Calcium consumption.

[Canadian Man]

Doug, I sometime's think the same thing that you mentioned but since installing my reactor my tank has actually become enjoyable.. It's been about 6 month's now since the reactor has been up and it gives me so much more time to spend with my "growing" family as well as more time enjoying my tank. I found that kalk would not even come close to keeping up with my tank's demands and this was like a year ago before my tank was full of sps.

It's quite astonishing how much calcium/alk the other stuff, besides corals, consume

Yea for reactors!

[Delphinus]

My own take on reactors and kalk has me doing a little bit of both.

I personally find the constancy of a reactor to be its biggest selling point. The Ca and Alk levels are closer to constant, rather than a sudden addition and slow depletion on a daily cycle that I was getting when I did two-part additives. I find the corals do better too, despite that the levels aren't always as "good" as what they were when I was doing the two-parts. I truly believe the fact that the levels are constant, i.e., being replaced as fast as they are consumed, on an instantaneous level as opposed to a once-per-day kind of thing, contributes greatly to that.

And, it's great that I don't have to train someone up to do my additions when I go away for a couple of days .. the reactor will stay on the job.

That said, now, I do dose kalk in my topup. Primarily for pH control. I find with the kalk, my pH goes from 8.2 to 8.4 on it's daily swing, and when I stop the pH swing goes to 8.1 to 8.3. Is 0.1 difference worth the effort? I'm not sure. But when I first started dosing kalk after switching to a reactor, my pH was more like 7.9 to 8.2 and that caused different problems (valonia, dinos, hair algae, cyano). So the kalk did definitely help the tank settle in after the reactor. I don't have a refugium on reverse-daylight-photoperiod so I don't have that as a crutch for pH control.

On my other tank (my ritteri tank) I just dose kalk, and it's not near enough to maintain levels for SPS. Luckily, that's not the goal for that tank, so it's not an issue for me, but I thought I'd mention it since it supports Jonathan's and Doug's observations/thoughts on the issue. There are a few small pieces of SPS in that tank, and they grow much slower because the alk/Ca are more like "moderate" as opposed to "ideal." I should also point out that I have had two incidents of SPS bleaching in the last two months on this tank, because the kalk did something screwy (I once found my pH as high as 8.6). Most things tolerated it except my purple montipora digitata. Not sure why the kalk did that because it wasn't a case of it got added too quickly. The corals recovered in a day or two but this DOES illustrate, in my opinion, that kalk is not a risk-free approach to maintaining levels.

Reactors are the only way to go.

cheers

[Doug]

Mike, a tank will need some kind of calcium supplementation, regardless of livestock. One think I have found over the years, the best hair algae on rock fighter, is lots of coralline. So if the coralline dies, another algae will replace it.

Also many corals, not sps, use calcium. For instance green star polyps, any coral that lays down or grows some sort of base, {not leather types}, consume calcium. Replacing evaporation water with kalk, is the easiest and cheapest way of replacing it. What I am saying here, is if thats all ones tank requires, then you have it made.

C.M., I must also agree I like my reactor, but would like it better if only kalk was needed, but thats not the case, like you. I must admit the reactors ability to add strontium and magnesium, along with many other trace elements is appealing. I always had trouble with magnesium levels, until using a reactor. Plus the stable alk. they produce.

[Doug]

Tony, I find kalk to keep a constant level, in an low consumption tank. I agree with your view on 2-parts. I have seen many posts on slower growth or even bleaching such as you mention, in tanks that have a problem with fluctuating calcium or alk levels. Also in my own view and from talking with someone like Rodger from Tunze, the kalk effects the pumps and equipment more than reactors. Not sure why. Rodger does not like high alk levels for his Tunze pumps tolerance levels, but I have yet to see a reactor run a tank at much less than 12dkh. Seems thats also a nice level for sps.

[Delphinus]

Sorry if I wasn't clear ... yes I do find kalk to keep levels constant, for the most part (as long as it's being constantly added, instead of a "once per day for a few hours" kind of thing). Just not maintainable at 4.0meq/L alk and 400ppm Ca. More like .. well 2.7meq/L and 330ppm in my "low Ca consumption" tank.

I'm really baffled as to why I had two recent incidents. The first time I did not even clue in to the kalk, I thought it was a light shock issue because I was having problems with my bulbs not firing, and it happened just after I had corrected that. The second time, it wasn't a particularly hot day (maybe slightly warmer than others, but not much), so it wasn't a case of a lot of evaporation causing a whole lot of kalk all at once ... In fact, it was so sudden it shocked me. At 6pm I looked into the tank and all was well. Tank temp was fine. I went to the gym, came back, just after lights-out, and the two purple monti piece were white as snow. Everything else was fine. Other SPS in the tank are some acro frags and some hydnophora in there as well. They were fine. But the monti's looked so bad so as they were completely white. I tested the pH with the monitor and it was 8.6. So I found the cause of the bleaching, I think, but I don't know what the cause of the spike was. I have to assume, though, it was related to the kalk. I've since backed off on how much powder I add to my topup bucket, and am hoping that a repeat incident will not happen. Time will tell.

[Skimmerking]

well i found the purple stuff growing already on my maxi 1200
i cant believe it ...