Red and purple coral not coloring up – and in some cases, dying

[Mike S]

Im running a geo calcium reactor but to be honest I've only had to dose 2 part on one or occasions since I set it up in the Fall and that was just too adjust the ratio of my parameters. It doesn't sound like you have a real high demand so I would think that reactor could easily handle your load. I am wondering if something is wrong with how you have it dialed in or setup?

I dont have a real high demand either. I have lots of new sps frags at the moment and good coraline growth. Im using ARM media and keep my pH setpoint at around 7.20 to 7.25 in my reactor. If I go any lower my alkalinity really starts to rise. I think you mentioned earlier that your pH was set at around 6.4. Is that at the effluent or in the chamber? What does your media look like? I believe ARM media will meltdown at pHs in the low 6s. Im not sure how low that you can safely run it. Have you checked the parameters of your reactor effluent? What drip rate and bubble count are you running?

 

[fatoldsun]

I am wondering if something is wrong with how you have it dialed in or setup?

My guess is you are correct. I never had a lot of confidence with my "set up" skills but in an effort get more comfortable I reached out the the MTC folks and got advice directly from the reactor's developers.

Im using ARM media and keep my pH setpoint at around 7.20 to 7.25 in my reactor. If I go any lower my alkalinity really starts to rise. I think you mentioned earlier that your pH was set at around 6.4. Is that at the effluent or in the chamber?

I have my pH probe for the controller in a makeshift effluent chamber - but not in the reactor chamber. There are some mod plan floating around out there but after talking to MTC I was wary. The (very knowledgeable and helpful) guy I spoke with, Jeff, recommended not using a controller. I'm guessing this is why they have no provision for a pH probe on their reactors. I guess I have it set up that way because I burn through the CO2 fast as it is. I may try to take the controller offline and just run it as they recommend - I've kicked that idea around before - but I'll need to get a bigger Co2 bottle - i have a 2.5 lb at the moment. I guess if that doesn't work I can try the mod to add the probe to the chamber.

To answer the other questions, here’s a look at the media – this is the “main” larger chamber (the foil is to keep light off of it – I was getting green algae from all the natural light getting in there…)

Here’s the smaller chamber

And this is the controller dial - hard to see in the pic but the arrow is at 6.4. When I researched it I was of the impression that 6.2-6.5 was where you wanted it to adequately melt the calcium. – I guess I could just slow down the bubble count and remove the controller to achieve a similar result/consumption

 

[Hawkeye]

Maybe the vermitid snails are competing for the calcium carbonate to build their tubes – sadly I have no shortage of those.

Probably true...i had the same situation in terms of dealing with those things. The only reason it slowed down was after sandy wiped out most of my tank...including many of those snails. Sorry for the hijack. I can't stand those things.

 

[fatoldsun]

Probably true...i had the same situation in terms of dealing with those things. The only reason it slowed down was after sandy wiped out most of my tank...including many of those snails. Sorry for the hijack. I can't stand those things.

If I have any say as the OP - I welcome any hijack sharing disdain for those things. As possible pests in this hobby go, I realize they're fairly innocuous but they're all over the place and they multiply so damn fast. Every once in a while I'll hunt them with forceps and feed the snail itself to my anemones. Win-win