Has any one ever heard of Mag Chips?

[Hnguyen]

So I was looking around on youtube one day at other peoples calcium reactor setup and I ran across one guy that ran a smaller reactor loaded with something called Mag chips along side with his calcium reactor. The water return from his cal. reactor will have to pass through the smaller reactor with mag chips in it before it will return to the tank. He said that the mag chips remove excess Co2 from his cal. reactor thus keeping the Ph in his display tank constant.

I guess my question is, does anyone use it or have you guys even heard of it? If you have, Does it work? and where can you get it. I've try to look it up on google with no luck of finding it.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[weaglereefer]

Never heard of it being run in line in a separate chamber, usually just a layer run on top of the calcium media. I think Brightwell makes a product that can be used for this purpose.

[grouper therapy]

It may be a type of dolomite.

[Hnguyen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdCJhb51lZw

This is the guy I was talking about. Pay close attention to the video at around 1 min. 30 sec. into the video. He starts to talk about how he runs his return water from his cal. reactor into an old RO unit that he gutted and turned into this reactor loaded with mag chips.

[Acroholic]

Originally Posted by Hnguyen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdCJhb51lZw

This is the guy I was talking about. Pay close attention to the video at around 1 min. 30 sec. into the video. He starts to talk about how he runs his return water from his cal. reactor into an old RO unit that he gutted and turned into this reactor loaded with mag chips.

I get the idea this guy is from another country, maybe England or Australia, and what he is referring to as "mag chips" looks like regular old calcium reactor media to me.

What I think he is doing is running the equivalent of a second media chamber to raise the pH of the calcium reactor effluent before it returns to the tank.

I do this myself. The idea is nothing out of the ordinary and pretty common practice for many reefers.

[Schwaggs]

I agree, the "mag chips" look like nothing more than coarse reactor media...

[Hnguyen]

Hmmmmm. That seems like an idea. So pretty much you guys are just running a secondary cal. reactor to soak up the rest of the Co2 before it re-enters your display tank right? I've just set up my cal. reactor so I'm still in the learning process of all this. But from common sense I know that the return water from your cal. reactor will lower your PH in the display tank over time due to the release of way lower PH water right?

Well thanks for the help guys! I'm going to look for an old chamber so I can set that up and see how it turns out.

Oh BTW, when you guys run the setup like that. Is the secondary chamber under any kind of pressure or do you just stick the return line from your cal reactor into the second chamber and just let it flow pass the media freely?

Thanks in advance,

Hoang

[Acroholic]

Originally Posted by Hnguyen

Hmmmmm. That seems like an idea. So pretty much you guys are just running a secondary cal. reactor to soak up the rest of the Co2 before it re-enters your display tank right? I've just set up my cal. reactor so I'm still in the learning process of all this. But from common sense I know that the return water from your cal. reactor will lower your PH in the display tank over time due to the release of way lower PH water right?

Well thanks for the help guys! I'm going to look for an old chamber so I can set that up and see how it turns out.

Oh BTW, when you guys run the setup like that. Is the secondary chamber under any kind of pressure or do you just stick the return line from your cal reactor into the second chamber and just let it flow pass the media freely?

Thanks in advance,

Hoang

People do the second reactor pass thru because it does increase PH, but the effluent also is still in the acidic range, so it is like free buffering capacity going to waste as well. NOt a pressure type situation, just a pass thru.

I don't think the effect on tank pH is as big a deal as peopl make it out to be. IMO, a slightly lower tank pH (7.9-8.0) is not an issue if your Ca, mag and KH are all within range.

[haninja]

I was looking at this subject some time ago. Here's an article:
http://ozreef.org/diy_plans/additives/magnesium.html
And here's the product to be used:
http://www.aqua-medic.com/Dolomite.shtml

[Acroholic]

This is just what I heard, but there are magnesium rich media like dolomite that you can use like calcium reactor media as part of the total media in the reactor, or in a pass thru reactor like the video, but the problem is that these magnesium rich medias require a much lower pH that calcareous media, so you can't derive the benefit from them because if you lower the setpoint of the pH controller to the point where is actually does dissolve the mag based media (dolomite), then your calcareous media will be mush.

The best way to use dolomite as a mag supplement is to use it in a separate reactor/CO2 setup (like a calcium reactor) with only it in the reactor, then you can lower the pH to a point where the media will actually dissolve and release magnesium into the water.

As I said, this is what I have read, so please feel free to dispute this if you have read or know differently.

[JeF4y]

I use a second chamber with smaller media as well for reasons noted above.

The other thing I do is drip effluent near my skimmer intake as air bubbles can help remove additional CO2. All that said, I still end up dripping some kalk at night because my pH dips down.

[weaglereefer]

Originally Posted by JeF4y

I use a second chamber with smaller media as well for reasons noted above.

The other thing I do is drip effluent near my skimmer intake as air bubbles can help remove additional CO2. All that said, I still end up dripping some kalk at night because my pH dips down.

Any worry about the CA effluent causing calcification inside the skimmer's pump?

[JeF4y]

Originally Posted by au01st

Any worry about the CA effluent causing calcification inside the skimmer's pump?

No problem in the last year...