kalkwasser stirrer VS calcium reactor

[SAreefer]

Hi can anyone tell me which one will work the best for keeping my Calcium in the tank high enough to stock some decent corals.

thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Regal

Another Sarf effrikkan!
Dont feel so alone anymore!

Great forum- enjoy!
(dont know the answer to your question- using a kalkstirrer myself but have no experience with a reactor. Sure someone will pitch in and help you though....

Andy

 

[SAreefer]

and what do you think of the kalkstirrer???

 

[Anonymous]

New tank, 1300l FOWLR, very little stock in it at the moment, have the stirrer in-line from my RODI for the auto topoff, assisted by a small dosing pump. Early impressions are pretty good, I have loads of corraline algae growing really fast and looking very bright. Dont have any corals so cant comment on that but certainly seems like a low maintenance solution to me.

What are you running?

 

[SAreefer]

just started a new 300L reef tank few livestock, only live rock with regal tang. still sorting calcium problem before starting another 500L reef tank. the 300L i'm going to later use just for my lion fish and mabey add an eel.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Regal

A friend of mine who is running a pile of commercial tanks (restaurants, hospitals etc etc) has helped me put this rig of mine together. He always battles to get the CA to 400 ppm in his commercial tanks, and the testing is apparently time consuming and not that accurate. I have had no exposure to reactors with either this tank or my prev one, you will need to wait for one of the smart folks to help you out with that.

Nice meeting someone from SA here! Keep in touch! :lol: :lol:

 

[ChrisRD]

The short answer is that a kalk reactor is fine for tanks with low to moderate Ca/Alk demand. If the tank will have high Ca/Alk demand (ie. lots of stony corals) kalkwasser alone may not keep up and in that case you're better off with a Ca reactor. In medium to large tanks with very high Ca/Alk demand (ie. mostly stocked with stony corals and clams) it's common to see both used as they tend to compliment each other.

If you do a search on this topic here I think you'll find more discussion on it.

HTH

 

[WRASSER]

ChrisRD, what is lots of stonys? If I put one or two in a 150 will the kalk be enough? I have one frog spawn with four heads and two bulleyes with several heads on each. Some snails and sort.
Thanks

 

[jumpincactus]

a couple of stonies is not a lot as Chris referred to. Dozens would be a lot. Most people can get by with Bionic and dripping or stirring kalk. Like Chris mentioned if you have a large high demand tank then both a calc reactor and kalkwasser will work. Keep in mind Kalkwasser does not necassarily raise calcium levels it helps to maintain your clacium levels once you get to your target level of 425ppm. You will need to first get your calc to where you want it to be and then stir kalk to keep it there.

Make sure you test for calc periodically because as your tank demands increase your calc levels will drop and then you will have to adjust your kalk and calc accordingly.

Another caveat to kalkwasser that you wont get from a calcium reator is kalkwasser is known to precipitate phophates from the water column thus helping with controlling algae.

 

[WRASSER]

Thank you

 

[WRASSER]

If calcium in the tank is @ 400 ppm, should you or even could you add purple up to the tank?

 

[jumpincactus]

Shhot man if yout already at 400ppm on calc I would just use a good balanced additive like Bionic. I am not sure what purple up is I have never used it. I assume its a calcium additive?

If it a two par balanced additive and will keep your alkalinity in tune with your calc then by all means add some till you get to 420 then use your kalkwasser to maintain this level.

But remember to go slow adding chemicals to your system.

 

[bleedingthought]

How much 2 part Bionic should you add to a tank that has enough calcium and alkality, just in order to maintain it?

 

[Anonymous]

If you are worried abotu coraline just keep you tank level stabilized. It will grow in no time and it will be ALL over without mystery potions.

 

[jumpincactus]

Hey bleeding. you want to be careful even when using a good two part. They can and will raise your calc and alkilinity way too high if you dont test for these levels. When I first started using B-ionic I dang near overdosed my tank. I assumed that because they claimed it was safe and did not throw the ionic parameters out of wack that I could dose away.

I negelected to test for alk and calc levels and quickly found my alk levels at around 13 DKh. I now test twice a week. Another way I go about it is if I find that the alk is getting too high but calc is still lower than I want, I will only dose part A. I have since found that my system has balanced out and I only rarely have to dose two part as I drip kalk on a regular basis and my levels stay pretty constant.

 

[bleedingthought]

Hey bleeding. you want to be careful even when using a good two part. They can and will raise your calc and alkilinity way too high if you dont test for these levels. When I first started using B-ionic I dang near overdosed my tank. I assumed that because they claimed it was safe and did not throw the ionic parameters out of wack that I could dose away.

I negelected to test for alk and calc levels and quickly found my alk levels at around 13 DKh. I now test twice a week. Another way I go about it is if I find that the alk is getting too high but calc is still lower than I want, I will only dose part A. I have since found that my system has balanced out and I only rarely have to dose two part as I drip kalk on a regular basis and my levels stay pretty constant.

Thanks for the advice, man! I test it at least weekly and when I find myself not having tested in a while, I kind of refrain from dosing it. While still dosing it though, how much do you add just to keep it balanced? Maybe it has to do with how much my tank is using up... That would make sense.