Quote:
Originally Posted by fkshiu
A calcium reactor works by using co2 to lower the pH in the reactor which dissolves the media (dead coral skeletons pretty much) thereby releasing the Ca, Mg, Alk etc into your system. As others have stated, simply leaving the media in a reactor without co2 wouldn't do very much for a reef system since nothing is being dissolved into the water.
Using a kalk reactor can only take you so far. Kalk is limited because it gets saturated at a certain point and you can only add as much as your evaporation rate. Vinegar does increase its potency but it still cannot keep up with a high demand system.
Your other option is to begin dosing a two-part system with either stock chemicals (cheaper) or name brand chemicals (more expensive) - CaCl, NaCO, MgSO4/MgCl.
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Heres an article on choosing supplementing schemes to further detail what fkshiu is saying
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm