Ca Reactor

[Shark_Bait]

I finally got my PM Ca Rector up and running :D . The guy at the LFS told me that I should not run it at night, does this sound right? If it does heres my question.
I have the "in" line in the over flow box. So I set it up on a timer to turn off both the pump and the CO2 with the MHs. But now that the lights are all off, the "output" line in the sump is still dripping. The CO2 bottle is off and so is the pump on the reactor. Is this a problem? The reactor is not empting so I guess it's some sort of siphon. Anyone else have this? How do I fix it, if I should even be worrying about it? Or should this thing be running 24/7

Thanks for the help.

[NaCl_H2O]

I run mine 24/7, but it just depends on your system. Shutting off the CO2 is efectively shutting off the reactor. You can also leave the circulation pump running. Without CO2, in an hour or so you will just be running saltwater through the media. The general practice is to get the Ca Reactor "balanced" with your tank and run it 24/7.

[matt]

I would not do what you're doing. You want to get a specific ph in the reactor and leave it there; if you turn off the CO2, you must also turn off the effluent drip but leave the circulation pump on. Also, when you turn off the CO2 but still drip effluent, you're going to drip low ph effluent, that is low enough to still lower the tank ph, but not high enough in carbonate hardness to increase the buffering to prevent the ph drop in the tank. There's a ph "sweet spot" around 6.5-6.7 with most reactors in which the effluent is very high in carbonate hardness; you can drip this into your tank with no problems because the buffering is so high it doesn't allow the tank to react to the low ph effluent. If you turn off your CO2 but still drip, you'll be putting effluent into the tank that might be in the low 7 ph range, but will not have the high carbonates necessary to balance that.

Steve's right, a well adjusted CaCO2 reactor should be run 24/7 or with a ph controller. If you want to stop dripping at night, make sure you turn off the CO2 and effluent flow at the same but leave the circulation on. Then, when you start it up again during the day, your reactor ph will be the same as it was the night before.

[Shark_Bait]

That's what I thought. That the reactor should help in the buffering. I'm turning that sucker back on right now. Thanks for the help guys. Didn't sound right glad I checked with my "experts"

[GaryP]

I think what the guy at the LFS was trying to say is that the pH at night usually goes down due to algal respiration. The low pH from the reactor would cause the pH to drop even lower at night. If I were you, I would listen to these ^^^^^ guys. They are the experts. Of course if you are running a refugium, it has a tendency to level out the night time pH dip.