Whats a good not expensive calcium reactor?

[PolandSpring]

im so sick of dosing and half the time im dosing the wrong amounts. i want to try and get my params as stable as possible without me having to worry about it all the time. I was looking around for some calcium reactors but i dont want to spend hundred of $'s. Any recommendations on calcium reactors that run from anywhere from $100-$175? also, i'm looking for something small, not too large so i can fit it under my stand. I have about 16x8'' of space

 

[Mattl22]

Following this I'm in same boat

 

[masterswimmer]

Please keep in mind the requirements you put forth, inexpensive, small footprint, inexpensive!! This would not be my first choice of Ca Reactors if the budget were more.

Coralife Ca Reactor up to 250g

Hope this helps.....LMK if we can get this for you.

Russ

 

[PolandSpring]

well, what calc reactor do you suggest thats not tooo pricey?

 

[masterswimmer]

well, what calc reactor do you suggest thats not tooo pricey?

That's the one. After that the prices go to the level you said you didn't want to go with. That reactor will work, I just need to qualify the recommendation.

Russ

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

Russ always to the rescue..he has a point though man you get what you pay for most of the time and you'd be better off spending a little more to get a better quality product.

 

[KuyaMark]

u get what u pay for, don't go cheap on any equipment u buy for your precious reef. In my opinion Geo ca reactors are one of the best ca reactors out there why
*easy to use, greatly built, awesome customer support, and the geo 612 is small enough to fit inside your stand, not that expensive and i'll say again easy to use oh and its super quiet. Saltwatercriters carry them!

 

[NYreefNoob]

MTC and you can find complete packages used for half or less then what they cost new. personally after alot of reading i decided on a dual chamber reactor i personally went with a mtc mini cal pro and got a good deal used on mine and have pieced the rest of the equipt from there

 

[E.intheC]

On this same line... How do you guys feel about a calcium reactor for a nano sps tank?
Polandspring... What about getting a few dosing pumps? You could get this setup for about 200 (dosers only)

 

[charliethetuna88]

I just piicked. Up. An mtc minical for the same reason gonna hook it up soon actually boilgieman is selling one for a good deal on here cheaper than what I paid and comes with everything its a great deal

 

[pweissma]

I also found it impossible to keep up with nightly dosing due to travel and then brain scatter due to my kids when I am home. I considered dosing pumps but then switched over to using kalk aka limewater. It has some advantages over two part such as automatically adding balanced Ca & alk, increasing pH and some phosphate removal. I've been dosing premixed kalk via my ato and turning my ato off when pH gets hits 8.4. I've found that this causes pH to stay right around 8.4 while allowing the top-off to maintain water level. I'm now switching over to a kalk reactor but haven't bought one yet. Two little fishes recently came out with one for $65.

 

[Mattl22]

I didnt relize kalk would keep both cal and alk stable thought it only kept alk up ? What would a kalk reactor do ?????


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[AlohaTropics]

+1 on kalk. Many benefits in using kalk over a ca reactor. Calfo is a big advocate as well, great readings from him.

When using kalk, it maintains a nice pH and dkh. Unfortunately, if you have a large population of SPS, you may have to supplement dose Calcium. I know Rick supersaturates his kalk by using vinegar mixed in but now your in a different world of chemistry and biochem.

Still, kalk is much better.


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[charliethetuna88]

What buffers ph only? Nothing I think right ?

 

[PolandSpring]

On this same line... How do you guys feel about a calcium reactor for a nano sps tank?
Polandspring... What about getting a few dosing pumps? You could get this setup for about 200 (dosers only)

yah, i think im gona have to go with dosing pumps for now. I have about 25 frags/ mini colonies of sps, i only dose like 10ml a day so i guess for now i dont really need a calcium reactor.

if you take a look at my tank thread, you will be able to see i definitely dont go cheap. But im so tired of buying equipment already! i want to spend some money on the good stuff!

Any recommendations of dosing pumps?

 

[jcs11236]

I just picked up two from Bulksupplyreef.. they are great. nicely made and very quiet.

 

[pweissma]

There's a lot of great info available about kalk and main maintaining Ca and alk levels. I esspecially found this one on kalk informative.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

 

[pmoneyt]

This is good up to 75 gallons

http://www.aquaticsystemsdesign.com/product_view.php?model=carxnano

I am running this on my 180

http://www.aquaticsystemsdesign.com/product_view.php?model=carx6.12.1

 

[NYreefNoob]

if ging with a doser i would look into the bubble magnus triple doser, this way you can program it to dose throughout the day, this was my second route i was gonna take, kalk will only really help maintain levels. not raise. so levels have to be up to proper before hand. and then the demands to keep it leveled out will increase as the sps, clams coraline algea start to grow, this was a issue i ran into. i stopped checking cal, alk and mag, and levels dropped after adding a bunch of sps

 

[pweissma]

This is good up to 75 gallons

http://www.aquaticsystemsdesign.com/product_view.php?model=carxnano

I am running this on my 180

http://www.aquaticsystemsdesign.com/product_view.php?model=carx6.12.1

Thanks for the link to Aquatic Systems. Their kalk reactors look great.