Reef nutrition

Calcium Reactors

Alexander1312 said:
I do not curse and totally inappropriate but holy s**** so much effort to just maintain CA levels with old school technology.
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You know the old is the new again. I honestly believe if we stayed on track in the early 2000’s with simple reefing methods. We would be in a lot better place now with our hobby. Don’t get me wrong. Something’s are really better. We lost the foundation of reefing. The solid core basics.
 
Alexander1312 said:
I do not curse and totally inappropriate but holy s**** so much effort to just maintain Alk/CA levels with old-school technology.
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Turkeysammich said:
You know the old is the new again. I honestly believe if we stayed on track in the early 2000’s with simple reefing methods. We would be in a lot better place now with our hobby. Don’t get me wrong. Something’s are really better. We lost the foundation of reefing. The solid core basics.
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?? Is calc reactor older school than kalk or 2part? Maybe I am missing your point. What are the “new school” methods to maintain calcium besides carx, 2part, or kalk?

Aren’t these pretty much the only options, and haven’t they all been around a long time?
 
derek_SR said:
?? Is calc reactor older school than kalk or 2part? Maybe I am missing your point. What are the “new school” methods to maintain calcium besides carx, 2part, or kalk?
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I would just do three our four part such as a balling or even better balling light. I think the two part you are using is indeed expensive for larger consumption. CA (and alk) supplementation is cheap through balling light and the refill will be substantially less time consuming than setting up and maintaining a CA reactor. Two/three/four part was introduced to eliminate the need for these reactors which are just too annoying unless you love tinkering or feel great about having the lowest possible costs.
 
Alexander1312 said:
I would just do three our four part such as a balling or even better balling light. I think the two part you are using is indeed expensive for larger consumption. CA (and alk) supplementation is cheap through balling light and the refill will be substantially less time consuming than setting up and maintaining a CA reactor. Two/three/four part was introduced to eliminate the need for these reactors which are just too annoying unless you love tinkering or feel great about having the lowest possible costs.
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Not sure what you mean by tinkering. I honestly set my calcium reactors and don't touch it or any of the pumps except for once or maybe twice a YEAR, that's not months or weeks, but YEAR.

Edit: okay, mostly true. If corals are growing well, I do need to increase effluent drip rate or co2 amount. But in terms of cleaning or replacing media....once or maybe twice a year.
 
derek_SR said:
?? Is calc reactor older school than kalk or 2part? Maybe I am missing your point. What are the “new school” methods to maintain calcium besides carx, 2part, or kalk?

Aren’t these pretty much the only options, and haven’t they all been around a long time?
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I was just saying. Old stuff is new again. Like we forgot our way. I haven’t used a calcium reactor since 2002 ? Back then. Everyone had one. It was the only way to go. Then two part. Oh you can make it yourself out of stuff at home. Baking soda and driveway salt ( heat ). Used that forever. Then back to Kalk. And 2 part. Now I’m like you. Thinking about calcium reactor again. I think. Calcium reactor and Kalk for the ph bump.
 
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Alexander1312 said:
I would just do three our four part such as a balling or even better balling light. I think the two part you are using is indeed expensive for larger consumption. CA (and alk) supplementation is cheap through balling light and the refill will be substantially less time consuming than setting up and maintaining a CA reactor. Two/three/four part was introduced to eliminate the need for these reactors which are just too annoying unless you love tinkering or feel great about having the lowest possible costs.
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Yeah fair enough, but I like the long term hands off approach that the carx offers, and I don’t have space in my cabinet for another couple of bottles.

But yeah I don’t think that’s a terrible option either. I do like to tinker…but appreciate being able to set it and forget it.

I am also becoming suspicious of kalk…which I won’t get into here, but maybe will start another thread. I couldn’t find any of your old posts explaining why you and the other Germans dislike it.
 
derek_SR said:
Yeah fair enough, but I like the long term hands off approach that the carx offers, and I don’t have space in my cabinet for another couple of bottles.

But yeah I don’t think that’s a terrible option either. I do like to tinker…but appreciate being able to set it and forget it.

I am also becoming suspicious of kalk…which I won’t get into here, but maybe will start another thread. I couldn’t find any of your old posts explaining why you and the other Germans dislike it.
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If you said you wanted the lowest possible cost, then I can see this being worth exploring, but you call this hands-off, and a way to step up your laziness game? I am not an expert in this but refilling CO2, calibrating and replacing PH probes (which I do not like), replacing reactor media (admittedly rarely I believe) is a hands-off setup????

Re space - you can just run the three part from your garage. You do not need the MAG so you probably only need to run one from the garage and keep the other under your tank.

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Alexander1312 said:
If you said you wanted the lowest possible cost, then I can see this being worth exploring, but you call this hands-off, and a way to step up your laziness game? I am not an expert in this but refilling CO2, calibrating and replacing PH probes (which I do not like), replacing reactor media (admittedly rarely I believe) is a hands-off setup????

Re space - you can just run the three part from your garage. You do not need the MAG so you probably only need to run one from the garage and keep the other under your tank.

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Have you ever had a calcium reactor? A co2 tank if it's 10lbs will last a year if not more. If you size your reactor to be large enough, you change that media once maybe twice a year. pH probes shouldn't need to be calibrated more than once a quarter and to be honest, it's been over a year since I've calibrated a couple of them in my carx.

You think it's hard, but have you actually run one?
 
iani said:
For regulators, a good dual stage is a better choice.
I think I have a bunch of parts still if you need any to build one.
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Everyone says this and I completely understand the details behind it but I haven't had an issue with Carbon Dosers and no random co2 dumps for the last 7 years. I also have four of them running.
 
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RandyC said:
Everyone says this and I completely understand the details behind it but I haven't had an issue with Carbon Dosers and no random co2 dumps for the last 7 years. I also have four of them running.
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You can tune them much finer in regards to bubble rate. I don't run a pH probe because of this.
 
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