What to purchase next???

swk

swk

New member
Hi guys. So it's around my birthday and I got a gift cert to brs from my sister for a couple hundred bucks and I'm mulling over my options as far as what to invest on. I think I know the best place to spend, but was curious as to what y'all with more experience might suggest. The items are:

An ato unit. Most likely the auto aqua smart ato. Unless people are hearing good things about the hydor unit. I like the idea of avoiding float switches.

A 2 part dosing system with pumps. I recently switched to coral pro and do 10% water change every week to 10 days. Do not have a decent calcium test, and alk was a little low using the nsw from my lfs, hence the change in salt...do have some sps and will get more in the future

Media reactor and gfo. Phosphate at last test was .08 do I really need it at this point in time?

Anything else I'm neglecting to consider, and if not, which of the above would you suggest?

Tank is acrylic 40b with ro 110 skimmer, 24" lumentek led

Will be upgrading to a 75 once I finish my remodel.

Thanks!
 
No ro unit but I do not mind buying ro water and the source I have is pretty solid.

I have considered it though.
 
The item/s that I wish I would have gotten from the very beginning are a ato and kalkwasser. Growth has increased 10 fold running kalk, and that's even with cutting my water changes back to one 5% wc every two weeks from 10% weekly.
 
swk said:
No ro unit but I do not mind buying ro water and the source I have is pretty solid.

I have considered it though.
Click to expand...

Just something to think about. I go thru about 20G of RO aweek between top off and water changes. An RO unit will pay for it self in a few months in guessing, I dont know how much RO costs at the store.

Or use the money to cover part of the cost of a bigger skimmer. The will probably end up being to small when you get the 75 set up.
 
Off topic question, but why would someone use kalk vs 2 part?

Loki - I pay 50 cents a gallon for ro water so it costs me 2.50 for a wc on my 40 gal and another 2.50 for top offs

Roughly 20 a month for RO, which will increase when I get the 75
 
swk said:
Loki - I pay 50 cents a gallon for ro water so it costs me 2.50 for a wc on my 40 gal and another 2.50 for top offs

Roughly 20 a month for RO, which will increase when I get the 75
Click to expand...

For me it's not the cost. It's easy and I'm lazy! No hauling water, not on the store's schedule.

The added benefit is I control the quality of the RO/DI water. Not sure the water store has as good a system.

I go thru 15g. TO water per week plus 15g to make salt water.
 
An r/o is really nice. I got tired if hauling 5 gal buckets from the store. Then I got tired of hauling a gal or so everyday to the sump. So I got the ato. Then I got tired of manually dosing two part every day so I got doing pumps with timers. Then I got tired of looking at the timers and I bought a controller. Then I got tired of changing light bulbs and I got reef breeders led fixtures. Then I got tired if looking at what seemed to be a over large amount of coral in a small tank (75 gallons) so I got a larger tank. So
No matter which one get now you will end up with the others sooner or later. From your list the ato was what I found most useful.
 
Thanks guys. Aiming for an ato at this moment. Anyone use the hydor, or smart auto ato? I know tunze is the gold standard, but I've heard nice things about the smart auto and a mixed bag regarding the hydor
 
I got mine from ATO from autotopoff.com. It does have float switches though. I have never had an issue with it.
 
I have the smart ATO. It works well. I use a 5 gal bucket as my top off container. Do you have a sump? The sensor is a bit large to use in a main tank (it will hit the top trim). Also it needs to be on a clear portion of material so that the inner eye can communicate with the outer unit.
 
ThreeMoneyJ said:
I have the smart ATO. It works well. I use a 5 gal bucket as my top off container. Do you have a sump? The sensor is a bit large to use in a main tank (it will hit the top trim). Also it needs to be on a clear portion of material so that the inner eye can communicate with the outer unit.
Click to expand...


Perfect. I have a 20l that i made into a sump. I've heard really good things about the smart ato, aaaand it's 50 bucks cheaper than the tunze. Guess I'll get some key salifert tests with the remainder of the cash
 
I have the bigger tunze on all my tanks, incredibly accurate and one of my favorite pieces of equipment. Well worth the money
 
I use both the autotopoff in my frag tank and the tunze in my dt. Like them both. The tunze nano is supposed to be nice
 
Totally agree that an Ato is worth it's weight. I use tunze it's a great Ato . Just replaced one that was a first Gen probably close to 10 years old with a newer model..

I Haven't heard any negatives on the smart Ato I think I read one on a vendors sight but that's expected . Looks pretty neat.. On the hydor I have read a few where the probes weren't picking the drop in level or turning off after the mark is reached. There were too many "should have bought a tunze" when researching that one along with the innovative marine one to feel comfortable for me.

On the rodi I would definitely invest in one especially if you plan on getting a bigger tank. It will get old carting buckets and if you factor in fuel and your time to go to the store to get it is expensive. Plus you will be a the Lfs store more buying more crap you probably don't need lol.. It's also good to invest in a tds meter to check to make sure the store is keeping up on the quality of the water. I've read a few stories about getting Lfs rodi that's not even close to what it should be.. Good luck and enjoy spending the money =)..
 
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