Ca Reactor with RO Water

[AlohaTropics]

Anyone know if there is anything negative about feeding RODI water into a Ca. Reactor instead of tank water? Is this even possible? I'm thinking about doing it to directly counter evaporation with the drip.

Any chemical downsides. Anyone tried this?

 

[MIKE NY]

I never heard of anyone doing it, but it should work as long as the PH is low enough to disolve the media. The problem I see is although you can adjust the drip rate to match the evaporation rate will it be enough to keep your cal/alk in the system at the levels where you want them.

 

[Bob 1000]

Try it let us know:splitspin Feeding fresh water through a calcium reactor has to have some type of adverse effect.. I wouldn't try this on any reef of mines with a calcium reactor on it aka corals worth not losing and I try everything on my system

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

maybe the media turns alive and plays a role ,straight rodi might effect it, just a thought

 

[AlohaTropics]

I'm trying to figure out what possibly could be bad. I mean, the RO Water has a naturally low pH, and the dKH is about 5ish. Does aragonite require salt water to breakdown? I thought it was all about low pH...I actually think the RO water will have an even lower pH than the tank water which is normally at 8.2.

Any serious chemists out there?? If this works, it could be really amazing to just keep a bucket filled with RO water to feed reactor. Set the reactor's drip to be the same as the rate of evaporation. Then adjust the CO2 bubble count to control the dKH of the effluent to keep the alkalinity stable which should in turn dose enough Ca.

Someone had to of thought of this before!

 

[pecan2phat]

I evaporate 40 liters per day between 2 systems so trying to keep up with evaporation with a CA reactor at that rate would probably nuke my tanks.

 

[AlohaTropics]

Warren, you lose 10 gallons a day! Wow, between my 100 and 180, I only lose about 3-4 gallons.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[pecan2phat]

10 gpd in the summer due to all the fans over the sumps and then it drops down to about 3 gpd in the winter.
The evaporation changes is also another issue to contend with, the output of the reactor would change seasonally.

 

[AlohaTropics]

Yeah, but you know my "fish room" is completely climate controlled. Its always set to 76 with dehumidification. I pretty much have no temp. change or rate of evap change all year round. Now if I can set the reactor to the exact level of evaporation PLUS the exact level of dkh and Ca usage, I would have complete stability.

Anyone else have an opinion? I'm too afraid to just do it...