Good morning all. I have owned and set up a good amount of the readily avialble calcium reactors out there as well as built a few in the past. In order of importance, what i look for in a reactor is the the following:
1. Ease of replacing the media and cleaning the pump. Is the lid easy to open? Can you rinse the inside of the chamber and all the sponges easily? Thumb screws are easy to take off but im lazy, a little clumsy and not good at retrieving thumbscrews from the bottom of the sink at all
. So i prefer a twist off cap.
2. Rugged Design. I like taking the hole reactor off line from the tank since im always working in a tight space so i can bring it over to the sink to clean and replace the media. Dont settle for thin plastic/acrylic that will crack with a medium bump. You WILL bump it the one time every six months you service it.
3. CO2 recirculation loop. Not because CO2 is expensive and you shouldnt waste it but because CO2 could cause pockets of air that can throw off the flow and even shut the pump down.
4. Quality of fittings. Your reactor will have a lot of fittings and adaptors, consider each a possible leaking point. Also, its a big pain to have to re-tefflon all the fittings every time you service the unit.
The reactors i have used or set up are
MTC Pro Cal. One of the best build quality and highest tank capacity, mostly/simply becuase of its huge size and dual chamber.
Korallin does the job but i dont recommend it for first timers because it can create air pockets if you dont set it up just right. Just my personal experience, there are a lot of happy Korallin owners out there. THe shortcoming i see is the top mounted pump.
KnopC reactor is awfully small (chamber) and you need to crank the CO2up in order to have a decent effluent so your main tank will run at a lower pH. I would not recommend it for anything larger than a medium stocked 55gal tank. The True Union lid is by far one of the easiet to remove in any design.
K2R. This a good over all design but the bottom mounted pump makes the unit hard to move since the pump sort of dangles when you lift the unit for servicing. However, the fact that the flange is the same inside diameter as the chamber, makes it easy to access the inside of it to retrieve the sponge and remove the media.
Precision Marine and My Reef Creations are very similar in design. PM reactor injects CO2 too close to the effluent port. MRC sucks the CO2 into the impeller but then this mix is delivered too colse to the effluent port as well. Ive noticed that the tanks theyre on tend to have lower pH values.
Finally, GEO unit. This is the main reactor i currently use. I like the beefy build (extra thick acrylic), the up and thru the media flow. The eheim pump shares the same base as the chamber so you can lift and move the unit very easily. Again, im not fond of thumbscrews and the JACO fittings could be of higher quality.
If money was not an option, i would buy the GEO again. Hey,. maybe i can have it costume made with a twist off cap
.
Good morning all and have a nice day. JOHNNY
