calcium reactor issues

[labnjab]

Our calcium reactor is getting air inside and I can't find out where its coming from. Its an Aqua C RX1 and its set up properly, I checked several times. There's tons of bubbles flowing through it which makes the effluctant drip rate very spotty. Sometimes its fine for a few days with no air then it will act up for a few days with tons of air. There's no salt-creep on any fittings so their no leaking and I removed all connections and reseated them several times. Its making it really difficult to adjust and its really pissing me off. I even added a feed pump to the supply line but that didn't make any difference at all. Please help before I toss it out the window http://nhreefclub.org/Smileys/classic/angry.gif lol

[kaimarkhirst]

Ive had horrifying poblems with water plumbing...

Obviously the reactor is taking water from the sump and replacing to respectively, but it is in the sump or stand alone.....?

Kai

[labnjab]

Its stand alone. Its not suppose to need a feed pump but i added one trying to fix the problem, which didnt help

[kaimarkhirst]

Cool.

Did the addition of the pump make it worse? or the same.

Also, when it happens what is the water level like in the sump relative to the depth of the pipe and is there a turbulent current in the sump section where the CR intake pipe is situated??

Kai

[Dave66]

How long have you been using the reactor? It sounds like the O-ring has a crack in it, since I had the exact same problem with one of my Schuran Jetstream reactors several months ago. The Co2, over time, had made the ring rather brittle, so air was being sucked in through a small slit in the ring. Now I've been using the reactors for many years, so that may or may not be your source of air, but it can't hurt to check it.

Other thing, how are you getting the calcium into the water column? Is it mixed with a skimmer, like via a John Guest fitting, or dripped into a sump?

Oh and checked the NX-1. The 'union lid' - does it screw on or snap on?

Dave

[labnjab]

The feed pump made no differance so i removed it today. The intake of the reactor is in a calm area of the sump several inches below the surface.

I bought the reactor used and started using it in febuary. The regulator is brand new. Which oring Dave? I have the effluctant line running through a 2nd homemade reaction chamber ( a ro canister minus the membrane) then dripping in the return chamber of the sump.

I think i may be getting somewhere or it could have just come out of it on its own. This afternoon i decided to decrease the bubble count thinking that i just had too much co2 going into it. I had it at 1 bubble every 2 seconds so i dropped it down to 1 bubble every 5 seconds. Currently its a lot better with not many bubbles in the chamber. Either this fixed it or it came out of it on its own and we still have a problem. I should know by the end of the weekend.

[kaimarkhirst]

Daves probably got it on this one.

Im thinking that its the turbulent current from the inlet pipe, but not looking into the actual make of the CS as dave has, then I think his diagnosis is correct rather than mine, but check both....

hope this helps

kai

[labnjab]

I forgot to mention, the lid screws on. If it acts up again I'm going to completely take it apart and replace all plastic lines and all orings and start from scratch. Luckily dripping kalk at night has been sufficient enough to keep calcium and alk maintained, but at the rate our sps and coraline are growing I'd really like to get this reactor going perfectly and adjusted right. If we go just one night without kalk or the reactor the alk and calcium drop significantly so we have a large demand.

Thank you both for your help so far

[kaimarkhirst]

silly question...

are the intake pipes clear and what sizes, joins,reducers and such ???

Kai

[Dave66]

What I saw on the NX1 was the lid you open to add media also has the Co2 input line running into it, so I assumed the lid had an O-ring to keep Co2 from leaking out. Since Co2 makes silicone brittle over time, made sense to me, since I had the same problem, that an O-ring crack might be the source of your air influx.

I use the same brand of skimmers as your reactor, and run my outflow lines into the skimmers to mix the calcium and use pH controllers to adapt for the needs of the reefs.

Dave

[labnjab]

There is a co2 line on the lid to recirculate unused co2. I think i have it fixed. I was just using way to much co2. Since dropping the bubblecount down its worked flawlessly all weekend. Ill probably change the oring anyways since its a few years old.

Thank you again for your help. Now i get the fun job of readjusting it, lol.