COMAS Meeting November 10, 2007-Minutes 

The November meeting was held at UCO and started at 7.40pm. There were approximately 55 members present for the meeting. 

General Discussions:

President Paul Whitby reminded the membership that the elected positions for the club officers were still open for nominations until the end of the month. Most of the positions have an entry & are currently running unopposed. Should one feel that they want to be more involved in a supporting role, there are several positions on the Leadership Team available. The Leadership Team is looking for a person(s) to organize four meetings per year. Now is your chance to step up and get involved!

A recent addition to keep members informed about what is going on with the club is an emailed newsletter. Contained in the newsletter is a general overview of recent events and club activities. Starting next year in 2008, local fish stores (LFS) will have their submitted information & sales added.

The Club Treasurer (Stephanie) has a new membership form on the COMAS site. Everyone should take the time to go over your information and update that which is not current. There have been issues with the auto generated email of the COMAS Newsletter. The program halts when an invalid email is encountered, so please verify your email information.

Members are reminded about using the Coral Frag Program section on the COMAS site for information on coral availability, what type of growing conditions, etc. There is a plethora of information contained on each type of coral in the program.

The Club Library has been underutilized this past year. A discussion ensued about the program’s value to the general membership and whether the library should be continued in its present form. The general consensus was to keep the Club Library. A motion was made to have the books brought to each meeting, none volunteered to bring them.

There are frag mounting packs left over from the CRASE, these were made by Travis Stevens and the glue was donated by the Super Glue Corporation. They are available for sale at $10.00/pk.

Prize Winners:

CRASE T Shirts; Tim VanWagoner, Hayley Cloud, Christopher Cost.

CRASE Towel; Richard Shanks, Robert Davis, Walt McGee,

Frag Disk Pack; Edda Miner, Dave Kalbert, Doug, Grey, Brenda Kalbert

Premier Aquatics $50.00 gift voucher; Tracy Houston

Oddballs $25.00 gift voucher; Terrel Johnson

Zoanuts 425.00 gift voucher; Nathan Steele  

(Apologies for any misspelled names-I don’t have the updated membership listing)

Topic of Meeting: This month’s topic was “Calcium Reactors & Supplements in marine systems” by Tim VanWagoner.

What uses calcium? Almost everything in your tank uses calcium (snails, worms, calcareous algae, LPS, & SPS). A well stocked 180 gallon system needs about 50lbs. of CaCO3 (Calcium carbonate) equivalents per year (based upon referenced materials in the presentation). Ten percent of the Ca in your tank ends up as Calcium Carbonate. In a balanced system, calcium should be around 400-450 ppm. Usually anything above 450 runs the risk of precipitation.

Alkalinity is important to the pH of your system. Alkalinity is a mix of ions; Bicarbonate 90%, Carbonate 7%, and Borate, Silicate, etc. 3%. Alkalinity is a measure of the buffering capacity of water, or the capacity of bases to neutralize acids. Waters with high alkalinity are able to resist major shifts in pH.

An example was provided as a guideline for tank parameters;

DKH                            CALCIUM

1.4                               350 ppm

2.1                               375 ppm

5.6                               400 ppm <min>

9.1                               425 ppm <optimum>

12.6                             450 ppm <max>

16.1                             475 ppm

Supplementation of additives for calcium & alkalinity can be added on a 1:1 ratio. For example; One meg/L of Alk. for every 20 ppm of Ca.

There are many forms of supplementation, and they are;

A. Water changes, if done at an appropriate rate, can replace most of the supplements.

B. Unbalanced supplementation (separate supplements like Buffer, Ca, Mg).

This option is cheap but difficult; the chemicals used are road salt & baking soda. The recipes to make these are online. The disadvantage to this option is that your system can become imbalanced over time without proper testing.

C. Balanced supplementation (combined supplements like B-ionic, etc).

This option is expensive & easy; the proper use of pre-made solutions shouldn’t create an imbalance. You still should test your system regularly.

D. Kalkwasser (Calcium Hydroxide solution) can be used to add calcium and it raises the pH in your system. A Nilsen reactor can used to add kalkwasser to the tank. It is much less expensive than a Ca reactor. Other options besides a Nilsen reactor, is the use of lime or pickling lime. This can be mixed in with the RO/DI water. Pickling lime can be purchased at your local grocer. Mrs. Wage's Pickling Lime is recommended.

E. Ca Reactor, has a high initial cost, but pays for itself over the long term. A calcium reactor is a container filled with calcium carbonate (CaCO3) media and aquarium water is circulated through with the controlled injection of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide lowers the pH of the water, making it acidic. This dissolves the calcium carbonate and provides the aquarium with calcium and alkalinity.

Magnesium is an important supplement in conjunction with calcium and buffer (alkalinity). Magnesium's main function is its interaction with the calcium and alkalinity balance. It prevents the Ca and bicarbonate (Alkalinity) from combining. A Ca reactor will provide some magnesium, you will still have to supplement from time to time. An inexpensive option to add magnesium to your tank is to add Epsom Salt. This can be added into the sump at about 1 cup per day, consult with Tim V. or Paul W. for the proper ratio to your tank size.

Items needed for a Ca Reactor:

A. Reactor Chamber

B. Feed pump (should be low flow like maxi-jet or mini-jet)

C. CO2 bottle (common sizes are 5 & 10lb.)

D. Regulator with a good needle valve (most accurate for flow regulation)

E. CO2 bubble counter

F. Reactor media (crushed coral, CaribSea A.R.M., Gen-X)

Some types of the reactor media have phosphates, just be aware of this.

G. solenoid & pH controller (pH controller is normally set at 6.5).

Regulation of your Ca reactor is by adjustment of effluent drip rate (the amount of water flowing through the reactor) & bubble rate (amount of CO2 added to the reactor), try to match these.

Initial Setup:

A. Set the reactor at a relatively low CO2 bubble count and a low effluent flow rate.

B. Adjust the pH within the reactor around pH 6.5.

C. Check alkalinity every few days and compare the readings. If the alkalinity level falls, increase the amount of CO2 so more of the media is dissolved. If the alkalinity level rises above the level you want, reduce the amount of CO2. Less of the media is dissolved.

Note:

Changing the amount of CO2 into the reactor will change the pH in the reactor as well. To keep the pH in the reactor stable; remember to make the same adjustment up or down to the effluent rate when adjusting the bubble rate (CO2).

Good rule of thumb: If you double the CO2 rate, double the effluent rate.

Issues with a Ca reactor:

A. Excess CO2 from the effluent will drive down the pH of your system and can cause an algae outbreak. Some Ca reactors use a second chamber to absorb the excess CO2 prior to effluent flowing into the tank. Some aquarists add a Nilsen reactor, which adds high pH kalkwasser to the tank to offset the low pH from the Ca Reactor.

B. Calcium reactors cannot correct existing imbalances in your system. You need to get your system balanced before starting your Ca reactor.

C. Ca reactors can introduce phosphates, via reactor media, into the system.

The presentation ended with a question & answer session. Two complete Ca reactor setups were provided to give members a chance to look them over and have a one on one question & answer time.

Tim’s presentation was very informative.

Last order of business was the Frag Program (disbursement and collecting of corals)

Meeting adjourned at 9:10pm