DKH Question

what media do you have? 6.8 is the target. to clarify earlier message: if there is no reactor and you do normal water changes the elements will drop overtime. if you dose over the aloted consumption rate and do regular water changes with normal water, the levels should stay the same. if you dose according to your tanks consumption rate and do water changes with the water elements the same as the tank, all should stay the same. check out wetwebmedia for advice on calcium reactors, good sight. feel free to send me a private email if any questions.

 

oh yea one more thing, the lower the Ph the higher the dKH and Ca. the higher the Ph the lower the dKH and Ca. set it for 6.8 Ph with an effluent rate of 20cc/min, as a start. then go from there. if your Ca drops with your dKH then you need to add more effluent keeping the same Ph of 6.8. the opposite holds true. i leave my CO2 on 24/7 along with the reactor pump. always leave the pump running, play with the CO2 or the effluent, NOT the pump for the reactor leave that running 24/7. if you do the same and the tank raises in value you have two choices. 1) either put the CO2 on a timer to work during the day for the correct amount of hours to stabalize your consumption rate. or . 2) lower the effluent rate keeping 6.8 Ph. some reactors tend to clog at a low effluent rate. on mine the tube that feeds the pump for the reactor is actually being fed by another pump to keep the flow pressure up. minor tweeks to make it work for you.

 

target effluent dKH 20+, Ca 600+. the lower the Ph will melt the media to mush over time. best to kept at 6.8 imop

 

Wow, what I've read and be told by LFS is that DKH should be max 12 and calc should be 450 max 500. I'll make your recommended suggestions and see how it goes. I'm using the course or large CaribSea media.

 

were using the same media, just dont take my word for it, goto wetwebmedia.com and reefkeeping.com both have plenty of articles on this stuff. check out my profile and the tank specs of the two pictures. depending on what type of system your setting up check out livestockusa.org (bulk direct from the ocean), liveaquaria.com, or marinedepotlive.com all have some good deals.

 

heres two sites to start with from reefkeeping.com:

Calcium and Alkalinity by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

and from wetwebmedia.com:

calcium reactor set up - Google Search

 

Thanks for all the good info and links Reef Guru.

 

heres a web site that will help configure your reactor
Reactor Setup help

 

Ya, I found that the other day, but thanks.
Things are looking better