Calcium Reactor vs 2 part (1 Viewer)

[soymilk]

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.

What kinda solution we talking about? Give the guy a break, popping one off every 30 seconds is rough

 

[soymilk]

Jake adams penisula sps tanks run off dosers and not a calc reactor

 

[Reefahholic]

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.

Ok, you go the intentional swing route and I’ll go calcium reactor with minimal swings. I’ll revisit this conversation in the near future and we can compare FTS’s.

 

[Reefahholic]

Jake adams penisula sps tanks run off dosers and not a calc reactor

Jake Adams is a seasoned pro too. I’m telling you from experience bro. Dosing 150x a day and adding minors and trace’s. A reactor is better.

 

[soymilk]

Ok, you go the intentional swing route and I’ll go calcium reactor with minimal swings. I’ll revisit this conversation in the near future and we can compare FTS’s.

I’m game

Get multiple frags of the same size from the same vendor and compare

If anything It’ll be a fun competition, maybe even educational.

 

[Reefahholic]

I’m game

Get multiple frags if the same size from the same vendor and compare

Ok.

Trust me…I’ve already been done this route with Diesel. He was right and I was wrong. Reactors grow corals faster. You’ll find out later.

 

[soymilk]

Rip diesel

link to your epic battle with diesel. I don’t might trying again. Unless all other variables are equal it’s not really an apples to apples comparison. But I don’t mind stepping up to the challenge

 

[Reefahholic]

What 2-part and doser will I be going up against.

 

[soymilk]

What does it matter if dosing is the big sux

 

[Reefahholic]

I’ll make it easy to understand:

 

[Reefahholic]

What does it matter if dosing is the big sux

It doesn’t. Just asking. I wouldn’t say it sux, but would say it’s definitely slower.

 

[soymilk]

more likely a dos or versa.

Red Sea foundation prob

 

[Reefahholic]

more likely a dos or versa.

Red Sea foundation prob

How old is your tank right now?

 

[soymilk]

Technically my tank isn’t in yet but I have my 50 lowboy if you wanna start asap. I have a 190 gallon Waterbox on order but I won’t get it til maybe end of feb.

50g lowboy with a trigger 36” sump, started dec 15th.

 

[Reefahholic]

Technically my tank isn’t in yet but I have my 50 lowboy if you wanna start asap.

50 lowboy with a trigger 36” sump

Well I just started my tank and technically I’m not gonna call it officially started until I get my custom sump this Wednesday.

 

[Reefahholic]

I wanna clarify even further.

My reactor was running at 80 mL’s per min.

1 mL is about 20 drops considering a drop is counted as .05, but I think it’s more like .03 and most round it up to .05

20 drops x 80 mL’s = 1,600 drops per minute.

There’s 1,440 minutes in 24 hrs.

1,600 drops per minute x 1,440 minutes in. 24 hrs = 2,304,000 drops every 24 hours.

Now that is stability!

@Cody check my math.

 

[RobertP]

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.

I set up my calreax to dose to the refugium. I believe the chaeto eats up some of the additional CO2 before it cycles to the sump and the tank. My PH probe is in the sump so I am certain the ph is higher in the refugium than in the sump and tank but as long as the chaeto doesn't care, then I dont. Now my refugium is 80 gal and my tank is 130 so it is a large refugium in comparison to the tank. Yeah my skimmer doesn't do too much because the grass is taking up quite a bit of trash. No, I didn't come up with this idea, it was luck because of where I set up the calreax and this giant refugium.

 

[Reefahholic]

I set up my calreax to dose to the refugium. I believe the chaeto eats up some of the additional CO2 before it cycles to the sump and the tank. My PH probe is in the sump so I am certain the ph is higher in the refugium than in the sump and tank but as long as the chaeto doesn't care, then I dont. Now my refugium is 80 gal and my tank is 130 so it is a large refugium in comparison to the tank. Yeah my skimmer doesn't do too much because the grass is taking up quite a bit of trash. No, I didn't come up with this idea, it was luck because of where I set up the calreax and this giant refugium.

The Cheato will love that CO2 just like the FW guys that inject CO2 to grow their plants. Sounds like you have the perfect setup there!

 

[crvz]

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've had the opposite experience.. going from the CO2 reactor for 10+ years, swapping to the 2 part in the last 5 months I've had a great improvement on a lot of acropora corals. I would currently attribute it to the fact I'm better able to manage my alkalinity coupled with the improved pH (this video started my investigation into the change). You might argue my calcium reactor was under-powered, but it was rated for a 700 gallon tank and I had it running pretty aggressively. I'm also not convinced a rock solid alkalinity (+/- 0.05 dkh at all times) is a critical measure.

My point; I'm more interested in the potential improvements in elevated pH as it relates to coral calcification capability as opposed to the stability you propose. I'm not saying either implementation is better, but for my system at this snapshot on the timeline, it's the better solution (pun intended) for me.

 

[crvz]

I’ll make it easy to understand:

Ah, but you leave off the axis marks, so your graph is WAY zoomed in. Your spikes are in the 0.05-0.10 range on the doser, if even that high. So when you zoom out with 0 dKh at the bottom and say 12 dKh on the top, all your lines are relatively flat. Something like this. And I don't think corals are that sensitive to those level small fluctuations in alkalinity. I do NOT intend to invalidate your point, a CaRx does provide a more consistent value, I just don't think it matters.




EDIT: Please don't be intimidated by my free-hand graphing skills. I had to learn it for my engineering degree. 20 years later, and clearly it's paid off.