Calcium reactor, ARM media issues, sps not doing well

[Bigmatt]

So I have been running arm media for the past 2 years, fine and medium in my korillian 1502 reactor. Never had issues when their media used to be the finer coral skeletons, but that changed with the new media that looks like crushed up mined limestone. Seems to have a lot of impurities I have found pieces of slag in the media, and some of the media has an orange discoloration. My sps dominant system has lost color and growth while this has been in use. Have talked to a few others including Adam at battle corals, who had taken his geo reactor off line and started dosing. Curious if anyone else has had the same or similar issues? I have recently switched to a new media, a larger reactor, and a 25% waterchange and my Sps are taking off again. Anyone else having these issues feel free to chime in

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

So I have been running arm media for the past 2 years, fine and medium in my korillian 1502 reactor. Never had issues when their media used to be the finer coral skeletons, but that changed with the new media that looks like crushed up mined limestone. Seems to have a lot of impurities I have found pieces of slag in the media, and some of the media has an orange discoloration. My sps dominant system has lost color and growth while this has been in use. Have talked to a few others including Adam at battle corals, who had taken his geo reactor off line and started dosing. Curious if anyone else has had the same or similar issues? I have recently switched to a new media, a larger reactor, and a 25% waterchange and my Sps are taking off again. Anyone else having these issues feel free to chime in

this was my experience as well. Just kept saying something is "off" and "what the heck is in my water" took a while to come to that conclusion but but after seeing my two other systems that ran with out a CaRx continue to thrive i eventually landed there. Here is a thread i started last Jan about it.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-randy-holmes-farley/144092-what-crap.html

 

[d2mini]

I couldn't get the coarse arm to dissolve. I was running tons of co2.
Switched to the TLF Reborn media and it's great.
I would try this before switching to dosing.

 

[Bigmatt]

I have had great results since switching to tlf reborn media, great stuff zero issues

 

[Diesel]

Me as well using Reborn 8 lbs in my Geo 618 I also put on top a 1 lbs of Magnesium media with it.
It's the first time I run a CaRx and I love it all # are in check.

 

[Bigmatt]

I'm running a MRC C6 dual chamber reactor with reborn media and added in brightwell mag media, absolutely love it, corals love it

 

[Bigmatt]

Battle corals, how do you like the new media

 

[therman]

I switched to Tropic Eden large media from Premium Aquatics, probably 5 years ago now, and never looked back (Geo 624). I talked to several people who also saw major issues from using ARM then.

The TE media is from Indo-Pacific origins and is very consistent, with often identifiable pieces of weathered sps skeletons. Not random blobs of junk (with lots of mollusk shells) that I got in ARM.

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

Battle corals, how do you like the new media

so far so good. thing is i used to use plain old aragonite sand from my display in my old deltec. that would really fluidise it well but was a super quirky reactor. i got the geo and went with coarse arm. looking back i can say for sure that this is when i began seeing odd things. was always suspicious but never nailed it down till i started talking with other arm users