calcium reactor vs dosing

[lockrookie]

both methods seem to be effective both seem to have thier dangers.. i have a reactor setup i bought used but befre i waste the ony repairing it, i figured i would ask everyones opinions on the matter. i have done tons of reading on the subject. but would appreciate view of all of you

my system is a 180g plus 50g sump aprox 40g water volume in the sump

 

[kellf]

i changed to kamoer dosing pumps about 6 months ago. my tank has never been more stable and i would never go back to calcium reactor. just my 2c anyway

 

[M007]

Switched from Ca reactor to dosing, thus far very pleased :thumbsup:

 

[tmz]

I rely on kalk for the vast majority of my calcium and alk needs with small tweaks of baked baking soda and calcium chloride weekly.

 

[Goldcoastreefs]

I went th other way, I swiched from dosing to a Ca reactor. I have a 125 with a good number of SPS. It was getting to expensive dosing the 2 part. I have had the ca reactor for about 8 months or so and while it took a little tweeking to get it set right for the tanks consumption, I have not touched it in about 6 months and things are looking great. I still dose a little kalk in my ATO to keep the ph up.

 

[BillyC]

Do a search on this topic! There's a new thread about it like every few weeks it seems. All your questions are answered

 

[chessmanmark]

This question has been asked so many times.

I love my calcium reactor. It was difficult in the beginning figuring out how to set it up, then actually setting it up, and then fine tuning it. Once you work through all that it just does its thing. You check the ph monitor when you look at your tank to make sure everything is ok. I've never had a problem and it's one big thing that I don't have to worry about to keep my tank and corals happy.

 

[lockrookie]

Do a search on this topic! There's a new thread about it like every few weeks it seems. All your questions are answered

yeah i guess i could of searched it as late i was lazy lol alot of the tie wheni searched a few threads popped up and i did go through them

when it comes to certain things for this tank i just have a hard time deciding. if i go away for any length of time i dont want any purchase to nuke my tank.. so far in 4 years no major issues. but that can change in a heartbeat. i need the simplest method so that my niece or my family whe know nothing and refuse to learn can simply deal with.

or is there such a thing lol

thanks for the replies thus far

 

[toothman]

I would say if you ca reactor was working well stay with it, I personally have tried both and my tank does better with dosing, through bulk reef supply it is not really expensive.

 

[cnaegler]

I switched from a CA reactor to triple dosing pump. Best switch i ever made! I can't beleive how stable my tank has been since switching and growth has definitely increased! Just my.02...

 

[fcmatt]

if we told everyone to search for topics there would probably be 3 new posts every few days around here.
almost everything has been discussed here before.

i dose. easy way to go. hardware costs low. for a smaller tank it makes sense.

 

[reefer209]

You have to be careful with the dosing pumps. I accidentally changed the mode on my timer and it dumped a full quart of calcium into my tank while I was taking a shower Monday morning. I came down to a snowstorm in my 125. It was crazy! Everything that survived.:lol2:

 

[lockrookie]

see thats the thing ive heard horror stories from both ends it bad enough my wife turned off the ac today instead of adjusting the ac and my tank hit 82.9... not happy reefer .. threw some ise in the sum and it came down. and i know nothing is fool proof a person would feel beter if there was a calcium controller with probe that would shut it down in case of emergency. i hate these decisions lol

 

[gonpostal]

I started out dosing and switched to a calcium reactor because I was going through too much cal and alk. It took a little time to get the reactor dialed in, but now it keeps my parameters stable.

... my tank hit 82.9... not happy reefer .. threw some ise in the sum and it came down.

IMO 82.9 is nothing to worry about. My tank has hit 83-84 many times in the summer with no ill effects.

 

[lockrookie]

it still makes me nervous at hgher temps still tring to get my tankto have a somwhat stable temp it ranges from 78 to 82 through out the day.

the calcium reactor i purchased used is a coralife reactor and from whative read after the fact they are junk.. not sure if i will use it as i say or try dosing not alot of sps in the tank et but soon i have 50 pieces waiting for me for when im ready.

 

[karsseboom]

Dosing for me also. I ran a nice calcium reactor setup for a while and things always needing to be tweaked. The dosing setup is way simple and easier to dial in.

 

[NewBostonConst]

I do both....if one stops working and you don't notice the other keeps things alive even though they are not happy.

My tanks is full (I mean there is not room for another piece - aka - you can not see the sand). If I were just dosing 2-part and something went wrong, I think everything would be dead the next day or day after.....I wouldn't react in time, I don't look at my tank that often everyday.

 

[ABlueReef]

Setting up the Auto Doser for me was the best thing ever nex to the auto top off. Now I don't have to tweak the cal. reator every few days and do not have any more pH swings. I have friends that still run a cal. reactors on large sps tanks still because they say it saves them more money than dosing. The only complaint from them is having low pH.

 

[psykobowler]

I run my ca rx with a Kalkwasser reactor dosing every hour. No ph problem for me. Also, adding a second chamber on the ca rx allows you to double the media and use up the co2 more efficiently. The ph coming out of the effluent isn't too low compared to a ca rx running only one chamber.

 

[tmc1313]

I switched from two part to a calcium reactor and could not be happier. Like other people have stated, once I got it dialed in "it's set it and forget it". I've had it hooked up for ~5 months now and all I do is glance at my effluent flow once a day and check my alk once a week. The ONLY thing I have been thinking about doing is adding a second chamber to keep pH up a bit.