Dosing pumps or Reactors?

[chucklez]

As my system gets bigger and bigger, I am finding I need to supplement chemicals more and more. My big three of Ca, Mg and KH are currently fine, but on the low side of fine. Anyways, I was looking at either getting a dosing pump such as the Jebao DP-4, or should I go more with a Ca reactor route? Im assuming in the long run the reactor is cheaper, but how long is that run? Which is more reliable? Thoughts?

 

[oshanickreef]

As my system gets bigger and bigger, I am finding I need to supplement chemicals more and more. My big three of Ca, Mg and KH are currently fine, but on the low side of fine. Anyways, I was looking at either getting a dosing pump such as the Jebao DP-4, or should I go more with a Ca reactor route? Im assuming in the long run the reactor is cheaper, but how long is that run? Which is more reliable? Thoughts?

okay i bought dosing pumps and i dose 2 part. i have been doing it for like 2 years now. i am up to like 3 minutes on ca and alk so i bought a calcium reactor wich i am going to set up here shortly.

i woul dgo the CA reactor route for sure. once its set up its more or less a set it and forget it deal!

 

[Mr D smack]

Reactor

 

[acrohead500ppm]

I too used to think Ca reactors were superior to the balling method/ dosing pumps, however, I have yet to see dolomite in reactors maintain Mg, also in dense high demand systems, you almost always have to add a CaCL supplement.
They really should be referred to as carbonate reactors, they help stablize your DKh far more effectively than calcium.
I like the idea of dosing pumps because you can make adjustments individually with each,
sure I know some elements that a melter would add are missing, but even then you can always make up for that by supplementing.

 

[oshanickreef]

I too used to think Ca reactors were superior to the balling method/ dosing pumps, however, I have yet to see dolomite in reactors maintain Mg, also in dense high demand systems, you almost always have to add a CaCL supplement.
They really should be referred to as carbonate reactors, they help stablize your DKh far more effectively than calcium.
I like the idea of dosing pumps because you can make adjustments individually with each,
sure I know some elements that a melter would add are missing, but even then you can always make up for that by supplementing.

perhaps a calcium reactor with a separate dosing pump would be the most effective!

 

[acrohead500ppm]

perhaps a calcium reactor with a separate dosing pump would be the most effective!

make that two for a high demand system,

Like I said, most with a reactor will find the need to dose CaCL and a Mg supplement.

So already buying two dosing pumps+ $300-400 for a decent reactor setup ?
eh,

Plus, you can't tweak a reactor to make more calcium than carbonate or vise versa.

However, if you have a dosing setup aqnd you notice one is falling short, all it takes is a few presses of a button.

I am a tech junky, but I am also pretty old school so the reactor is appealing to me, melting coral skeletons for supplementation just seems right to me.

However, these days I am really on the fence about it. Dosing systems really are getting quite appealing.

 

[chucklez]

Thank you Acro, thats exactly what i was looking for. While I would love the old school Ca reactor look, what is more beneficial to a system? I still need to do some research such as initial startup vs monthly supplement resupply between the 2 types.

 

[Pife]

I too used to think Ca reactors were superior to the balling method/ dosing pumps, however, I have yet to see dolomite in reactors maintain Mg, also in dense high demand systems, you almost always have to add a CaCL supplement.
They really should be referred to as carbonate reactors, they help stablize your DKh far more effectively than calcium.
I like the idea of dosing pumps because you can make adjustments individually with each,
sure I know some elements that a melter would add are missing, but even then you can always make up for that by supplementing.

With a reactor alkalinity and calcium are added at a 1to 1 rate.

 

[Pife]

Thank you Acro, thats exactly what i was looking for. While I would love the old school Ca reactor look, what is more beneficial to a system? I still need to do some research such as initial startup vs monthly supplement resupply between the 2 types.

If your looking for cheap you can make your own randys recipe.

 

[smoothdog]

make that two for a high demand system,

Like I said, most with a reactor will find the need to dose CaCL and a Mg supplement.

So already buying two dosing pumps+ $300-400 for a decent reactor setup ?
eh,

Plus, you can't tweak a reactor to make more calcium than carbonate or vise versa.

