Tuning a Ca reactor!

[tinycrazycrawler]

I've a new Knop C reactor in my refugium.
The reactor is made with the IN water down and the OUT up, out of the surface of my refugium. The reactor is nearly all under water. The "in" takes water by itself, there is no pump putting water in the reactor itself, because my retailer said me that the flow made by the internal-reactor pump is enough to bring the water in from the down hole. Not putting a pipe or a pump in the "in" makes only one dis-advantage: if the power fails, the reactor can become a little emptied (remember that is nearly all submerged).
Now, water exits from the little pipe in the top of the reactor, which flow I can decide.
The problem: This is the second time I use it, the first time, due to CO2 leaking, the Co2 -that is in a little little bottle- lasted only a few day. The other time with out 60 bubbles water/minute and in 30 bubbles Co2 the ph out was 6,4. And so a very good ph.
Now, after a new Co2 adding in the container, I am not able to see the same results. Now with 60 bubbles minute of co2 and 60 bubbles water out, I read only 6,8 ph out. And the out-kh is 10, starting with a tank kh of 6. I belive that this is not a good result.
Lowering or raising the out- flow , and this is strange, not change the out- ph. Adding more Co2 lower the ph, but less than the first time. After changing the Co2 or the water flow, I wait 2 hours before re-trying the ph.
Is possibile that the Co2 in the bottle is of worst quality of the first time??? I ask because during the Co2 injection at the shop, the big bottle of the shop emptied and was changed...
Is possibile that not putting a pipe or a pump flowing water "in" can lead to these problems?
What I can do, now?
Many thanks, excuse me for the long post and for my bad english.
Marco

 

[Anonymous]

why do you have the reactor in your sump? I had mine under the tank, but it's not supposed to be in the water, I guess it wouldnt hurt it, but it will add extra heat to the tank.

I have a knop C, the pump will draw enough water to operate on it's own.

Unless you want to add a 2nd chamber, I did, then I had to start feeding the reactor with a tap on the return line.

The knop C comes with a fixed effluent speed fitting, you should only have to vary the co2 rate to increase/decrease effluent dkh, when you make a change it's not instant, if your effluent dkh needs raising, raise the co2 bubble count, and wait a few hours, or till the next day, and see what it's reading, dont make quick/fast adjustments with a reactor, it'll be tough to dial it in that way.

I did remove the effluent regulator on mine, and replaced it with a needle valve, but I wouldnt recomend that untill you add a 2nd chamber, the knop is pretty small, the stock settings are about right for effluent speed.


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