Advice RE Reactors...

[Delphinus]

Well here are my thoughts. I found that using additives seemed less expensive than a reactor, but they weren't in the end, because the costs are spread out incrementally as opposed to a one-time-up-front cost. Kind of like riding a bicycle or going sailing ... the actual sport costs you nothing to participate in but ya gotta shell out deniro to get your equipment but once you have it you have it. Anyways so a reactor is kind of like that. I found on a reasonably sized SPS dominated system, I was going to pay out in additives within about a year and a half the cost of a reactor. So really, a reactor is a good way to go. So what do you need. You need the reactor, a CO2 cylinder, a regulator, a needle valve and a bubble counter, then some CO2 for the cylinder and some reactor media. The big costs are going to be the cylinder and the reactor. If you can DIY then you can save probably about half on the reactor but don't forget you still need all that other stuff. Scope around for a cylinder, sometimes they come up for sale here, sometimes they can be found for other uses so check the BuySell or BargainFinder type newspaper sometimes a deal comes up periodically. Or you can look into renting/leasing you can probably rent a cylinder for a small price but this pushes the finances of the reactor away from one-time-up-front to ongoing so who knows if that's really a good idea or not. If you're not into DIY and a store bought unit is too much (check J&L and SWC .. or .. hey don't forget you can buy them CANREEF too {Hi Boss!! } ) then look for one second hand or see if a fellow DIYer hobbyist would be willing to build you one. That will probably cost less than retail but still more than DIY because there has to be something in it for them of course. Anyways I found that J&L and SWC and Canreef are good places to get stuff so check them out and failing that like I said check the marketplace forums for second-hand or see if someone wants to build you one. There are several talented acrylic workers on this board, so ask away. Does any of this sort of address your questions?