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14.6 CARBON REACTOR FOR AIR:
A small acrylic cylinder, filled with activated carbon, that is used to clean up the air of impurities, before it is blown inside the biological chamber of the trickle filter, where the bacteria use some of the oxygen it contains, and where some of that oxygen transfers to your water, raising its dissolved oxygen content.
All airborne pollution that would otherwise end up in your system, and transfer to the water, is removed in this fashion. An alternative way is to fill the reactor with molecular absorption discs, or cut up Poly Filter pads. Because both of the latter do not remove gasses, for example oxygen, such is, in my opinion, a better way to go.
The correct way to use this type of reactor is to blow the air coming out of your air pump into the reactor first, and then from the reactor into the trickle filter's biological chamber. You can also use these reactors to improve the quality of the air going into your ozonizer. The hook-up procedure is the same as the one just described.
14.7 CARBON REACTOR FOR WATER:
What many hobbyists used to do with canister filters can be done with a specialized reactor filled with activated carbon. Water is flowed in through one end and emerges from the other, and is then mixed with the water in the sump of the trickle filter, or guided back directly to the tank. Because the need for using large amounts of activated carbon is greatly reduced when you use M.A. discs or Poly Filters, evaluate whether your system needs this type of a reactor carefully.
14.8 X-NITRATE REACTOR:
This reactor is similar to the one just described, but is filled with a nitrate removing compound called X-nitrate which is sold by TAT. This efficient medium requires that a fair amount be used for each 50 gallons of water in your system. As a result, traditional canister filters may be too small to handle that amount of material. If you need more than such a canister can handle, and if you do not have spaces provided for its use in your trickle filter or elsewhere in the system, this reactor will solve your problem.
14.9 CARBONATE HARDNESS REACTOR:
Although similar in its size and operation to a carbon dioxide reactor, the carbonate hardness reactor serves a totally different purpose. Both water and carbon dioxide are flowed through it, and the contact made between the calcareous material inside the reactor, and the acidified water (because of the CO2) results in some carbonate and bicarbonate material going into solution. This raises the carbonate hardness of the whole system in a more automated fashion.
Flow water slowly through these reactors and monitor your carbonate hardness frequently because this is a highly efficient system and your KH level may rise quickly over a period of a few days to a few weeks. After you have attained the desired KH level, you will have to adjust the amount of CO2 going into the reactor by means of either pH control, or by means of a timer.
This will require that you experiment with CO2 flow rates a little to determine how many hours a day the reactor needs to be provided with carbon dioxide for your carbonate hardness to remain at the level where you want it to be. Trial and error may seem laborious, but it will probably only take you a day or two to figure out exactly how to operate this highly efficient unit.
14.10 KALKWASSER REACTOR:
Kalkwasser reactors are used to increase the amount of dissolved calcium carbonate in your system in a more uniform manner. Calcium carbonate is very much required by all corals with hard exoskeletons, as has been pointed out repeatedly by for example P. Wilkens and A. Thiel.
These are the types of corals that most hobbyists keep or want to keep, by their common names they are known as: Sunflower, Elegance (Elegant), Bubble, and so on.
Because it can do so very efficiently, this is one of the most interesting reactors to install. It should be filled with pure calcium carbonate rock, and very small amounts of CO2 should be injected into the reactor. This is easily done with a manual carbon dioxide injection system, or with a bypass from the main automated system.
Filling it with any other material than calcium carbonate rocks will not do an efficient job for you, and may result in too large an increase in your carbonate hardness if left unattended for too long. This unit is meant to add calcium carbonate only, not other hardness factors. It is operated independently of any other CO2 driven reactor, and should not be confused with them.
Pure calcium carbonate rock must be obtained from a chemical supply house, and you must specify that you want the highest purity grade. Do not use calcium carbonate powder, in bags, because the powder will quickly escape, and mix with the water without dissolving. Such will create a real mess and it will be hard to remove the powder from your system. Additionally your pH may rise rapidly and in a way that you will find hard to control.
An alternative to the reactor itself, is to mix some calcium carbonate rocks in the mix that is already in your CO2 reactor. If you do so, mix only 4 or 5 of them and determine what the effect is, by using a calcium hardness test (LaMotte Chemicals). If the calcium hardness rises too rapidly remove the rocks and resort to the alternate method suggested below.
Alternatively, if you decide on not using this type of a reactor, add Kalkwasser bought commercially from one of the companies that specializes in reef products, and add it on a regular basis, preferably continuously by means of a drip method, as suggested by Wilkens, and re-explained by Thiel in several articles in the Marine Reef newsletter.14.11 CONCLUSION:
The use of reactors to improve the water management system is new. Many hobbyists and many pet store owners are unfamiliar with them and may not fully understand what they can do for your tank, and for the stability of its environment. They all benefit the water quality, but whether you want to install them or not is a personal decision. Talk to manufacturers and let them explain some of the benefits, as they see them, to you, and then make a determination.
As the hobby evolves newer techniques always come about, but it sometimes takes a long time for the hobbyist to adjust to them. Reef tanks are only now really catching on, and they have been around in Europe for about 10 years, and in the States for 5.
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