So it's 2010 now. Who still uses a calcium reactor and who's all on 2-part dosing?
 

Just curious what the spectrum looks like. Early 2000's it was calcium reactors were the real "it" way of maintaining levels, late 2000's/early 2010's it seemed to shift.

I myself switched to automated 2-part dosing some time ago.

But to be honest I find myself missing the calcium reactor and not having to fuss with it for 6 to 12 months at a time. With the 2 part dosing I am constantly mixing the stuff and I just hate the job for all the mess it seems to make while I'm at it.. and only seems to last 2-3 weeks at best. I thought about getting larger reservoirs but that is only going to be messier I think.

So .. feel free to talk me out of going back to a CO2 based calcium reactor if you like, haha! :lol: I'll listen to both sides of the argument if any are presented, but I'm also curious who's all out there and using what these days and what the breakdown is like. Answer what you're using, not what's your favourite. Ie., if you use both just answer with both. But feel free to post your thoughts on what's your favourite dosing mechanism.

Get a smaller tank Tony. And ONE lol.

My jugs look like they'll last me half a year!

I'm very happy with my 3 part doser as have never had such amazing growth, mind you I have never used a Calcium reactor so I'm slightly bias. My draw rates aren't that large only 20ml per day of CA/ALK and 4ml of Mg which I will be doubling to compensate for all my livestock.

My fear with a Calcium reactor is a pressurized cylinder around corrosive salt water, panes of glass and $1000's of dollars with of livestock (My doser is much less explosion prone... at least I hope).
Levi

Still using my reactor, I figure I have it, I worked hard making it, and I'll use it till it breaks :) I refill the tank twice a year, top up media 3 times a year, and it appears that it gives me all I need for dosing.

:eek:

Thats not much for your system Levi. With my 70g cube back in the mid '90,s I used to dose 30ml/day of 2 part. Unless it was more diluted or something.

I dont recall ever hearing of that, but I suppose any pressurized cylinder is a concern.

Anywho, my answer to Tony,s question is, a 2-part also and kalk. Thats all I have used since shutting down my large tanks, which did run co2 reactors. I still use Seachem 2-parts and most of Bens, 3-part additives.

2-part for me via auto doser

I've got a low-tech doser. My phone has 4 alarms set and I dose alk and calcium an hour apart in the morning and same thing in the evening. Currently using 6mL of each. Only use Mg right now to bring my new water up to 1400.

I use both....a calcium reactor on my large tank and 2 part on my smaller tanks.
I doubt I could ever be talked into using 2 part on my large tank, I hate the mess involved, mind you I'm dosing manually.
The reactor is soooo much easier it literally is set and forget especially now that I have a bigger reactor that holds more media and I only have to fill it every 4 or 5 months

Still kind of finding the sweet spot with the doser, I think I will be uping it to 40 40 and 8 right away here and then if I see a drop I will increase it to compensate.

- Krzysztof Tryc Reef keeping mag Volume 8, Issue 14 :eek:

I have parked my 2 calcium reactors in the barn. I got really tired of the salt water getting past the "one way valves" and ruining the solenoid, C02 leaks, clogged intake hoses, sticking regulator gauges.
It started to feel like a Rube Goldberg way to dose calcium.

I'm now dosing calcium and magnesium from ChemMaster with a Profilux doser set up.

Mitch

:boom:

Guess always a first. One wonders how many more incidents we never hear about.

It's not the dosing part that has me nostalgic. I use some peri pumps and it works well enough. It's not like it's not keeping up the levels or anything like that ... I just hate mixing the stuff up. Hate it. Did I mention that it's messy, and I hate it? Because I hate it. I'd probably do it more often if I didn't hate it but .. I hate it. I'm not sure if I can make myself clear here: I hate mixing that stuff up!!!!!!!

Whereas a reactor ... bubbles counting? Check. (There's the daily investment of time). About every 6 months or so .. top up some gravel. About every year or so .. refill the CO2 cylinder.

How is that worse?? It's not. Guess the only thing is the CO2 part of the equation...

it sounds like there may be a market for pre-mixed two-part ? :lol:

by the way tony, I wasn't quite clear on the message you were trying to convey. So when you say you "hate it", is that like in a love-hate kind of way, or a full-on-hate kind of hate? :lol:

I haven't owned a calcium reactor since the late 90s. I despise them. I have been 2-part dosing ever since I discovered it pretty much.

