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Calcium Reactor vs 2 part (1 Viewer)

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BigRick

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I recently pulled the calcium reactor off my tank after about 10 years of use. Granted my demand was pretty high, so I was running a lower pH and higher flow rate, but anytime you're injecting CO2 it will suppress tank pH. I wanted to swap to two part to see if it would help coral growth, after studying some on pH, and my results have thus far been pretty good on stony corals. With the calcium reactor, my pH was in the 7.8-8.1 range. Now with two part, it's in the 8.2-8.4 range. I understand the higher pH can have a significant impact on coral growth (look at the BRS TV videos on youtube related to pH for a starter), and after 4 months I'm becoming believer. You can for sure use a calcium reactor to solve this issue, just be aware of how it affects pH in your system.

FWIW, my system is about 450 gallons total, and I went from an 2 chamber calcium reactor to 2 part using the APEX DOS pump. Much like Ostentum, I'm dosing near 200mL of alkalinity and calcium per day to hold 8.5dkh and 475ppm, respectively.
Yup hard to raise ph with the reactor...even with CO2 scrubber.
 
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I don't believe stability is being sacrificed, on the contrary in my case, but I did give up the "forget about it" nature of the calcium reactor. For me, even with the a larger calcium reactor I had, I couldn't keep my alkalinity above 7.0dkh without some supplemental dosing. And then I'd find I would neglect to dose at times, thereby introducing swings which, as you point out, will stunt coral growth. So for me, going to 2 part (on the automated DOS pumps with my APEX controller), I've had a lot more stability in these last many months. Of course I've had to test a bit more often, but I'm down to weekly testing to adjust dosing volume. I also use 5 gallon jugs to make up the two part, so it last about 3 months before I have to make more.
What is more stable....dosing 10x, 50x, 150x a day......Or.....lets say your running your Reactor at 1 drop per second.....most run at last double or triple that. I run at 60-80 LPM which is several drops per second. But lets only consider 1 drop per second.

In 24 hours there's 86,400 seconds.....that's 86,400 drops in 24 hrs.


So is 150x in 24 hrs (at a larger dose) more stable or is "one tiny drop" hitting the water 86,400x in 24 hrs more stable? :)


Here's the doser:

W W W W W


Here's a reactor:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Cody

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What is more stable....dosing 10x, 50x, 150x a day......Or.....lets say your running your Reactor at 1 drop per second.....most run at last double or triple that. I run at 60-80 LPM which is several drops per second. But lets only consider 1 drop per second.

In 24 hours there's 86,400 seconds.....that's 86,400 drops in 24 hrs.


So is 150x in 24 hrs (at a larger dose) more stable or is "one tiny drop" hitting the water 86,400x in 24 hrs more stable? :)


Here's the doser:

W W W W W


Here's a reactor:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I too run a carx for that, among other reasons. I think for his application though, because his carx was struggling to keep up, it sounds like he indeed had a stability issue. It seems that was caused by having an underpowered carx, but the end result with the doser meant more stability for his particular instance.

As far as ph, I don’t really worry about mine. I have a fish room that vents air from outside, so mine stays in a nice range.
 
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soymilk

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There's absolute stability and relative stability.

Using the numbers above, dosing 200 ml of Alk 2 part 48x a day is something like 4ml every 30 mins. 4ml into 450gallons is relatively a very small amount. We are talking about a .012 change in alk.

Thats just dosing 48 times or every 30 mins. If you dose 150x a day, we are talking about a .004 change in alk per dosing cycle. I'm sure the calc rx is absolutely 100% more stable, but relatively I don't think it matters that much when compared to dosing with an automatic doser.
 
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I too run a carx for that, among other reasons. I think for his application though, because his carx was struggling to keep up, it sounds like he indeed had a stability issue. It seems that was caused by having an underpowered carx, but the end result with the doser meant more stability for his particular instance.

As far as ph, I don’t really worry about mine. I have a fish room that vents air from outside, so mine stays in a nice range.
Every tank I see that has a calcium reactor (if they know what their doing) grows big colonies faster regardless of pH because even the pros struggle with pH. There’s a reason why Ryan at BRS is running a scrubber on his new system or why ACI is dosing Potassium Hydroxide. Again, regardless of pH these tanks will grow bigger corals faster than most tanks on 2-part unless there’s a doser than can run 24/7 and their is…but you would need extremely weak 2-part solution and massive reservoirs which for most people just isn’t possible. Nor would you want to do that.

There’s only two main reason why Calcium Reactors are so effective:

1. They do bring in more elements than most 2-parts….BUT NOT ALL. I see multiple ICP’s a week. I’ve have seen what they add and what they do not add. For example they will not add enough iodine, and other elements are either low or completely depleted.

