Litermeter or Calcium Reactor

[akma]

Hey guys,

Been lurking around this site for awhile and it's become one of my favorite reefing sites. No Drama, No Tension, and seems to be a very relaxed place.

I've increased my SPS load and manually dosing is getting to be a pain now and I want to setup an automatic setup just in case the weekends I go away.

With that in mind I was wondering what peoples experiences are with a Litermeter or a Calcium Reactor.
The benifits and the negatives and why.
Thanks.

 

[wicked demon]

I used to do pro maintenance and took care of a few different calcium reactors and and stirrers, IMO I prefer a kalk stirrer on my auto top off, the stirrer is on a timer for 5 min 4 times a day, no point in burning out the motor. The reactors require soooo much constant maintaining. Bubble count per sec. constantly changes due to constantly changing pressure in the CO2 tank, Filling the CO2, changing substrate in chamber, testing calcium in tank to know if the rate of supplementation is correct, etc....
The stirrer is simple by comparison, also way cheaper, to buy and maintain.

 

[Paul_N]

Get a Ca reactor and PH controller. I set up mine 9 months ago and have not touched it since. I refilled the CO2 tank once and it was easy. I also run a kalk reactor and it take more work maintaining that than the Ca reactor. If you will be getting into SPS more the coral will grow and their Ca demand will exceed the capacity of the kalk reactor. JMO

 

[ZoaFan08]

I am currently still trying to dial in my cax and it's a PITA. I have heard once I get it dialed its hands off but right now it has taken me weeks to get it dialied in.

No please do understand I have no idea how a cax works and its a learning curve.

 

[mixedreef1978]

calcium reactor can be tough to get dialed in but like paul said once you get is setup and dialed in you can stop worrying about it it will take care of itself. only need to worry about it when you add more sps or change the media

 

[reefdan]

paul's right in that it's much easier if you have a pH controller. for mine i have the bubble rate set a little high so that if the pH starts to drop too low, it cuts the co2 supply. i use one of the electronic co2 regulators from aquariumplants.com with this regulator you don't have to worry about changes in bottle pressure effecting your bubble rate

it really depends on how big your reef is. dosing pumps are much easier to use on smaller systems. once you get a bigger reef they get more costly and cumbersome. reactors also add trace elements to your reef as the media melts -something dosing pumps lack unless you use the balling method

 

[akma]

Hey Guys,
Thanks for the replies.
Well right now I am dosing manually ESV- 2 part.
I was into LPS before and recently got the SPS bug. Don't really have to Dose much as of right now. I was thinking of purchasing a litermeter, but just wanted to get an idea as to what would be better down the line.