Switch from 2part dosing to Calcium reactor to ease mind?

[PigFarmer]

1 year deep in reefing here.. I have what I feel like a viable fear in my mind that I'm not sure if it should even be of a concern but it's been weighing on my mind lately as I try to sleep lol

Is it legit to fear that my eshopps doser will sooner or later dose the entire holding tank of my cal or alk additive to the tank? is this something that happens eventually when running a doser? any way to protect this from happening? Having grate success with 2 part dosing but I've shifted into protection mode.. What's the skinny here reef pros? Thanks for any input!

 

[declanisadog]

I have no experience with that doser, but I had it happen to me once with a Jebao on one of my old tanks. After that I only put about a weeks worth in my dosing containers, and would check them more regularly. I plan on skipping the doser on my new tank. Once kalk can't keep up, I will be going with a calcium reactor.

 

[jda]

It is a risk. How high of a risk depends a lot on your doser and how you set it up. Not all dosers are as reliable as others. You can mitigate this by having the highest possible quality doser and also limiting the amount of MLs that can be added (how long it can be on before an alarm goes off). Then you have to figure out if you can trust the software that controls it and the alarm.

I have friends that have been using dosers for a decade with no issues. Then, you see people who have had them fail-on and nearly nuke their tanks.

I have long since been on a CaRx - even if they really screw up, they work so slowly that they cannot mess anything up really fast.

 

[declanisadog]

Found a picture for you...

Fortunately I was home, and was able to do some quick water changes. The water still stayed milky for another day or so. This picture was two days later

 

[declanisadog]

Lots of white build up all over everything, but if I remember correctly, the only coral I lost was that red dragon.

 

[PigFarmer]

Thank you for all your feedback! These are my fears! lol I honestly feel like i'm gambling with time with my doser.. I will be making the switch over to a calcium reactor shortly after the new year and holiday travel is over.

 

[mitch91175]

Thank you for all your feedback! These are my fears! lol I honestly feel like i'm gambling with time with my doser.. I will be making the switch over to a calcium reactor shortly after the new year and holiday travel is over.

I think you'll definitely appreciate the CaRx once you get it all setup, dialed in and keeping your parameters up-to-par. Not that it cannot be done with dosing, just that once you have the CaRx setup, you really are going to feel like there is something that you need to be doing to the tank, only to find out that you don't have to worry about the dKH, calcium, and magnesium nearly as much anymore. If your budget allows for it, for a piece of mind, you can also get an alkalinity monitor to test for you. That way you know your dKH is in line so your calcium/magnesium will be as well (or not far off from what you want them to be).

Here is a good thread to get you some more details: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/geo-818-smc415-calcium-reactor-setup-for-my-240-reef.463228/

A few of us on here are going through the same process that you are looking to accomplish in that thread.