richfavinger

I did say the build was going to be a slow burn. But, I am on my final month of 0% interest on my credit card that got me though all the home renovations and new appliances… So why not splurge just a little?

I’ve set every thing up on this tank with all the nice things the last tank never had… a sump... huge skimmer… LED… semi-automatic water changing… and now finally, the ultimate reef junky toy… a calcium reactor…

I decided to go with a GEO 612 Calcium Reactor (rated for tanks up to 250g) and AquariumPlants CarbonDoser Electronic CO2 Regulator. The reactor will be run off of a MaxiJet 400. I did not think ahead enough for the tanks main plumbing to include tee-offs to add reactors. - That will likely get fixed some day, but not now… lining up hard lines to bulkheads was enough of a pain! Prior to the reactor I was dosing 2-Part with BRS 1.1ml Dosing Pumps run off my Apex.

The reactor is controlled by my Apex with the addition of an Apex PM1 pH Module (the Apex built in pH probe and ORP are already used on the system to monitor the tank itself). The probe is inserted in the top of the GEO 612 and is setup to control the CarbonDoser. Though my objective is to dial in the CarbonDoser so it barely ever needs to be shut off by the Apex.



At the moment the reactor is receiving about 12 bubbles-per-minute from the CarbonDoser and running around 90ml/min of effluent via the MaxiJet 400. The effluent is being controlled by a medical grade pinch valve (not a needle valve). And two high grade CO2 safe check valves are inline to protect the CO2 regulator from any backups. The reactor has settled in at a pH of about 6.6. The reactor is filled with one container of CaribSea A.R.M. Course media.



Medical Grade Pinch Valve (from Premium Aquatics)



Surprisingly enough finding a supply of CO2 was the hard part. I was going to buy a nice new 5lb or 10lb aluminum cylinder from AquariumPlants (very affordable). How ever in doing some investigating ALL local suppliers of CO2 (Paint Ball, Beer Distributer, Micro Brewery and even Welding Supply) exchange tanks… No one will FILL a personal tank. So I ended up finding a local home-brew supply store that exchanges nice 5lb aluminum cylinders. It will cost $20 per-exchange. The welding supply would have been nearly the same; but they only deal in ugly, heavy steel tanks. Either one, the initial perches for the first (full) tank was $90.

This is still a work in progress and I will have to dial in the reactor over the next few weeks by testing the tanks carbonate hardness (dKH) daily.