Jay Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 Ok Im sure this may have been posted before and I have basically quit useing my reactor because I have not come up with a good way to do this yet. Here is my problem. (scratch) I use a Knopp Cal reactor and have a ph moniter. I need to moniter the effluent from the reactor and also need to run the effluent through Phosphate Media to remove any phosphates released from the reactor sand as it desolves. I was just running the effluent into a cup in my sump and had the probe from my moniter in the cup to moniter the PH. This works great and I had very fast coral growth and nice stable alk and cal once I adjusted the levels. A also noticed my Cheato in my sump growing fast and green algae on the glass. Pretty quick I noticed algae growing on my liverock in my display. What I need to do is build something that can house my PH probe and has a place to run the effluent through Phoslock media. How do you all do this? Can someone post pictures and a description of how they are doing this? I have 2 phosphate reactors daisey chained togather with Carbon running in the first and phoslock in the second but this does me no good if the effluent comming from my reactor is just running straight into my sump adding phosphate right back into the water. I know the different brands of Cal media claim that there is no phosphates in theur product. Can anyone verify this? I will gladly toss the ARM media and buy another product. Also where do I buy the stuff that you add to the reactor that will keep the magnesium levels up without having to dose. Whats that stuff called? Dolomine or dolomite?..I forget. Please someone share their way of doing this. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrgreenthumb Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 As far as your contraption goes I can offer no advice :(, but I will say that I have not had to swich my phosphate media out of the reactor since I switched to the knop brand of media(they sell it at waves) for my cal reactor. That was about 6 1/2 weeks ago. When I was using arm it was every 2 weeks. Tested my water on friday and I had 0 phosphates. Definitely saving me money already!! I think it was only like $10 more than the arm media too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted August 3, 2008 Author Share Posted August 3, 2008 As far as your contraption goes I can offer no advice :(' date=' but I will say that I have not had to swich my phosphate media out of the reactor since I switched to the knop brand of media(they sell it at waves) for my cal reactor. That was about 6 1/2 weeks ago. When I was using arm it was every 2 weeks. Tested my water on friday and I had 0 phosphates. Definitely saving me money already!! I think it was only like $10 more than the arm media too.[/quote'] Thats what I was thinking. Can anyone else add anything before I decide what to do? Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smann Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 I have ran a PM calcium reactor for years up until this year I used argonite sand as a media now I use ARM. After reading your post I tested my tank, my effluent and my RO/DI for phosphates and they were all 0. I dont know about the instructions for your reactor as you say you "have" to monitor the PH,The instructions for mine say to set the bubble count then test the PH-6.8 and the alk-15-20DKH then moniter the tank to make sure is stays stable. I have a low PH problem so I only run my reactor during the light cycle then turn off the c02 at night, I also added a second chamber so the PH is 7.0 I maintain my alk 9-10DKH and test about once a week I rarely test for calcium as its always at or above 400. If my leans below 9 I add an hr or two to the time same if reaches 10 I decrease the time its on If you want to mount the PH probe I think Waves will drill and tap the top(for a fee) and they sell a fitting to hold a PH probe I would watch the Ph and Alk in your tank if you have high Alk and its driving the Ph down you will definitly get an algea problem plus stress your tank. test your Ph at night and first thing in the morning and maintain a stable Alk reading. If your tank is stable and your phosphates test OK then I would look elseware for your algea problem good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smann Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 Also there are many articles and I found a few about reactors and phosphates at wetwebmedia.com. this is a good place to start http://www.wetwebmedia.com/calcreactors.htm After a little reading I will use Knop media next time i need to clean and replenish my reactor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted August 4, 2008 Author Share Posted August 4, 2008 Yep....I have been useing that wetwebmedia since I started in the hobby. Huge Huge source of information. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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