Calcium reactor

[morgan175]

Well i have a 180. The tank is slowly starting to get coral in it. Thinking of trying the calcium reactor. Looking at vertex anyone have thoughts.

[YHSublime]

Do you have a need for the calcium reactor yet? Are you dosing? 

[morgan175]

Yes been dosing esv. I moved my doser to my 40b and figured i would try something new. People have good results with them.

[morgan175]

I dose 40 ml of both that is why im asking. Run alk at 151ppm cal at 420

[WilRams]

I have the Vertex calcium reactor but it will be a couple months before I set it up so I can't offer any input on how it performs. It is def a high quality piece like you would expect from Vertex so it at least looks the part! For the price point though I would look into Geo Reefs as everyone recommended me to. The only reason I bought the Vertex was because of the Black Friday sales.

[eddiev0008]

Would a calcium reactor be benificia on my 70 gallon? I have a 2 part but haven't dosed as I don't even have dosing pumps and don't know how to use them

 

 

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[morgan175]

Would a calcium reactor be benificia on my 70 gallon? I have a 2 part but haven't dosed as I don't even have dosing pumps and don't know how to use them

 

 

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I cant answer that. What i can say is that keeping track of the 3 majors and finding out what your tank is using is important. Then i would manually dose to understand what your adding. Then from their make your decision knowing your system.

[Origami]

Would a calcium reactor be benificia on my 70 gallon? I have a 2 part but haven't dosed as I don't even have dosing pumps and don't know how to use them

Calcium reactors are kind of technical and an expensive entry point. Over the long haul, the operating costs are low, but my guess is that you'd be better off learning about how to dose two-part and buying a few dosing pumps to get that automated.

 

There are a lot of resources out there that can teach you about both the technical and practical aspects of dosing two-part, but a good place to start is this Bulk Reef Supply BRS-TV informational video.

 

[tom39]

Would a calcium reactor be benificia on my 70 gallon? I have a 2 part but haven't dosed as I don't even have dosing pumps and don't know how to use them

 

 

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Have you ever considered using Kalk to supplement your tank? It is a very inexpensive means of adding calcium and alkalinity to your tank and requires little to no additional equipment.

[eddiev0008]

So adding kalk it will supplement both calcium and alk?

 

 

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[Origami]

Something worth reading to help you become familiar with kalkwasser:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/

 

Kalkwasser is a balanced additive. That means that it adds both calcium and carbonate alkalinity in balanced proportion. Used this way, "balanced" means in the correct ratio to form calcium carbonate (the major component of coral skeletons).

 

So, yes, kalk supplements both calcium and alkalinity. However, kalk (or, more technically, calcium hydroxide) has very, very low solubility. That means that not very much of it dissolves in fresh water. A saturated solution of kalkwasser is what's normally dosed to a tank in those systems that use it. However, in more mature tanks with a lot of SPS growth, the calcium and alkalinity consumption can easily exceed the capability to deliver it solely through the use of kalkwasser. Thus, kalkwasser is, in most cases, only an intermediate solution or part of a larger supplementation approach.

[s2nhle]

I am currently using kalk stirrer and dosing 2 parts for my SPS dominated tank

Edited January 14, 2016 by s2nhle

[Sad Panda]

Uh Oh, I feel trouble for myself. I mix the kalkwasser and just put it in my ATO tank. Should I not be doing it this way?

[TonyInVa]

Uh Oh, I feel trouble for myself. I mix the kalkwasser and just put it in my ATO tank. Should I not be doing it this way?

This is how I have been doing it for year. It has worked for me.

[Origami]

Uh Oh, I feel trouble for myself. I mix the kalkwasser and just put it in my ATO tank. Should I not be doing it this way?

1. It could lead to a large upward pH spike if not done with care. Saturated kalkwasser has a pH of 12.5, which is about  4-1/2 pH points or 31,000 times higher than the pH in a typical tank. This spike could be unnecessarily stressful to some livestock (but it often passes quickly).

 

2. Kalk powder has very low solubility. Only about a teaspoon (or so) will typically dissolve in a gallon of fresh water depending upon the temperature of the water). The rest will remain undissolved. The thing about kalk, though, is that the saturation level, while low, is very consistent.  Depending upon how you're mixing it up, if you've got undissolved kalk powder (also known as calcium hydroxide - Ca(OH)2), you may be dosing in an uncontrolled fashion if you're not considering the undissolved, suspended calcium hydroxide in the kalkwasser. 

 

That said, others have done so. Some, like Anthony Calfo, have even advocated dosing a bolus of kalk slurry (a mix of weighed kalk powder and fresh water) to a tank in a high flow area. This technique is not widely accepted and probably works better for larger rather than smaller tanks. I'll confess that I've used this technique myself from time to time when I need to bump both calcium and alkalinity up at the same time in step-wise fashion. It can be done, but you should appreciate the risks so you can make an informed decision about the technique you're using.

 

Another option is to use a DIY drip doser for a fixed amount of kalkwasser. This simple device (constructed from a water bottle, some tubing and an air valve) basically allows you to drip, rather than dump, the kalkwasser into your tank, saving you the pH spike.

[Sad Panda]

Origami thank you for the info. In my ATO tank I do have a white powder on the bottom so I have suspended my ATO pump a few inches above the bottom so it does not suck it up. I will read up on the DIY doser in a minute.

 

Ok I just read the DIY article and in it he says his tanks are 10 gallons and he drips one drip a second.....for a larger tank say 180 gallons the drip/pour rate seems that it would be horrendous.

 

Forgive my ignorance as I am still learning about this hobby every hour.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Sad Panda

[Origami]

First, you'd be surprised how much a drop a second can turn into after a relatively short time. That's about 6 ounces an hour.

 

Now, you said something that got me to re-read what you wrote: You said that you put the kalk powder in your ATO tank. I completely missed "ATO" and thought that you were manually dosing kalkwasser into a smaller tank. My mistake. With a 180, you're probably evaporating close to 2 gallons per day.

 

The way you're doing it is perfectly valid as long as you're careful to not pick up the solid stuff at the bottom of the ATO. You also want to make sure that the kalkwasser remains saturated - a slow stir once a day can probably help that. You want to keep the kalkwasser saturated because, since evaporation is relatively stable, the amount of kalk being dosed will also remain stable.

 

So long as you don't have a major ATO failure, you're setup will probably work fine. However, you need to know that there are risks when dosing kalkwasser. Those risks come from high pH that results from accidental overdosing. Some aquarists have even chosen to avoid using kalk for this reason, but many others have been successful with it for decades. It may be worthwhile for you to quickly read this thread which is about how to respond to a kalk overdose.