However, if you have a dosing setup aqnd you notice one is falling short, all it takes is a few presses of a button.

I am a tech junky, but I am also pretty old school so the reactor is appealing to me, melting coral skeletons for supplementation just seems right to me.

However, these days I am really on the fence about it. Dosing systems really are getting quite appealing.

A properly sized and setup reactor will deliver a balanced load of calcium and carbonate. If it's not keeping up with calcium then the effluent rate is likely too low or the reactor is under sized. The only other reason you would need to bump one or the other is if your salt mix is overly deficient in one. I keep a small supply of two part around just for this and I've had to use it once in the last year and that was due to a stupid error on my part.

 

[Aqua Man 07]

I haven't used a ca reactor yet but at some point when the demand becomes great enough the dosing pump will be way over worked and likely fail sooner. At least that is what I have gathered from my research on many forums.

 

[dendrite]

With a reactor, as the coral skeleton media dissolves you also get trace elements previously incorporated in the dead coral in exactly the right proportions for new growth. That being said it also lowers my pH and makes it difficult to keep my dKH below 9

 

[_E_]

If your looking for cheap you can make your own randys recipe.

^ This ^

 

[acrohead500ppm]

Go test your effluents dkh , convert to ppm and compare to calcium. It's not going to be the same.
also some tanks consume differently. Especially if a high number of tridacnids is kept in the display, they consume calcium like mad.

 

[kegogut]

okay i bought dosing pumps and i dose 2 part. i have been doing it for like 2 years now. i am up to like 3 minutes on ca and alk so i bought a calcium reactor wich i am going to set up here shortly.

What Pife been busy these past couple weeks? lolz :uzi:

 

[mpcart]

I'm more concerned about nuking my tank with an equipment failure. Although many, many people use dosers for Ca/Alk and water changes, I just think that if something goes wrong with the doser you can quickly nuke the tank. With the calcium reactor, if a pump stops working or a hose clogs, no harm is done. I've never read of anyone nuking their tank because of a wonky reactor.

My opinion and I use a Geo reactor.

-Mike

 

[acrohead500ppm]

I'm more concerned about nuking my tank with an equipment failure. Although many, many people use dosers for Ca/Alk and water changes, I just think that if something goes wrong with the doser you can quickly nuke the tank. With the calcium reactor, if a pump stops working or a hose clogs, no harm is done. I've never read of anyone nuking their tank because of a wonky reactor.

My opinion and I use a Geo reactor.

-Mike

I have never used dosing pumps, nor have I looked into them in depth. Therefore , I am pretty uneducated about possible dangers of them/ overdosing.

I figured if hospitals trust similar systems to administer medications, then it would be pretty fail safe.

Only time I heard of a reactor crashing a system was when a toddler gained access to the sump/equipment and supposedly cranked up the bubble count and effluent, went unnoticed and crashed the pH.

Could just be a story though.

I am on the fence on what route to go on my current system, I used a korallin 2 (oversized) reactor on my old system and had nothing but awesome results, however it got to the point where it wouldn't keep up with calcium, never could get it to sit above 370 or so without adding CaCL, Dkh was always 10.5 though.

 

[Pife]

Hospital grade peristaltic pumps are way better than our cheap dosing pumps. They also cost a ton more.

 

[chucklez]

was just at Gateway. They had a hospital grade pump there for 60 bucks. Thought about getting it but I need to dose the big 3.

 

[Schplitter]

[/QUOTE]I figured if hospitals trust similar systems to administer medications, then it would be pretty fail safe [/QUOTE]

This made me laugh out loud. No disrespect but the dosing pumps in a hospital are about $3400 to $7800 per pump. The difference between those pumps and the pumps most hobists use are like night and day not only in price but also in material, quality and quality controll among other things. They are simply not the same or even similar.

With that said I tried the two part thing and hated it. It was pin possible to balance the parts. The only way to keep things stable is to make huge batches of each part that would last forever. When I made 1 gallon batches I had great fluctuations. Simply not what you want with SPS.

Once I switched to a reactor I have much more luck with sps. As all of the people on this forum know I did have a lot of bad luck and issues with a ca reactor due to bad parts but it still kept the system very stable. I would never go back.