Again the calcium reactor effluent placement subject and Ph.

[Mark Novack]

Hello,
The idea is to get the calcium reactor effluent CO2 exchanged with O2 without precipitating out the calcium. Is that why it is bad to place the concentated effluent at the skimmer intake? To concentrated for the rapid PH rise?

Now, if I placed the effluent into the overflow, it is going to be quickly diluted, get some air exchange through the downpipe, go through roller fleece and then pass into the skimmer before continuing through the sump. Good or bad idea? I no longer trust my logic so if I ask dumb stuff, its to avoid stupid mistakes that lead to disasters and I have had plenty.

I will use a CO2 scrubber on the skimmer air intake. Should I also use one on the Durso air vent? My home is tight and over populated with little air exchange in the 8 colder months.

Humble thanks,
Mark

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Personally, I would try both placements and see if you noticed a difference in pH and/or alk/ca levels. I am not sure you will see precipitation if the concentrated effluent is fed into the skimmer directly. There are a lot of variables, like how concentrated (what dKh is the effluent) and what the flow rate is.

I use an aeration tower that forces my effluent to rise to a preset pH before it re-enters the tank. When I was using 7.3 as the cut-off pH (when the air stone would be disabled), I never noticed much precipitation. When I forced it up to 7.5 - 7.6, I immediately had lots of precipitation on the inside of the aeration tower. That is with concentrated (only effluent), and being forced to rise from 6.1 to 7.3+ in pH. I have backed it off to 7.3 and plan to give the inside of the tower a good cleaning in the future, lol.

My gut says you will probably be hard pressed to detect precipitation, but only testing it will tell for sure.

Dennis

 

[lapin]

I have never had my calcium reactor change my tanks Ph.
Also have never run it to the skimmer directly.
The effluent tube is suspended out of the water, over the filter socks. From there water goes to the skimmer section then over the falls into the return chamber. Even when the Ph in the reactor drops lower than normal my tank Ph does not change.

 

[Mark Novack]

Thank you for your replies. As long as its not going to hurt anything I'll give it a try. I'm a long way off from starting up the reactor and then its going to come online really slowly. I had visions of snow storm precipitation of calcium which was a problem with our unsoftened tap water being off the scale in calcium hardness. With RO water I have not seen it again. I'll be back in a few months to discuss bringing the reactor online wihout shocking everything to death.