Calcium Reactor vs Dosing Large Tank

[pandaparties]

So I have a 9x3x2 tank with a 6x2x2 sump (think I'm around 5-600 gallons) originally planned on dosing my tank to start out with. I have maybe ten frags to small colonies with about 20 more frags coming. Mix of SPS and LPS. But even as is my alk is lower than I'd like at 7 and and dropped around .5 over two days. Now doing the math I feel like for a tank my size I'm looking at like 400ml a day and that's without my new coral. That seems waaay more expensive than what I was originally thinking. Am I off somewhere in my math or should I bite the bullet now and go to a reactor? I feel like once they grow out dosing is going to be unsustainable and I'll be going through liters a day which I can't afford

If I need a reactor.. anyone have recs on brand and size (also one that works with apex would be nice or standalone I guess)?

 

[jassermd]

Not sure on the consumption for your specific set up... however, I have a 72x30x30 set up as a mixed reef (mainly LPS) and my consumption is around 36-42 ml of alk and calcium daily. I haven't moved much above 42 ml... Not sure if mine is "within reason", but it's been like that for about a yr. I use Brightwell 2 part.
You may need to slowly increase the alk and ca to a level you are targeting and see how much you consume in a 24 hr period.
I do weekly 15% water changes with matched alk/ca salt... haven't had the need to get a ca reactor as the consumption is reasonable.
Plus, there are cheap 2 part DIY solutions you can use. Check out Randy's forum for different recipes...

 

[X-37B]

With those dims depending on how high you run your sump your around 450g's not subtracting your aquascape.
Their are many carx brands/types to chose from. Geo are real nice and you could run it through your apex.

If you have never run a carx I would recommend running without a probe or controller to understand how they work.
A Tunze 3172 would work well combined with a quality 2 stage controller.

I ran a smaller Tunze 3171 on my 120 before I converted a media reactor to one.
I still run mine with no controller or ph probe and it is very simple to setup and run.

Research the subject before you commit as they run north of $1k for a quality setup.

 

[pandaparties]

With those dims depending on how high you run your sump your around 450g's not subtracting your aquascape.
Their are many carx brands/types to chose from. Geo are real nice and you could run it through your apex.

If you have never run a carx I would recommend running without a probe or controller to understand how they work.
A Tunze 3172 would work well combined with a quality 2 stage controller.

I ran a smaller Tunze 3171 on my 120 before I converted a media reactor to one.
I still run mine with no controller or ph probe and it is very simple to setup and run.

Research the subject before you commit as they run north of $1k for a quality setup.

I run my sump and drain pretty hi, based on the weight of salt I used and the length of fill-up on Rodi I guesstimated around 530 but who knows. Either way it's a large volume and felt like doing dosing might not be the best idea. So you are thinking calcrx is the way to go?

 

[X-37B]

I run my sump and drain pretty hi, based on the weight of salt I used and the length of fill-up on Rodi I guesstimated around 530 but who knows. Either way it's a large volume and felt like doing dosing might not be the best idea. So you are thinking calcrx is the way to go?

I would run a carx on your system for sure.
I am setting up my Tunze 3171 on my 45 frag system. I currently dose by hand.
A carx is almost set and forget if done right.

 

[Gtinnel]

There is a good chance that a reactor would be your best solution (can't really comment as I have never used one) but for 2 part dosing the calcium part can be made for a little under $4 per gallon and the alkalinity part for around $2 per gallon. Both of those are made with widely used and safe chemicals, instead of ice melt. At 400ml a day it would take around 10 days to use 1 gal of each, $6/10days or $18/month doesn't sound too expensive to me.
Keeping dosing containers filled may be a pain (unless you have room for 5g buckets to dose from).
This doesn't take into account the magnesium, which I don't have to dose so I never looked into cost, but I doubt it would be that much since you don't add nearly as much of it.

