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

[Myka]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

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.

Steve

I have to disagree with you. Ime, I have always had to turn up the reactor, turn up the reactor, turn up the reactor as the demand for calcium and alkalinty rose in a growing tank. Many people do "set and forget", but they often don't realize their numbers are falling. I suppose using a controller with multiple probes would probably help to eliminate these issues, but there goes more money. Likewise, dosing pumps would be much more "set and forget" on a controller too.

Originally Posted by gobytron

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 hear you on that! I am not one to jump on the newest products on the market to be the guinea pig. No thanks, someone else can risk their money and their reef! I still won't touch an LED system; I haven't seen enough proof yet - actually I have seen zero firsthand proof so far. Zeovit was prominent for 3-4 years before I tried it. Fauna Marin balling salts have been out for quite some time now too, and I just started using them about 8 months ago. I are cautious!

However, dosing pumps have been widely used for at least 15-20 years, and who knows when the first idea came upon the hobby...? Back then we jimmy rigged pricey hospital style dosing pumps that ate up huge real estate. Dosing pumps are far from new technology, and are hardly technology at all which is one of the things I like about them. Calcium reactors are much more "technical".

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Myka

I have to disagree with you.

hmm... I don't know how you can disagree with what I had to do because I designed and built my reactor to be stable, but Ok

for the record, I never used a solinoid, probes or any of that new fangles stuff. just did my weekly water tests. you know once and a while I may have to add a bubble per min or take one away, but it was maybe every couple months I have to tweek it so 5 min for two months ..

Ca reactors like anything else flooded the market as the newest and greatest thing, so there were many people making a simple compact design to get it to the marktet and hence we had copys of unstable setups for sale everywhere. Titus had a nice design, but didn't carry one with it, not sure what happened there, but it looked like it would b very stable. I made my own adding a few tweaks of my own and created the monster. I put it at 20 bubbles per min (about 1 min of fiddling) and 5 months later it would still be at 20 bubbles per min. well unless my tank ran out but using a 20lb tank gave me over a years worth of use. since I used to be obsessed with my water tests the longest anything would go with out being checked was 3 days and once a week I recorded my tests in my tank journal to track trends and enable me to know what worked and what didn't when playing with my tank.

Steve

[Myka]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

hmm... I don't know how you can disagree with what I had to do because I designed and built my reactor to be stable, but Ok

Steve

I was disagreeing with:

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

a Ca reactor is truly set and forget.

Kind of self explanitory, no? I think telling everyone that a calcium reactor is set and forget is misleading as most are not set and forget, although lots of people treat them that way, and don't check their parameters until a crash is visually imminent. Is it ok to disagree with you?

In your case, why didn't you have to throttle it up every couple weeks? Why would your demand stay the same?

[gobytron]

assuming you have a controller, a ca reactor SHOULD be set and forget aside from the odd testing.

I can see how without a controller, it might get tedious to keep things in line but I would take a controller before just about any other piece of equipment I have so to me having one is a no brainer.

I wasn't implying anything about dosing pumps other than the only reason they are so widely in use RIGHT now is that they are currently in vogue and not neccesarily a better system than a ca reactor...just different and considered progressive at this point in time.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Myka

Is it ok to disagree with you?

I'll think about it and let you know

Originally Posted by Myka

In your case, why didn't you have to throttle it up every couple weeks? Why would your demand stay the same?

well I account the consistancy of the bubbles to a few things, the first being a large CO2 tank. smaller ones run out faster and you pressure starts to drop a while befor you run out so you end up getting more variation. a larger tank that stays at pretty much its full volume and will give you 1.5 to 2 years worth will be a lot more constant.

the second thing which may have more of an impact than the bottle is the regulator you are using. most of the ones being used in this hobby are true garbage. the cheepest offshore thing they could find as a good regulator would cost more than the reactor. for example a new version of my regulator would be about 350 to 450.00 retail.

as for keeping up with demand in the tank, pure size matters, most places were touting reactors that held 1 jug of media for tanks up to 200 or even 300 gal tanks, with a add on stage up to 4 or 500 gal. they had small pumps, most had no recirc for trapped gas, ect.. the one I designed was big, 4 jugs of media when full, 500 gph recirc with in the unit, gas bubble evacuation, plus a built in water reserve. I used a combanation of high flow and acidic water to desolve minerals. it was big, had a 12 X 20 foot print for the box with two 6" wide towers on the top that were about 12" tall so overall high was about 18".

