High Tide Aquatics

Calcium reactor: Best models and 1 stage or 2?

Crabby

Crabby

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While working under the tank today I hit the inflow of my Korallin C1502 Calcium reactor and broke one of the POS fittings. It's the second time I broke it, and it broke again exactly where I glued it. The fittings are replaceable, but at about $65 from marine depot - a pretty high price tag for a piece of tube. I think I can fix the unit again (and have already glued it), but that got me to thinking that maybe I should buy a new, better, Ca reactor and use the Korallin as a second stage.

Q1: What's your favorite Ca reactor for a 250G stony coral tank?

Q2: What's your opinion of second stages? How much do they really help?
 
I don't know about brands, since I built mine, but IMO a second stage probably doesn't do much. In a properly running CA reactor the water in the reactor is saturated so the effluent can't dissolve any additional CaCO3.
 
Never gone wrong with a Geo - easy to use, reliable, etc. I have used a second chamber before, to try to mimize the pH damage done because of the reactor - I guess, also to try to completely saturate the effluent. I cant speak to Pixel's claims that a "properly running" reactor saturates the effluent, but lots of folks use a 2nd chamber...take it as you will.
 
Second stage is to help remove any extra CO2/raise PH, not add anything else :) IMO they are a crucial part of a CA Reactor.
 
GreshamH said:
Second stage is to help remove any extra CO2/raise PH, not add anything else :) IMO they are a crucial part of a CA Reactor.
Click to expand...

The only way it could raise the pH and "remove" extra CO2 is by dissolution of the media in it.
 
Crabby said:
While working under the tank today I hit the inflow of my Korallin C1502 Calcium reactor and broke one of the POS fittings. It's the second time I broke it, and it broke again exactly where I glued it. The fittings are replaceable, but at about $65 from marine depot - a pretty high price tag for a piece of tube. I think I can fix the unit again (and have already glued it), but that got me to thinking that maybe I should buy a new, better, Ca reactor and use the Korallin as a second stage.

Q1: What's your favorite Ca reactor for a 250G stony coral tank?

Q2: What's your opinion of second stages? How much do they really help?
Click to expand...


I too have a broken one, PVC fittings; metric AAAAAHHHH!!
But Gresh refered me to Ryan Herco Flow Solutions; they seem to be able to order those; I drove there after I was confirmed they had them then the counter person said they do not, they'd have to order those. Since then I just left the reactor back in the closet.
 
pixelpixi said:
GreshamH said:
Second stage is to help remove any extra CO2/raise PH, not add anything else :) IMO they are a crucial part of a CA Reactor.
Click to expand...

The only way it could raise the pH and "remove" extra CO2 is by dissolution of the media in it.
Click to expand...

Well then I know that this is occurring, since the 2nd stage always does dissolve some of the media. Yes, the first stage dissolves at at least 2x the rate of the 2nd, but, something is happening in there.
 
Well, my fix didn't stick so instead of spending $100 on parts, I'm going to buy a new one and use existing as 2nd stage (I'll somehow figure out how to modify it so that it works as a second stage).

So, only model mentioned so far is the GEO. What do folks think of the CR624 (http://geosreef.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=68)?
 
In my second attempt to fix the Korallin reactor I found some thin acrylic tubing that fit just inside the metric PVC parts and used that as a "stent" (for those of you who are cardiologists) when I reglued the pieces. The fix seems to be working and the reactor is back online. For any of you who also have this problem, the acrylic tubing that I used was from the outflow spray-bar of a a very small Eheim canister filter. It fit perfectly!

However, I'm still thinking about a second stage - probably will make a DIY unit.
 
Rigid clear tube - the one that is perforated for the outflow spray bar. Do you want some of the tubing so that you can fix yours?
 
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