Media mush

[flowerseller]

So after running my grossly oversized DIY calcium reactor for the last 8 months, I found the media turned to mush. This was all new media for this project and it has worked like a champion.

Not quite sure how long this took since we've been up to our eyeballs for the last 2 months.

I would guess it took place over the course of 3 days or less. It started once we closed the house up and started the A/C unit.

Reactor effluent generally runs around 7.1 - 7.4 and is an all internal, single stage DIY reactor with about 24-30#'s of media.

 

I have since replaced the media and a few other house cleaning things associated with it and it's back on line w/PH of 7.4.

 

Looking for current experieced users suggestions as to the cause as this has not happened before.

That much media isn't cheap.

[dbartco]

You running it on a controller?

 

Low ph is the only thing I've heard about doing this.

[Caribbean Jake]

sound like some water quality parameter, perhaps too much CO2? By no meens I'm an expert or pretend to be, I just throw out some options to see if that could be a possible clue.

[lmeyer]

Same question as Doug. I've heard of this, too, but never seen it. I checked the instruction manual for the MRC calcium reactor. It says, "Do not drop the PH below 6.5. This low PH could turn your reactor media into 'mush' or 'mud'."

[flowerseller]

I'm confidant that it was a short time issue. 3 days start to finish tops..

PH droppning that low not likely but could be since I do not run a controller..

Checked it when I noticed it and it was 7.08.

 

I figured the low PH and it could be that since once the AC goes on my evap slows which means less kalk which means lower tank PH which means lower PH water entering the reactor.