gentledental4u
Member
Are Calcium Reactors the best way to grow huge, thriving healthy acropora colonies? Can 2 part match that kind of growth and maintain them? Any insight would help. Thank you in advance!
I would agree with this statement somewhat.
1 - it needs to be a well setup and tuned reactor. Ideally with a continuous duty pump and accurate co2 valve. A poorly setup calrx is a total PITA to keep stable
2 - you can get the same results with 2 part although some products may require more babysitting on the trace element side of things. With a good quality CALRX media I never needed to monkey around with any trace except for iodine which my system ate for breakfast.
In the long run a calrx would be cheaper on a larger system I would think.
This pretty much sums it up.
In the past, people had a hard time dialing in the reactors because the valves weren't accurate enough (they weren't able to handle small changes) so hhey'd have to continuously fiddle with the setting which IMO defeats the purpose of something that is supposed to be "set-and-forget." Nowadays, my understanding (I don't have a CA reactor yet) is that the valves allow for minute adjustments.
I've had good luck with 2-part, but if you have a large tank or the tank consumes a lot of CA and Alk, then it makes more sense to look into a CA reactor.
IMO, it depends on tank size. 120+ I'd get a reactor. For my little 80g though 2-part works just fine growing colonies. I haven't dosed Mag in years. My tank gets replenished from water changes. I do agree that Calcium reactors help with trace elements, but I keep mine up with regular water changes (more of a pain with larger tanks).
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