2. The stability a reactor brings is the best stability you can currently have when supplementing a system.
 

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Every tank I see that has a calcium reactor (if they know what their doing) grows big colonies faster regardless of pH because even the pros struggle with pH. There’s a reason why Ryan at BRS is running a scrubber on his new system or why ACI is dosing Potassium Hydroxide. Again, regardless of pH these tanks will grow bigger corals faster than most tanks on 2-part unless there’s a doser than can run 24/7 and their is…but you would need extremely weak 2-part solution and massive reservoirs which for most people just isn’t possible. Nor would you want to do that.

There’s only two main reason why Calcium Reactors are so effective:

1. They do bring in more elements than most 2-parts….BUT NOT ALL. I see multiple ICP’s a week. I’ve have seen what they add and what they do not add. For example they will not add enough iodine, and other elements are either low or completely depleted.

2. The stability a reactor brings is the best stability you can currently have when supplementing a system.
When I get rich I’m going to pay you $250,000 a year to put a drop of dosing solution in my sump every 30 seconds for eight hours a day. I’ll hire two other people for the same rate to have 24 hour per day, intense dosing.
 
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There's absolute stability and relative stability.

Using the numbers above, dosing 200 ml of Alk 2 part 48x a day is something like 4ml every 30 mins. 4ml into 450gallons is relatively a very small amount. We are talking about a .012 change in alk.

Thats just dosing 48 times or every 30 mins. If you dose 150x a day, we are talking about a .004 change in alk per dosing cycle. I'm sure the calc rx is absolutely 100% more stable, but relatively I don't think it matters that much when compared to dosing with an automatic doser.
So your taking to a guy who has used a doser for years. My GHL 2.1 SA Doser could dose 150x a day and you better believe that’s exactly what I had it dosing. HOWEVER, as soon as I hook up my reactor…in the first two weeks I already saw results that I had not seen with 2-part. Corals started growing nubs at the base’s. Others started to branch more. Some there were literally sitting and basically doing a bunch of nothing started to grow. Why? Because of those very reason I mentioned above.
 
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Honestly Cody…when somebody figures out how to easily and cheaply eliminate CO2 from the water that a reactor brings in…that man will be rich. Otherwise a scrubber is about the best I’ve seen so far. Kalk is good too, but not sure I will run Kalk this time.
 
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When I get rich I’m going to pay you $250,000 a year to put a drop of dosing solution in my sump every 30 seconds for eight hours a day. I’ll hire two other people for the same rate to have 24 hour per day, intense dosing.
Also, if has to be more than every 30 seconds or a reactor will still win the day.
 

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Also, if has to be more than every 30 seconds or a reactor will still win the day.
You’re just making your job description more difficult at this point.
 

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Honestly Cody…when somebody figures out how to easily and cheaply eliminate CO2 from the water that a reactor brings in…that man will be rich. Otherwise a scrubber is about the best I’ve seen so far. Kalk is good too, but not sure I will run Kalk this time.
Then Yahweh should be banking right now for bringing macro algae into the sand box.
 
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soymilk

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So your taking to a guy who has used a doser for years. My GHL 2.1 SA Doser could dose 150x a day and you better believe that’s exactly what I had it dosing. HOWEVER, as soon as I hook up my reactor…in the first two weeks I already saw results that I had not seen with 2-part. Corals started growing nubs at the base’s. Others started to branch more. Some there were literally sitting and basically doing a bunch of nothing started to grow. Why? Because of those very reason I mentioned above.
I’m not doubting you had luck with a calcium reactor but you can’t say for certain 100% the reactor was the only reason for this, even if you can prove it had something to do with the calcium reactor, you can’t prove it was a 1 drip per second effluent drip vs some other factor.



This lady doses by hand, super low tech.
 
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I’m not doubting you had luck with a calcium reactor but you can’t say for certain 100% the reactor was the only reason for this, even if you can prove it had something to do with the calcium reactor, you can’t prove it was a 1 drip per second effluent drip vs some other factor.



This lady doses by hand, super low tech.

For one…I can say for absolute certain a calcium reactor will smoke a doser in almost all cases unless you have a seasoned pro like Andre keeping almost every element in check.

2. Wendy’s tank has way too much light. She also needs to at least buy a doser and quit dumping large amounts by hand. Not smart. Which coral looks like it’s getting too much light? Wendy’s coral on the left or the stag on the right?
 

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Cody

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I’m not doubting you had luck with a calcium reactor but you can’t say for certain 100% the reactor was the only reason for this, even if you can prove it had something to do with the calcium reactor, you can’t prove it was a 1 drip per second effluent drip vs some other factor.



This lady doses by hand, super low tech.

So I should hire her as one of my other two people?
 
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soymilk

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She said she’s dosing by hand to induce swings to make her corals hardier. It’s done on purpose.

the reason why I posted that point on the other side of the spectrum. I’d you’re on one said with ultimate alk stability. She’s on the other side with intentional alk swings. Guess what, things still work out.

alk swings throughout the day depending on the time you take a reading. So how different is .004 dKh that much of a difference if the tank is gonna swing more than that in a course of a day.
 
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