Koralin reactor and low pH-Help

[J_G]

I have a koralin reactor and I cant seem to get my pH above 7.9. It rides steady at about 7.7 and falls to 7.55 in the mornings. Any ideas what I can do to reach at least an 8.0.. I have superbuffed also to get 8.0 but it shortly falls and maintains 7.7....WHATS UP WITH 7.7? #%&*#$

OH..i have recently calibrated my ph meter
also my kh is steady at 11-12

[TexasTodd]

What is your calcium at?

Is the CA reactor feeding in to the intake of your skimmer? This is best. And even better if the flow comes out of your skimmer and there is macro algae "down stream" in the sump. The skimmer will blow off the extra Co2 and any left the plants will suck up.

You may want to go to a 24/7 lit refugium to keep it up.

Dirt and CO2 bring the ph down mostly.

Also can you feed your skimmer "fresher" air? This helps too.

Lastly, you may want to toy around with a higher ml's per minute effluent out of your CA reactor with a slightly lower bubbles per minute on the CO2.

Todd

[J_G]

my fuge is lit 24/7 and the effluent drips into the fuge at the opposite side of the fuge from the return pump. My calcium is at approximately 450

[thedude]

Do you use dose any kalkwasser?

[matt]

Lastly, you may want to toy around with a higher ml's per minute effluent out of your CA reactor with a slightly lower bubbles per minute on the CO2.

Todd

Actually, I'd suggest the opposite; lower effluent ph and lower drip rate. The critical thing is to have effluent with a very high dkh, at least 20, and preferably higher. But there are many reasons why your ph could be low; there was a recent thread about this; you might want to search for it.

First thing is make sure you're getting an accurate ph reading. Make sure your tank dkh is high enough, and make sure your dissolved 02 is okay (lots of good water movement, skimmer, etc) and as Todd suggested, make sure your source of air is okay. You'd be surprised how much CO2 can be in a crowded, sealed house. (I'm not making any assumptions about yours!!)

[J_G]

Whats odd is my effluent pH is 6.00 and I cant seem to get it to 6.5

[GaryP]

How old is your reactor media? If the aragonite is old, the CO2 may be channeling and you are not getting good contact between the CO2 and aragonite.

[J_G]

my reactor and media are less than 2 months old

[matt]

Oh, 6.0, that's really low. You have to slow down the CO2 rate; forget what I said about lowering your effluent ph! If you can't get a slow enough bubble rate to get 6.5, you might try a dwyer flowmeter instead of the needle valve that came with your regulator. Do a search for dwyer flowmeter and you'll find the model number you need. For now I'd basically shut off the reactor, or at least the CO2, until you can get it worked out.

[J_G]

Im not using the valve that came with the Co2 regulator. I purchased a precision metering valve ($90)

[TexasTodd]

I still stick with my original posted advice, especially: PUT YOUR EFFLUENT TUBE SO IT DUMPS RIGHT WHERE YOUR SKIMMER INTAKE IS.

Also, you should look in to a second chamber for your CA reactor. Fairly cheap and they really help the effluet PH come up some without loosing the goodies.

Todd

[matt]

I agree with what Todd says, but 6.0 coming out of the reactor is too low. You have to slow down your CO2 flow until you get an effluent ph of 6.5-6.7. If you're usng ARM as media, I can tell you that it seems to work best at that ph.

Dumping effluent into your skimmer is a good idea, but it's not going to solve your problem. The second chamber will help, especially because Korallin reactors are pretty low volume, but I know that you can adjust them to produce effluent at the right ph, or else nobody would buy them, and they are pretty popular. Good luck on this!

[NaCl_H2O]

I have a Koralin and run it at PH=6.6-6.7 with an effluent dKH of 30+. I only use the output coming out the top of the cap, the other is plugged now. How are you feeding water to it?

BTW - My tank PH is also low, Kalk is about the only thing that helps keep it above 8.0. However, I don't believe my low PH is due to the CO2 from the Ca reactor. I have taken many water samples, even the 6.7 PH effluent and aerated outdoors with no measurable change in PH.