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Calcium Reactors tend to depress the pH over time. Holmes-Farley has some good articles on this in his Chemistry Forum. Another thing that could be depressing your pH is elevated CO2 levels - either from using too much in the Ca Reactor or from elevated CO2 in your house if you do not have adequate ventilation. He also talks about CO2 and how to determine if this is your problem. He also talks about various methods to safely bring up and stabilize the pH - buffers and kalk. In his articles he likes to use Kalk because it will not only bring you pH up but it will add Calcium and Alkalinity in a balanced manner. To lower your Alkalinity you need to just tune the Ca down - bubble count and effluent. Do you have the controller monitoring the Reactor or tank? I have mine monitoring the tank. I have my Aquacontroller controlling my Ca Reactor based on tank pH and I have a Pinpoint monitor just monitoring the reactor pH so I know I am dissolving the media without turning it into mush. I also believe that 7.8 is borderline of acceptable pH so I would keep an eye on it. Your phosphate problem could be a CO2 issue or a phosphate issue. Some types of Ca Reactor media are high in phosphates. Are you using the "large sand" Schuran media that Geo suggests?
I have a similar setup to yours. I also bought the Geo Nielsen Reactor with my Geo Calcium Reactor so I don't have to worry about pH.
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