What do you use??

[steallife904]

what would you suggest for a 140 (170 total volumn) tank? Reactor or doser? For the longest i was thinking calc reactor but lately was leaning toward a doser..... having a hard time making a choice.

 

[swk]

Are the Carbon doser electronic regulator any good?

Anyway I support CR for big tanks - even my 2 footer runs a H&S CR. Dosers are good but too much hassle imo..

I use one. It's amazing. I can keep the ph in my reactor dead steady without any intervention from my controller once I dial it in. Not only can you adjust the bubble rate, but the bubble size as well. Well worth the money IME

 

[swk]

what would you suggest for a 140 (170 total volumn) tank? Reactor or doser? For the longest i was thinking calc reactor but lately was leaning toward a doser..... having a hard time making a choice.

Dosers are cheap and easy to setup. The downsides are the possibility of nuking your tank is higher due to equipment malfunction, cost CAN be much higher over the long run, time to mix and refill solutions, the fact that you are slowly changing the water chemistry in your tank in regards to levels of specific salts and should be changing water more regularly to offset this, and that you are not adding anything but salt, calcium and alkalinity.

With quality calrx media you never need to worry about trace elements as they're added as the Coral skeletons dissolve. The only 3 real knocks against a calrx that I've heard are-

HIGH initial setup cost, especially if setup with a peristaltic pump. This can be offset with quality used gear. The reactor itself can be the cheapest part of the whole deal. Although, buying used I bought a geo 612, ap Carbon doser reg and full bottle, and a masterflex feed pump for 500 dollars ;-)

Getting the reactor dialed in and keeping it there - this is NOT a factor if setup as described above. SUPER stable and infinitely adjustable.

Lower display tank ph. Mine dropped at most .1 and I'm not too concerned about it. Will setup a kalk stirrer in the future I think.

I'm extremely happy since I made the switch and the alk demand has been increasing like crazy since the switch. The corals are happy too

 

[Ancelot]

I use one. It's amazing. I can keep the ph in my reactor dead steady without any intervention from my controller once I dial it in. Not only can you adjust the bubble rate, but the bubble size as well. Well worth the money IME

Thanks mate for your review. How long have you have it anyway?

 

[swk]

I bought mine used and I'm pretty sure it's over a year old. I've been running mine for a month or 2 at least.

 

[Ancelot]

I bought mine used and I'm pretty sure it's over a year old. I've been running mine for a month or 2 at least.

That's some comfort because Google sprung me some bad reviews when I searched for it

I'll try one for my CR. It's becoming a must have haha

 

[swk]

That's some comfort because Google sprung me some bad reviews when I searched for it

I'll try one for my CR. It's becoming a must have haha

That really surprises me. I've never heard a bad thing personally.