Reactors or Dosing

G

guitareefs

Premium Member
First off just wanna give props to the dfwmas. Almost every google reef related search result came up dfwmas as first postings. Yall are an active group!

Im getting a 240 RR next week and have plans for an inwall. Build to come soon. But my question is dosing related. My searches have come down to it being personal preference. But I wanna know yalls opinions. With a tank this size, what is recommended: calcium reactor and/or kalk reactor or dosing pump. If just kalk reactor is fine by itself, my worry is the horror stories of nuked tanks. But im not a fan already of having to deal with a co2 tank and keeping it all dialed so ive been leaning towards kalk reactor by itself or dosing pump. If kalk reactor, whats the best nuke free method?

Help is appreciated
 
I'm wanting to get a dosing pump setup myself fot the fine control over the exact dosage you're putting into the tank. Adding in an Apex to control them adds an extra level of insurance.

My. 02

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.
 
All equipment is prone to failure, whether we are meticulous about maintaining it or not. We've had people hurt their tanks with excess kalkwasser, with overdosing two-part solutions, and I don't recall one story about a tank being harmed with a calcium reactor.

A calcium reactor will cost you quite a bit up front, as you need the reactor with its pump, a CO2 tank, a regulator with bubble counter, and I'd recommend a pH controller. This all adds up to about $500-$600, or more. However, once it is set up and dialed in, it pretty much takes care of the tank's needs with very little adjustment on your part. I've run all my big tanks with a calcium reactor since 2004.

The biggest issue I had was when the regulator failed, and I had to buy a new one annually. That was frustrating and got old real quick. I finally bit the bullet and bought the AquariumPlants.com electronic regulator (which came with a three year warranty) and it has been so much nicer ever since.

Here's my calcium reactor article to give you a birds-eye view: http://melevsreef.com/calcium_reactor.html

And a brief video of the fancy regulator:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rO3s24nXjU[/video]

Product Review of the regulator here: http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.php/181-AquariumPlants-CO2-Electronic-Regulator-Solenoid
 
Same question in your other post, do you want mostly SPS?

Most SPS dominated tanks use calcium reactors where a kalk reactor can't keep up.
 
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