 

[outhouse]

Large volume tanks only make sense with a Ca reactor combined with a kalk reactor tied into your auto top off to help offset low PH of the effluent leaving reactor. Highly recommend adding a 2nd chamber to help kalk reactor deal with low PH. I made mine myself. I run 300G set up and when my LPS is in full swing its the only way I can keep up. only way to go is GEO Ca reactor and I dont pay attention to pH monitors or fancy media. Go order a 40lb bag of carib sea course aquarium substrate and use it. Dont fall for the expensive hype. It melts just fine without contaminants. Trick is just to use your bubble counter and run a bubble every second and a half to two seconds, and have effluent just past where it stops dripping and turns into a small trickle. Also best bet is to get a 50G C02 tank, dont screw with refilling 10g tiny tanks all the time. They upgrades me for free to a 15 and next time im just getting a 50.

 

[pandaparties]

There is a good chance that a reactor would be your best solution (can't really comment as I have never used one) but for 2 part dosing the calcium part can be made for a little under $4 per gallon and the alkalinity part for around $2 per gallon. Both of those are made with widely used and safe chemicals, instead of ice melt. At 400ml a day it would take around 10 days to use 1 gal of each, $6/10days or $18/month doesn't sound too expensive to me.
Keeping dosing containers filled may be a pain (unless you have room for 5g buckets to dose from).
This doesn't take into account the magnesium, which I don't have to dose so I never looked into cost, but I doubt it would be that much since you don't add nearly as much of it.

That's actually way cheaper than I was thinking! But sounds like a pain for changing because I definitely don't have space for 2 five gallon stupid pentair 80w is huge and takes up a lot of my space

 

[outhouse]

if possible running a basement sump makes all this go easy. Combined with another 100G rubbermaid sump I use for mixing salt, that way 100g water changes only take 10 minutes. Its also nice having noisy equipment like skimmer under the house.

 

[Gtinnel]

That's actually way cheaper than I was thinking! But sounds like a pain for changing because I definitely don't have space for 2 five gallon stupid pentair 80w is huge and takes up a lot of my space

2 part is really cheap using baking soda from the grocery store and the bulk calcium chloride from BRS. Having to fill a dosing container every few days would be a huge hassle though.

 

[homer1475]

Question though, I have noticed over the years a decline in anyone pushing CalRx's and more to the 2 part side.

I wonder if this is due to the decline in the natural reefs and the inability to get reactor media? We have all seen how reactor media has changed in the last couple years.

 

[alain Bouchard]

I believe its more a question of cost. 2parts cost next to nothing for small/medium system comprised mainly of softies and LPS. When you have a med/large SPS system, the hassle of always mixing and adding the 2parts only gets worse. plus, if you are busy and not always at home, you risk running out of dosing media, and causing a swing in alk/calc/mag levels. I can say that, since installing my carx, I fixed the alk swing issue I had and my corals are way happier.

 

[Pntbll687]

If you don't want to spend the money on a calcium reactor, check out @telegraham and Mahina_corals on instagram. They are both dosing kalkwasser slurry to tanks as a 1 part solution.

Just another option out there that won't cost an arm and leg to get going. You won't have to justify the start up cost by saying "it'll pay off after X amount of time stead of dosing two part".

Also, I'd take a couple more tests on alk to make sure it's right. The difference of .5dkh could be from a multitude of testing errors, including just the normal margin of error on the test kit.

 

[outhouse]

They are both dosing kalkwasser slurry to tanks as a 1 part solution.

Im trying that, but the water only becomes so saturated, I have less corals now then when I professionally grew them, so its just barely keeping up. Any more growth and I cant understand how they can go past what their ATO supplies. I guess fans on a sump would help evaporate more water. Curious here.

 

[outhouse]

I believe its more a question of cost.

Its just easier, set it and forget it. I go months sometimes without even going into my sump room. Just daily feeding and im done.

 

[ScottB]

At that size, I'd agree with most here that a CaRx is ultimately where you will end up. So you might as well start there now, and get the hang of things while the load (and cost of screwing up) is relatively minor. It is mildly intimidating at first, but once you've tinkered a bit it is actually quite straightforward.

