Coralife Calcium Reactor - up to 250gal

[dwiseman]

Has anybody used this or have opinions on it. I am not looking to break the bank and noticed this on marinedepot. For its price I was wondering if it is any good. I am getting tired of dosing kalk and having to refill every 4-5 days.

 

[thrlride]

I've heard nothing but good things out of the reactor. Their new skimmer line seems to be really nice as well.

 

[dwiseman]

anybody out there using this or know of reviews. I need additional feedback

 

[crdisme01]

I have one and it works great. There was another thread that I posted on to give some sort of review. The only thing I did to make things a little better is I tapped my return for the intake cause it is set up to siphon the water from the sump. If it loses the siphon then you don't have any effluent to drip. After I tapped the return it works great. It keeps my levels consistant. I have been running it for about two weeks. I would definately suggest it cause you really cant beat the price.

 

[crdisme01]

I also posted on this thread right after I got the reactor.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=665665

 

[chadfarmer]

well just found out today a friend of mine had one and the pump stoped working after 5 days

 

[GMGQ]

Just installed mine a few days ago. Pretty good so far. Only complaint is that the pump connection at the bottom was kind of loose. I just noticed there's some salt creep in that area now too.

 

[crdisme01]

chadfarmer, I think that it might be the luck of the draw. I just bought a MAG7 in which the case was broken but from what I can tell MAG pumps are pretty good. Hopefully Coralife has a good warrenty and your buddy can get that replaced. From what I understand, coralife needs to be uptight to get their name out of the mud. I heard that their equipment is getting much better than it used to be. Overall I have to say that for the price, less having any failures like your buddy, it is a pretty good reactor.

 

[crdisme01]

GMGQ- do you have yours siphoning out of the tank or do you have your intake supplied by a seperate pump or return? I noticed that mine was losing suction so I went ahead and supplied the intake from my return pump.

 

[GMGQ]

It's just syphoning from the display tank right now. It's hear the top, so in the event that i lose power, this intake will be slightly higher than my anti-syphon hole in the return line.

I havent had any issues with losing the syphon so far, afterall the effulent output controls how fast it syphons as well. All I have to do is open up the up effluent output.

BTW, I took off the screw that chokes the intake, and I put a 1/4" John Guest ball valve on the output. This is a big tip that I got from another forum. You get more control by choking the output, than choking the intake.

 

[crdisme01]

I had thought of that but hadn't done anything about it yet. I thought it was kind of wierd that you control the effluent on the input instead of the output. I will have to try to change that up tonight.

 

[crdisme01]

I had thought of that but hadn't done anything about it yet. I thought it was kind of wierd that you control the effluent on the input instead of the output. I will have to try to change that up tonight.