Looks like you are using a Deltec Calcium reactor right?
nope (geo 618). i had a deltec kalk stirrer but sold it. also had a 902 skimmer but traded down to a 851 and then sold that for a tunze 9010, which i love but i think i'm gonna play with making a new body for it's pump. buying deltec stuff was the biggest money-mistake i've made in reefing. while it wasn't junk, it didn't really perform either. too many people with deltec stuff are so proud of themselves for 'being in the deltec club' that they can't see it for themselves and propagate the myth that deltec is the 'ferrari' of reefing.
though i will say i do like the idea of a fluidized reactor, since the grinding action can help dissolve the media with less co2. *BUT* it also means wear and tear on the pump, which they see as disposable and not covered by warranty. plus they brag about 80dkh effluent, which is a misread on test kits (all that undissolved microscopic grit in the effluent throws the test kit off). plus you apparently gotta use their $100 media.
Where did you hear about swapping the recirculationg pump on the Barr. Not a bad idea.
nowhere. but once you realize that since a calcium reactor is simply a recirculating chamber, the size of the chamber as far as the water recirculating within sees it, is infinitely large (up until a point of course, but you'll probably get tired of topping off the media constantly before you hit the true limit of the chamber size). pushing the water through twice as fast more-or-less means the water 'sees' twice as much media during it's stay. if you run a secondary chamber, then size does matter on that since it's a single-pass.
Im also docing Kalk, via a timed AirLift pump, with a PM kalk reactor. Do you think that the combo of the two reactors will be able to keep up with the calcium demands if I upgrade the pump on the Barr?
every tank is different. the most solidly-packed tank (totm a few years ago) in my area gets by with just kalk. probably all depends on how much water you evaporate and therefore can replace with kalk. bumping up to at least a 1250 or better yet a small panworld (you get the bonus of it being more rugged and having better fittings) is the cheapest and perhaps easiest thing to try before buying a whole new reactor. or at least assuming you don't have to do too much work with the plumbing to hook something else up. i've never seen how the pump on the barr connects since it's hidden underneath.
i personally think that alot of these people who brag about how much calcium they are going through are having that calcium go to some other sink than the corals themselves. dunno, all i do know is i've seen tanks with 3x the growth and 1/3th the calcium supplementation of other 'proper' tanks.
Also, when you say your Kalk was going bad in the Deltec, do you mean it was turning to a grey color instead of white, and not raising the PH as much as it should? If not, what makes you say it was going bad?
since it wasn't sealed and the stirbar does agitate the surface a little, co2 can get in and make the dissolved kalk ineffective. gray kalk at the bottom is assumed to be impurities (from the source water or kalk powder). funny thing is i've only seen colored residue from the rowa (deltec) brand. esv never leaves any pretty colors for me, it just goes glossy-milky when it's done.
i have no real proof to back this up (i never tested the conductivity like randy says to for testing kalk strength), but when i switched back to dosing kalk from a pre-mixed trashcan i saw noticeable positive results almost overnight. my test results (ph, alk, ca) were the same, but maybe the happier corals were sucking down calcium faster to balance out the increased addition. dunno. all i do know is kalk is magic, and i see my calcium reactor as a necessary evil to supplementing what my kalk cannot do alone. if i could deal with the electricity (to keep it warm in case of over-cooling) and humidity, i'd love to just turn up the fans and evaporate as much water as needed to get by with kalk alone.