Steve

[lastlight]

The regulator reliability was the big reason I've never liked reactors. Which do you use? I know the aquariumplants.com is supposed to be one of the better hobby ones but I'm guessing yours is not hobby marketed.

[MitchM]

gobytron mentioned that dosing setups are in vogue at this point.

I actually think that controllers and dosing pumps have improved a lot in recent years, and that is the reason for their increasing popularity.

How have calcium reactors improved?

Mitch

[Myka]

In the end I think it all comes down to money when the "set and forget" feature is added.

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

well I account the consistancy of the bubbles to a few things, the first being a large CO2 tank. smaller ones run out faster and you pressure starts to drop a while befor you run out so you end up getting more variation. a larger tank that stays at pretty much its full volume and will give you 1.5 to 2 years worth will be a lot more constant.

the second thing which may have more of an impact than the bottle is the regulator you are using. most of the ones being used in this hobby are true garbage. the cheepest offshore thing they could find as a good regulator would cost more than the reactor. for example a new version of my regulator would be about 350 to 450.00 retail.

as for keeping up with demand in the tank, pure size matters, most places were touting reactors that held 1 jug of media for tanks up to 200 or even 300 gal tanks, with a add on stage up to 4 or 500 gal. they had small pumps, most had no recirc for trapped gas, ect.. the one I designed was big, 4 jugs of media when full, 500 gph recirc with in the unit, gas bubble evacuation, plus a built in water reserve. I used a combanation of high flow and acidic water to desolve minerals. it was big, had a 12 X 20 foot print for the box with two 6" wide towers on the top that were about 12" tall so overall high was about 18".

Steve

Hmmm, very interesting. Thanks for elaborating. The cost of this thing would be rather substantial though I would be thinking (much more than a basic reactor or dosing system), and take up a lot of real estate. The "set and forget" feature is pretty sweet though. How often were you testing parameters? What variance did you find in that time?

Originally Posted by marie

Unless you are using some 2 part I know nothing about then I assume you have the same fiddling.

Oh you bet! I fiddle with my dosers at least as much as I fiddled with my reactors in the past. I think this dilemma in both methods would be significantly reduced provided a controller is used. I have never run a controller. I prefer fiddling with the dosers than the Ca reactor simply because each parameter can be fiddled with separately. I always found alkalinity to drop quicker than calcium when using a reactor - I was always dosing alkalinity separately.

[marie]

Originally Posted by Myka

I was disagreeing with:



Kind of self explanitory, no? I think telling everyone that a calcium reactor is set and forget is misleading as most are not set and forget, although lots of people treat them that way, and don't check their parameters until a crash is visually imminent. Is it ok to disagree with you?

In your case, why didn't you have to throttle it up every couple weeks? Why would your demand stay the same?

Unless you are using some 2 part I know nothing about then I assume you have the same fiddling.
For me I check my alk every couple of months and if necessary will tweak the calcium reactor
....but then I've been using the reactor for 4 yrs and have it pretty much figured out, if the alk is low, a little turn to increase bubble count and a little turn to increase the effluent and it that's all the tweaking I need to do

[PFoster]

I run both (BTW there is no option in the poll for both) but each is on its own seperate system.
My sps system has the Balling method running on it and the LPS system has a dual chamber calcium reactor running on it.

The down side to the balling method is it does need to be refilled and it did take quite a while a testing and adjusting to get my levels stable. I refill the alk every 10 days and CA and MG about every 2.5 weeks. For alk though I have it measured out in .5 kg containers so refilling the alk takes about 10 seconds. But now that my levels are stable its absolutely bang on at all times!

CARX is easy, but not as accurate and not as easy for maintaining the exact params i would like. Plus my 6 month old precision marine reg has dumped twice since i set it up.