Agree also that having a second chamber setup helps keep the negative pH impact under control. I added an APEX controlled kalk stirrer eventually to help manage my pH range.

Get the best and biggest you can afford and consider some equipment redundancy. Geo builds some quality reactors for sure.

 

[pandaparties]

Think I am going with tunze carx, does anyone have a good rec for a co2 regulator??

 

[Pntbll687]

Im trying that, but the water only becomes so saturated, I have less corals now then when I professionally grew them, so its just barely keeping up. Any more growth and I cant understand how they can go past what their ATO supplies. I guess fans on a sump would help evaporate more water. Curious here.

Jim is mixing 1 cup of klalwasser powder per gallon in a 5g bucket, and using a jebao pump to keep it in suspension, and dosing the suspension of slurry.

This is 24x the concentration of regular kalkwasser, so the dose is much smaller than using the standard 2 tsp per gallon solution.

 

[X-37B]

Think I am going with tunze carx, does anyone have a good rec for a co2 regulator??

Check ebay. I got mine from affinityaquatics on ebay. He can make you one.
This is the one I got from him. He has none listed now but there are others listed.

 

[CKinLA]

Think I am going with tunze carx, does anyone have a good rec for a co2 regulator??

Just spent quite a while looking at reactors on and off for months. They all do the same thing so you’re mostly paying for build quality. Here are my thoughts on a few I looked at.

I wanted a Deltec automatic. I really liked the idea of a saturated calcium reactor for stability and ease of adjustment; one less variable to change while I’m away. I did not like being tied to their controller in the event something went wrong. Also, I believe they use cheaper off the shelf feed pumps, which is not a bad thing from a replacement perspective, but it’s not what I expect at a premium price. Finally, Deltec wouldn’t respond to any of emails so that got me looking at other options.

DaStaCo is another option for an automatic, but doesn’t appear as refined to me and the voltage converter was a deal breaker for me.

I‘m a huge Tunze fan, but for the price I can’t justify their calcium reactor. I have the 9430 DC skimmer, which I am happy with, but the build quality is not what I expected it to be; I assume the reactor would be a very similar build quality. The base (very similar to whats on the reactor) feels like cheap plastic. The glue seams are uneven and sloppy. Additionally, there are many sharp edges on the skimmer where the cuts were made. @90's reefer posts about them kept me looking at them though. Ultimately, I couldn’t fit the big one in the stand and the small one wouldn’t fit my needs long term.

I didn’t go with geo because I believe he uses uniseal, which I view as a potential leak point

Looked at many others, but my 8” width limitation really left me with few choices. I just ordered a LifeReef LCR-2. I’ve used the 1 & 2 about 13 years ago and never had problems with them. Build quality was good. He does custom colors if that’s your thing; I requested gray PVC. I like the outlet on top to purge excess CO2 if there is a build up (really shouldn’t be though). I don’t like the use of the white PVC from aesthetics perspective hence the gray on my order. I don’t like the tubing on the recirculation pump, but I talked to him about it and he uses it for reliability/repair reasons so I kept it. The quick connects are awesome when servicing the reactor.

I’ll pair the reactor with a good dual stage regulator like @90's reefer recommended; either buy assembled or build my own. I’ll also use a continuous duty dosing pump (FX-STP). Once dialed in you shouldn’t have to touch it unless you need to increase/decrease output. I’ll probably add a pH probe because I have it and have open ports, but the solenoid is only used for power outages not to control the reactor, that is not the correct way to run a reactor for consistency in my experience. With all of this, the price is about the same as a Deltec reactor when on sale (30% off), but I think it’ll be a much higher quality setup. I’d probably buy a cheap regulator with Deltec because the precision isn’t needed with that unit.

I’ll also use an Avast kalk reactor with it, one that slightly taller than their largest version.

Good luck with whatever you choose, learn how to properly dial it in and don’t constantly fiddle with it.