Dosing 2 part now. Will a Calcium reactor be in my future?

[Millwright]

I have been going back and forth for 3 weeks as to how I want to proceed/plan with replacing Alk and calcium.
Currently dosing ESV-Bionic at the rate of 25 ml a day. This is day 28 of dosing.
Through testing I determined the tank was using 20 ml of alk in 24 hours. It took me 10 days at 35-40 ml to work up to a DKH of 9 from a base of 7.9. At that point I slowed down to 30 ml in 24 hours until I reached my current readings of DKH 9.7 Calcium 420. I have been maintaining those readings +or- .2 DKH for 18 days dosing 25 ml. I know I will have to gradually increase my dosing over time.
System- Red Sea 425xl, 1 Australian Hammer 3 heads, 2 indo hammers, 3 trumpets about 9 heads (some splitting), 2 Duncan’s, 5 heads, 3 Favia’s 14 heads, 1 red plating Monti 2” dia , 1 encrusting Monti golf ball size, and 1 green indo flower pot. I will be adding 2 frags of octospawn, 2 frags of Leptoseris and 2 or 3 easy sticks in the next couple months.
I have my temp controller, power head controllers, other such controllers and there respective power bricks half butt mounted to a section of peg board currently. I’m in the planning stages of mounting everything on a permanent control panel. What I’m trying to figure out is where to put said board. They will fit neat and orderly on the right hand side of the cabinet with the ATO reservoir and dosers I ordered Thursday. But if I will be needing a calcium reactor at some point I feel I should mount the controllers perpendicular to the tank on the anointing wall. That will leave room in the stand for a calcium reactor.
I’m a do it 1 time and do it right type of person. With that said will I be needing a Calcium reactor at some point? Basically will the consumption and cost of Alk and Calcium out way the cost of a calcium reactor?

 

[texdoc77]

Full disclosure, I have never used a calcium reactor. The 8 gallon ESV 2-part system is $90 bucks from BRS and would last you about 17months at 30ml/day (assuming you dose 25ml alk and 25ml calcium, double that time if you dose alk/ca total 25ml a day). There is no question that switching to a calcium reactor would save money over the long haul, but there is really no way to say at what point it would start saving money, 3 years, 4 years, longer. That said, there is something to be said for ease of maintenance and once set up and dialed in (which is nothing to sneeze at from what I understand) the Ca Rx may be a little less daily maintenance. As far as do it 1 time and do it right, I completely agree. However, your tank set up is dynamic no matter how well you do it. It will change and grow over time as you add pieces here and make changes there so I'm not sure how significantly this factors in over time.

 

[MTBake]

The choice is really up to you. I'm hoping to setup my first ca reactor in the next couple months. Still need some equipment to run it. Plus, I have literally no alk or ca demand right now as I'm starting a new tank and have minimal frags in it right now.

If you do go with a reactor, I would look onto a used one. A used setup would save you some money for sure. I've been buying the parts need as they pop up for sale used. I got a used Deltec reactor for 150. It retails for 500 or so. Just to give you an idea of what you can save.