ChippyPah Degassing Reactor

[Ged]

Background

I decided to upgrade to SPS October 2010 and soon found out that you need to dose Magnesium, Reef Buffer and Calcium, on a grand scale, just to keep up with the demand from these corals. This is in addition to doing a 10% water change religiously every week.

I eventually found a second hand Deltec Calcium Reactor on the forums and added some Rowalith C+ Media and away I went, no more dosing. So far this has kept my levels in check.

The Problem

The downside to using a Calcium Reactor, is that you need to use CO2 to effectively melt the media, to then drip feed the tank with it's required elements. Chemistry has never been my strongest, in layman's terms, the CO2 effectively lowers your pH at the same time as doing all it's magic in your Calcium Reactor.

tbh I have always struggled with keeping my pH above 8 and have done for so for months, even before adding the Calcium Reactor. Since adding the Calcium Reactor, it again dropped slightly more.

On an average day, my pH ranges from about 7.66 to roughly 7.90 ish, but one thing for sure, is that it is fairly consistent and nearly always the same each and everyday.

The Solution

One way to combat this, is to feed the effluent from the Calcium Reactor into a Degassing Reactor. This second reactor is filled with either Arm media or Gravel, I chose to use a bit of both.

What happens now, is that the CO2 lowers the pH and in turn melts the media in the Calcium Reactor, and then the output from there is fed directly into the Degassing Reactor, at the rate of approx one drip per second. This in turn then raises the pH from the effluent to around the 8 mark.

I decided to get a ChippyPah Degassing Reactor, as I had seen on the forums that he could do them on demand so to speak. They cost £25 plus postage and look exactly like this.



The one that Pete made for me, tbh was huge, and a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and I thought to myself where the heck (I did mean another word ending in ck but the swear filter starred it out) do I stick that?

With never having one of these before, it was like a new toy and I needed to know how much media to use and what type. A few posts on the forum later, and a trip to Nev's I had managed to get some Arm Media. This went in the Reactor and away it went on it's new life of looking after my pH levels.



At first, I never really noticed much difference, so I thought I should try some gravel as well, above the Arm media.

Off I went to Pets At Home, Warrington and bought some TMC Coral Gravel (fine) washed it and threw some in. Oh, I also put the bottom plate in the reactor that I had missed originally.



The effluent from the Calcium Reactor leaves,



then goes into the Degassing Reactor at the bottom.



The effluent then gets filtered through the Arm / Gravel and effectively, this raises the pH back up to approx 8

This then leaves the Degassing Reactor through the lid and back into the tank, giving my tank, the ability to keep Magnesium, Calcium and KH stable, as well as a pH of 8




After a day or so, the water was completely clear.



Now nearly a week after, my Degassing Reactor is giving me the results that I expected to see. pH at the end of the day of over 8



A Degassing Reactor from ChippyPah is available to order from Pete via his own section. Although please remember that Pete is off sick at the moment and so may not answer immediately to your enquiries etc.

You can find Pete's section here.

Chippypah Reactors - The Salty Box - Reef and Marine Fish Keeping Forum

[4head]

Nice little write up bud.

[Clearwater]

Good write up Ged

looks better than my old Phytoplankton bottle with coral sand

[deb+wayne]

Won't the water in it go stagnant?

[Ged]

Won't the water in it go stagnant?

In what way?

There is flow through it 24 hours per day. 1 drop per second, = 60 per minute, = 3600 per hour, = 86400 per day - If we assume one drop = 1 ml then roughly, 86 litres per day are passing through it.

If I have done my sums proper.

[deb+wayne]

In what way?

There is flow through it 24 hours per day. 1 drop per second, = 60 per minute, = 3600 per hour, = 86400 per day - If we assume one drop = 1 ml then roughly, 86 litres per day are passing through it.

If I have done my sums proper.

i would say a drop is 0.5ml max

[Ged]

i would say a drop is 0.5ml max

OK so approx 43 litres per day going through it then. It hasn't gone green yet anyway and I have had it over a week. I bought the sand the day I rang you asking for discount.

[deb+wayne]

OK so approx 43 litres per day going through it then. It hasn't gone green yet anyway and I have had it over a week. I bought the sand the day I rang you asking for discount.

let you off then
did you get the discount then?

[Ged]

let you off then
did you get the discount then?

Yes - and it was me who bought the bottle of Iodine. PMSL

[deb+wayne]

Yes - and it was me who bought the bottle of Iodine. PMSL