Currently I have a dual doser for calcium and alkalinity. I use Fauna Marin balling salts. I have Rubbermaid food storage containers that holds about 3.5L. I mix 270g Sodium bicarbonate into 3L of RO/DI water, mix that for 3 hours with a powerhead so it actually dissolves, and pour it into one of the containers. I mix 300g Calcium carbonate into 3L of RO/DI and put that into the other container. These containers last about 4 weeks. The concentration is as suggested on the back of the Fauna Marin packages. I'm not sure if I could mix them more concentrated or not. I'm going to email them and ask. However, I find I am constantly turning up the timers to dose more and more every week or which is annoying because the numbers are always falling, and I'm not around often enough to monitor well enough. So...they aren't set and forget.

EDIT: I have been thinking about buying a third doser to dose kalk at night which would make the jugs of Ca and Alk last longer. Also I don't have to dose magnesium - I use H2Ocean salt, and doing a 10 gallon water change once a week keeps magnesium around 1400 ppm as per Salifert kit. I also dose Potassium into the fresh saltwater mix to raise K to 380-400 ppm since it is very low in H2Ocean salt (~250 ppm).

so it sounds like dosing is a pain in the butt unless you mix up 50gals of each....
maybe ill stick to my calcium reactor

50 gallons would be like a year's dosing. I only mix up batches once a month. It really isn't a big deal to mix them up. It's the actual dosing that is a pain in the butt - dosers need adjusting, but so does manual dosing. Really, you can't get away from weekly or biweekly testing of parameters. Calcium reactors are the same way, they always need to be fiddled with too. It's not the way we dose that causes this, it is the reef itself that causes the changes in demand for elements. As the corals grow the corals obviously get bigger, the bigger they get the quicker they grow (more growth tips), the quicker they grow the more the demand for elements. Unless your tank is well established, and you are removing as much coral as is growing (say frags), you will always be increasing dosage whether it be calcium reactor or 2-part dosing.

Can I ask Marie and Mitch what is the difference in your setups, Marie says her calcium reactor is set it and forget it and Mitch says its a constant headache. I have recently set up a large tank and am trying to decide if I need a calcium reactor or not.

Reactor here but do want to get a dosing pump system more for the new toy thing than anything else. Haven't yet as still can't justify to the wife spending $300-400 replacing something that does what it's supposed to do and really overall is trouble free.

The beauty is that there are options! You're not stuck with one method. Pick which in works for you an run with it.

Keeping a salt water tank in general is a pain in the butt yet we all do it anyhow :)

I don't know about that.. I would fiddle with mine a few times a day when I first started it after refilling ect. after two days I wouldn't touch it untill it was time to refill again. a Ca reactor is truly a set and forget. but there were a few types people seamed to have nothing but trouble with, I don't know about the store bought reactors as I built both of mine.

as for tow part, I am tempted to try now that you can buy reasonable priced dosers, as manual dosing is a total pain in the you know what. but I still have reservations of two part as it is just that two parts, what about the other 1000 parts? so now your into 3 or 4 part including trace elements, mixing 4 different things every month. but yet it does have its apeal to me. although a Ca reactor is a multi part doser (includes everything even Mg in ballanced form) they are a fair size and take up a lot of prime relistate under the stand as there is the reactor, the co2 canister and reg, piping , pumps ect.. the apealing part of a doser pump is you can use smaller jugs and hide everything. So due to a smaller tank with a smaller "understand" area the dosing set up might be the choice for you.

Steve

Hi Tracey,

The two reactors that I used were Aquamedic and Schuran. Both had PH probes in the reactor chamber that would turn on or off the supply of C02 depending on the chamber PH value.
I found that the pressure in the reactor would eventually creep salt water back up the C02 feed line and destroy the solenoid that turned on or off the C02 supply. The C02 would eventually stop being supplied to the reactor.

I also had problems feeding the C02 reactor with tank water. I tried both a separate pump and teeing off of the sump return line. Those would constantly clog up with either algae or detritus and it wasn't always obvious.
I also had algae sometimes growing in the reactor chamber which would have to be cleaned out.

I had sealing issues with both reactors, finding salt water creep, having to deal with screw tightness, design shortfalls in both.

...(I'm getting frustrated again just typing this out.....!:lol:)

I also found that the reactor capacity frequently fell short, even running full throttle. I would have liked to run my Ca and Mg values higher than I did.
My system volumes have always been 300g or over.

