort to aerate some of the CO2 out as well.

Here's my question. Those of you using a similar setup, do you monitor your tank's PH with the controler, or do you monitor the efluent coming from the reactor? This may be a "six & one half dozen" type question. I'm not sure, so I'm looking for some advice. I know PH needs to be lowered by the CO2 for the reactor to work properly, but I worry that it may cause a bad swing in tank PH if I am not monitoring that instead of the efluent. Please let me know what you all think.

Thank You,
Bassking

[Andrew17030]

My Ca reactor has a port for the pinpoint ph probe. The pin point contoller controls the electric valve on my Co2 tank. Ph>8.1 Co2 on Ph<7.9 off. I have an apex controller with a ph phobe to monitor the tank also. The kalk sitrrer pump turns on when the ph<7.9 I control that with my pinpoint also. Then I have a spectrapure ultra precise ato that has a peralistic pump turn on when I need top off. That runs trough the Kalk stirrer. If the water is not being stirred because the ph is low it gets fairly clear water. To make it easy you can use a ato reservoir with a kalk solution. It can be half saturation or whatever you need to meet your tank's demand

[Muddy35]

I know Tank PH can drop when using a Calcium Reactor, and I plan to drip kalk to combat this drop. I also plan to run my efluent right into my skimmer's clean water discharge in an effort to aerate some of the CO2 out as well.

Thank You,
Bassking

Something else your gonna wanna look at is instead of running the effluent to the skimmer discharge run it to the intake.. You'll get a much better co2 degassing this way than you will by running it to the discharge.
Just my 2 cents worth..

[reefsahoy]

i control the ph by monitoring the effulent inside the ca reactor. my output of the ca reactor drips onto a piece of live rock exposed to air in my sump so by the time it drips off the rock the water would be expossed to open air for quite some time so the co2 would have dissipated or what ever co2 remains would dissolve the live rock over time and the end result would be like a second chamber.

[ghostman]

I agree with the above. I monitor the pH in the CaRx with one pH probe, and monitor tank pH with another probe. Both are connected to an ACIII controller for automated operation. I also agree to let the effluent drip to the intake side of the skimmer, but be prepared to clean the skimmer intakes often. HTH