Talk me into a calcium reactor

J

johnpirnat

New member
On my 120G system I use Kalkwaser (ms wage) by bringing a 5Gallon reservoir to saturation and then dosing with a BRS ATO pump (50ml/min) every hour. Has kept my dKh and CA steady and PH 8.2ish. The 5Gallons last about 10 days.

The system itself is truly "Topped Off" by a second line and float direct to RODI which obviously never needs to be refilled.

The only reason I can justify the expense of the Calc Reactor is that i like to mess with the setup, and that maybe in the future the Kalk wont be able to keep up? I have a few large Acans, Frogspawn, Hammer and Bubble Coral, but the SPS are relatively new and still small by comparison.

Any other reasons I should upgrade aside from getting ahead of future growth? My setup costs basically nothing and only have to check it every 10 days... Some say the Calc reactor is "set up and forget" but others say you have to check the C02 bubbling and drip rate daily? (which sounds like a pain)

Anyways... someone talk me into dropping $600 on a weekend project.
 
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I’m running a Red Sea 250 which is about 64 total gal , having the cal reactor is IMO the best investment you can make. Up front cost yes is expensive but the time you save not mixing adding etc... you’ll see what I mean.
Now not to add more cost don’t go cheap get the carbon doser , go with a geo reactor.
Once you get it dialed in (may take a couple weeks) you’ll forget it’s there.
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You’ve got quite a while before Kalk won’t keep up. My old 220 build was full of SPS and I only ran Kalk and wasn’t even fully saturating.

Upside of a reactor is that you get the trace elements. Plus, if you like to tinker......

However, I’m a “keep it simple” person and a lot can go wrong with a reactor. Not to mention, Kalk is nearly free. I use the BRS Kalk and it is as cheap or cheaper than mrs wages, plus it dissolves better. I put it right in my ATO tank.
 
If you have the $, go for it! They are an expensive investment. I've the LRC1 reactor built by Lifereef. http://www.lifereef.com/calcium.html
Lots of great info on their page. If you decide to go this route, just know life reef usually only builds their reactors once they have enough people on their list to do so.

Initially it was a bit confusing to setup and dial in, now that its going I don't really do anything with it. I still dose a small amount of mag and alk solution to keep up with the tanks demands.
 
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