Electrical plug-ins were at a premium and I needed 3 for a calcium reactor. 1 each for recirc pump in the reactor, supply pump for the reactor and 1 for the solenoid. With a dosing setup I only need one plug-in for 4 dosing pumps.

I really wanted the calcium reactors to be set it and forget it, but for me it wasn't.

The dosing method seems simpler to me plus the dosing supply chemicals are clean. They don't require water from the aquarium itself.

HTH,
Mitch

That's a good point. I had forgotten how much of an irritant the mess of electrical wires was no matter how "tidy" I tried to make it.

Don't get me wrong: I dose. I sold my reactors and my spare cylinders and regs, just kept one of each and threw them on my FW planted tank. For two years or so I never looked back. I can't bring myself to pony up the $300 or $400 for a multihead unit, but I'm using the smaller single head units and other than the increased time to figure out an ideal timing cycle it's been fine enough.

But as I stare at my empty dosing reservoirs and think "Man, I need to refill those" I am fighting an overwhelming sense of "UGH." 1) Didn't I just do that 2 or 3 weeks ago??? 2) Geeeeze it's a messy job. If I don't have any prebaked baking soda, I go get a couple boxes, spread them into a cookie sheet and bake it for the required hour. Then I go get a gallon or so of RO/DI and put it into a kettle. Because the baked baking soda is roughly as soluble in water as silica sand, and mixing it in hot water helps a tiny little bit. So then I take my prescribed amount of baked baking soda, 2 and a bit cups, and then I have to add it to the water about a teaspoon at a time, mixing for at least 10 seconds in between. 2 and a bit of cups divided by teaspoons equals approximately a billion. If I add it any faster or in any larger amount at a time, it does one of either two things: 1) Clumps together rock hard and becomes completely insoluble, or 2) the entire mixture congeals into a gel like substance and the only way to reliquidify is to add more water to the mix (other than it's a complete PITA because I'm trying to mix my alk additive, it's actually quite a bizarrely interesting phenomenon). Anything that spills make a huge mess because wet baking soda is just messy like that. So my alk mixing is at the very least about a hour commitment, more if I have to prebake any amount.

Calcium is nowhere near as bad but it makes a brown gross slimey liquid so the reservoir at the very least needs cleaning in between fills and I wonder if I should be purging my 1/4" lines periodically as well because it stands to reason they'll be covered with that residue as well over time.

I mean, seriously, this is the "better way to dose" ?? I don't think so. Before I started using the peri pumps I just took my powdered additives and mixed up enough each day to dose that day's amount. THAT was really the "best way" for me as it was nearly effortless but the problem is it's really difficult to automate the process.

I'm using Chemmaster for the Calcium and Magnesium and just baking soda from Costco for the Alk. Maybe it's time for me to step it up and start buying from BRS or other places because if this process isn't normal for everyone else then there's something wrong with what *I'm* doing and I can't really see what I'm doing wrong procedurally so that really leaves, by process of elimination, the ingredients themselves that must be the difference.

I'm all for hearing suggestions on how to make this mixing process suck a little less..

My reactor gets fiddled with twice a year. It's large, so no problems keeping up, and I don't use a solenoid, so no issues there. Dosing may be a suitable alternative, but it's money I don't need to spend already owning a reactor.

Tony,
I use extra 2 litre plastic bottles that I bought from Industrial Paint and Plastics for my reservoirs. I just pre-fill them and swap them out when it comes time to refill. I haven't experienced the brown goo..?
I use either a Kalkwasser stirrer for my top up depending on PH levels, or straight R/O water.
That mixing procedure does sound like a PITR.

Mitch

I spent some dough on a good reactor years back. Had some issues for first little while such as water supply to reactor, clogged lines and such but after addressing everything its been relatively hassle free. I like the appeal of the new dosers as I have a good controller to run one and they look neat but can't see spending money in this area of the tank right now when I have something that works OK. As for the saved real-estate I can't see it being much better for a doser as you still need to have you containers for dosing and all the containers for mixing and such laying around. But maybe one day in the future.

Never had dosers, I've always been happy with a calcium reactor. I used to hate manually adjusting the bubble count/effluent rate, but now that I have a controller, the ph in my calcium reactor is always between 6.6 - 6.7 with the controller controlling the amount of C02 going in. The best thing that I have done is "T" off of my return line to feed the reactor. I used to gravity siphon feed but it wasn't as consistent. Now it is truly a set and forget item. I couldn't imagine the regular labour of 2 part dosing. I am so lazy that I cringe at changing my carbon once a month even though it only takes 10 minutes. I cringe at changing my zeo rocks once every 2 months....

