Water issues

My bubbles were about the same rate as yours, the effluent was a very fast drip. I since lowered the effluent to like 1 drop every 8-10 seconds, because that what I think got my alk so high. (I dont want to turn it off completely :-/)

I'm going to be monitoring it for a couple of weeks to see if I get everything dialed in. Thanks for all the help, and ill post my test results the next time I do them.

Thanks

 

IBM, keep in mind the slower you run your effluent the higher your calcium, alk, etc. will be. It works opposite of what one would think. The slower the effluent the more time the water stays in the reactor and the more minerals it will gather. If you're wanting to drop your alk, etc. speed your effluent up. Your controller will just work with the solenoid to keep the pH around 6.5 6.7

 

Ohh, I think I am going to stop it then. I really don't have much corals, so my alk is going to take a while to decrease. I thought since I was adding 6 or 7 drops a minute it would be ok, but thanks for the heads up.

 

I would just open the effuent valve up all the way so at least the unit has water flow through it. If you just shut it off the media may cake up on you due to the low pH in there. Also if you do shut it off shut your Co2 tank off as well so It's not keeping 1000 lbs. of pressure on the reactor with no where for it to go.

If it were me I'd just open the effuent valve all the way up and let it run...

 

Ok, Ill open it up all the way. What do you think If I raise the controllers ph level so it wont send that much c02 to dissolve the media?

 

The controller seems to be set correctly. if I remember correctly you are using a lighthouse aren't you?

My controller turns the Co2 on when the pH rises above 6.7 and turns it off when it falls to 6.5

You will make more ground adjusting it by the effuent.

 

I put it so that it would shut off at 6.55 (So it would not go down to the 6.4's) I had my bubble count pretty much set. The ph would stay at 6.5-.6.7 without the controller having to turn on and off. But I followed your advice and opened my effluent all the way (whats the worst that can happen? That I lose a few common polyps ;D)

 

Nah, with your effuent open all the way you won't hardly be dosing anything at all. If you're worried, just shut off the Co2 tank/or solenoid and let the reactor run for a couple of hours or unitil the pH in the reactor rises above 7. Once this has happened you can then shut the reactor down and your media shouldn't cake up.

 

Wow, I just topped off my water with rodi, and when I added the water I started seeing that fuzzy water, like when you add the calcium supplement. I guess there was still some calcium supplement in the compartment that did not make it through the baffles. Probably my alk will lower now

Now that I opened the effluent all the way up the ph is at 7.73 inside the reactor.