Carbon in filter sock? or in a chamber?
 

Which is better, throwing carbon in a filter sock or in a bag in one of the chambers of the sump?

also how often should it be replaced? im reading i should take it out after few days and just do carbon once a month.

filter sock will be useless to run carbon in but if you used a media bag its ok. i did this for 2 years with rowa phos

buy a reactor......much more efficient use of carbon:wink:

why would it be useless? isnt it same thing as putting it into a media bag then into the filter sock?

reactors is more pumps/plumbing/cost i dont have room in the sump anyways for more ****!

I've never done it myself but I'd imagine cleaning carbon out of a filter sock would be a royal pain.. Plus you'd have to keep an eye on your sock for overflow because carbon would likely escape the sock and into your sump in that event.

Pumps for reactors like the Two Little Fishes are small. A maxijet 400 or 600 could run it just fine and they don't take up a lot of room. Or, 'T' off your return line to feed reactors. TLF reactors are pretty cheap in my opinion. Sometimes you can get them used. They can hang on the outside of your sump.

Was there a particular reason why you have chosen to go with a Calcium reactor over a dosing station to dose calcium?

+1 with Kein on the Calcium reactor, maybe it's just me but I don't trust highly pressurized metal containers around corrosive salt water, panels of glass and $1000's of dollars worth of livestock.

what is the dosing station?
i got the calcium reactor for very good price in a package deal

fancy pumps that look something like this used to dose (pump) Alkaline, Calcium, and Magnesium concentrated solutions into your tank to keep your levels up. Certainly not a requirement, but if you plan on using a Calcium Reactor, a dosing station would be an alternative to that with added benefits. I too have an irrational fear of pressurized gas canisters in the house. :lol:

A dosing station uses peristaltic dosing pumps and supply reservoirs of chemicals to maintain your levels. For example my bubble magus dosing station doses 2.08ml of both CA & ALK solution 12 times daily to add 25 ml of both solutions. The third one doses 2ml of Mg twice for a total of 4ml, so far it has been working flawlessly.