So I guess my vote is Calcium reactor all the way!

This has been an interesting thread. For being such a labour intensive/cringe inducing/pain in the arse method, most people seem to prefer it. :lol:

I can't say that I prefer it over Calcium Reactors since I have never used a calcium reactor so have nothing to compare it to. I am lazy and even I don't really mind the chore though. There is nothing that I have to do on a daily basis. The frequency for me with dosing seems to be weekly top ups which I can live with.

Again, different strokes for different folks right? Lots of people are fine with shaking zeo rocks and dropping additives every day (or so), while others may think that is way too much work. I find it fascinating where people draw the line in the sand bed when determining what commitment they are welling to invest.

I've used both methods. Currently I've got a GEO reactor and it has been set and forget. Change the media and add CO2 every 7 or 8 months. The only issue has been a faulty needle valve which was replaced.

I got tired of manually dosing 3-part. I could've gone with a auto-doser but a reactor seemed more mad scientist-like. I remember reading a RHF article comparing various methods and their cost. I think that somewhere around the 125 gallon mark a calcium reactor becomes more economical in the long run than dosing.

Like was said: two ways to the same result - there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Mitch, thank you for taking the time to explain. I still have many questions but will try to do a little more research first.

Ok, maybe 1 question, I have a co2 tank on my planted tank and have a hard time keeping the co2 consistant, I have a bubble counter and I have to play with it every few days. Is there a regulator that works better or do you use a regulator at all?

You're welcome:smile:

I have a freshwater setup as well, and I use a Red Sea (I think) regulator on that, but I find the bubble control pretty consistant with it.

Mitch

FM balling with trace elements with GHL doser, install and forget :)

So then I guess I am really old school. Kalkwasser in the ATO bucket with a little bit of 2 part dosed manually every week if need be to keep everything within my targets.

I think this is what you were thinking of. Great read.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...1&postcount=27

Although if I ever have a large tank again I will still dose.

good poll.

The thing that really gets me about this hobby is how people just jump on new technology because its new...lol

Solaris anyone?

lol


I think that it's all about personal preference and how much time and effort you have to put into whichever given task the equipment in question is supposed to make possible or easier for you.


I like having a ca reactor cuz they look bad ass.

non aquarists are always blown away by it when they see it and that makes me feel good...lol

Since starting the poll I still haven't found the time or the energy or the enthusiasm to refill my empty dosing jugs. It's not that I don't have better things to do (truly, it is one of the more important things I should be doing), it's just that I'd rather do so many other things, and that includes scraping fossilized cat poo off the floor where the one cat in particular who has irritable bowel syndrome missed her cat box. Yes, I would rather scrape poo than mix up the additives. (And for the record, I hate poo too.) Did I mention I hate mixing up the additives? Because I hate mixing up the additives and particularly I hate making and mixing the soda ash one. Water changes, changing carbon, fiddle faddling with pellets, maybe some more water changes, what the heck, I'm doing (and have done) all those but those dosing jugs sit empty, taunting me with their foul crusty residues. "Refill us! Hahaha! Your parameters are going down like poo in the toilet! So what are YOU gonna do tonight chump? Look at all those boxes of baking soda that need baking. Teehee!"

Did I mention I hate mixing up additives?

Calcium reactors did definitely have their place. Well, unless you had problems with them I guess, nothing like a finicky reactor to tank high in the suckage category but when they were working right I really miss the set-and-forget (and I do mean forget for like 6 months, other than the ongoing testing of params) aspect of them. AND, it was nice to only test for Alk, because the Ca and Alk were always in proportion to one another..

:drinking:

My additive containers talk to me all the time too tony :lol:.

I haven't bothered testing my calcium in over 2 years :mrgreen:

LMAO. Tony I think the kids need to be moved out and you need to be 20+ years older before you qualify to 'fiddle faddle' with anything haha. You can tinker for now!

Dosing certainly isn't a new fad or trend though. It's been done pretty much everywhere else besides North America for a lot longer based on what I've read.

And Tony I don't think you'd hate mixing the BRS stuff. It's so clean and no baking either. There's no way the fossilized feline sharts should be more fun than prepping chemicals! I've done that many a time myself.

Yup, what Brett says.
BRS stuff is very easy to mix. I bought three one-gallon water containers with spigots from Safeway. Mark each with a magic marker; fill with RO water; pour in the stuff; shake it; do a little jig and presto it's done!