Old Is New; Calcium Reactor

[CoryDude]

Anyone still using one? I'm debating putting mine back on the tank. I'm currently dosing Kalkwasser but miss the stability of a ca reactor.

[footballdude2k3]

One of my friends back in Green Bay uses one, he has 1700 gallons in his house, TONS of SPS.

[CoryDude]

I'm shy of that mark by about 1580 gallons. I used a Knop reactor for years but moved to 2 part dosing and then back to straight up old school Kalkwasser.

They are super cheap in the long run and all I need to do is add more aragonite media and refill my co2 cylinder.

[footballdude2k3]

Exactly, I am planning on doing one when I get a house and have more volume, but I would rather do kalk while I am in an apartment

[Big_Pun]

buddy nick likes his now thats its dialed in. im still liking my kalk reactor, good results.

[ramsey]

I've never had a ca reactor but I've always been turned off by them. It seems like there's a lot to adjust and if things go wrong, you can crash your tank. I guess the same is true for kalk and 2 part, but it's always seemed to me that it's harder to mess those up. With that said, I have read that there comes a point where kalk just doesn't keep up. I've also heard of people using both, with the kalk to offset any low ph problems caused by the ca reactor. Personally, if I could choose any method, I'd do two part and mag, but it's probably the most work out of each of them. Supplying enough ca is always a good problem to have though! :)

[ramsey]

How are you dosing your kalk? ATO, dosing pump or by hand?

[sergiotami]

I dont have that many sps, but I am using a kalk reactor.....:)

[Paul28]

I don't even run sps and very little Lps and I run a Cal reactor and a kalk reactor, when you melt aragonite its not only for cal its Strontium, magnesium potassium and a lot other essential trace elements its nature natural way ,calcium hydroxide from the Kalk reactor mixed with the co2 from the cal reactor will help remove the co2 and help with cal harding its the natural way . if I did run sps just turn things up and balance it in I can tell a deference when the cal reactor media has melted down and ready to be changed , that's just me tho I love the cal reactor o yeh sorry for the run on and misspells labor for life :)

[hobogato]

the most stability and growth i ever had in my old 240 full of sps was when i had a large dual chamber calc. reactor dialed in and ran a kalk reactor for all topoff water. the flip side, the worst disaster i ever had coral wise (besides AEFW) was when i had a different calcium reactor meltdown because it was too small for the tank and i was trying to get too much out of it.

[allan]

I've toyed with the idea of a calcium reactor, currently kalk top off.

On the flip side, I've over dosed the tank so much that the entire DT was milky white. Took about 30 hours before the water was clearer, 48 before the water didn't look like it was cloudy.

No issues with the coral. I think kalk is a whole lot more forgiving than calcium reactors.


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[CoryDude]

How are you dosing your kalk? ATO, dosing pump or by hand?

Same way I started back in'95, mix it up in a 1.5 gallon jug and drip it in overnight. But we were on vacation last week and ph/alk dropped seriously low.


I don't even run sps and very little Lps and I run a Cal reactor and a kalk reactor, when you melt aragonite its not only for cal its Strontium, magnesium potassium and a lot other essential trace elements its nature natural way ,calcium hydroxide from the Kalk reactor mixed with the co2 from the cal reactor will help remove the co2 and help with cal harding its the natural way . if I did run sps just turn things up and balance it in I can tell a deference when the cal reactor media has melted down and ready to be changed , that's just me tho I love the cal reactor o yeh sorry for the run on and misspells labor for life :)

The trace elements are the added bonus!


the most stability and growth i ever had in my old 240 full of sps was when i had a large dual chamber calc. reactor dialed in and ran a kalk reactor for all topoff water. the flip side, the worst disaster i ever had coral wise (besides AEFW) was when i had a different calcium reactor meltdown because it was too small for the tank and i was trying to get too much out of it.

That was my experience too from 2001-2008 when I ran mine. With the calcium/alk demands on the current tank, I've lost a few corals lately. The only time I had an issue was when the reactor feed pump broke, he reactor went dry and straight co2 got pumped into the tank.

[CoryDude]

I've toyed with the idea of a calcium reactor, currently kalk top off.

On the flip side, I've over dosed the tank so much that the entire DT was milky white. Took about 30 hours before the water was clearer, 48 before the water didn't look like it was cloudy.

No issues with the coral. I think kalk is a whole lot more forgiving than calcium reactors.


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After seeing Todd's tank I went back to Kalkwasser. How are you dosing? Are you still using the slurry method, kalk reactor on your top off, or dripping it in?

[allan]

Todd is the one who turned me onto the kalk by top off method.

For awhile I was dumping a kalkwassar surrey into the tank every evening. But I would forget or my spoonful was heaping sometimes, final result was that I wasn't getting a steady influx of kalk.

So I went back to Todd's method. I have a five gallon top off bucket wired directly to my rodi. Every few days I add kalk to the bucket, and stir it when ever I think about it. Keeps my ph about 8.04-8.2. If I put too much kalk in the top off my ph rises a few points past (last week it went to 8.25) but for the most part it's right around 8.14-6.

When I do a water Change I flip the switch to the salt water brute... I bring that up because the steady drip of kalk does foul the lines. The other day I had to work some of the sediment out of the float valve. I'm going to wire in a direct feed for the rodi on the delivery side. Who's will give me the positive pressure to clear the lines when necessary.

I should have picked up mikes calcium reactor when he had it for sale.


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[ramsey]

One thing you might want to look at since your dripping it is super saturating the water with kalk using a weak acid like vinegar. Then slow you drop down since it'll be more concentrated. I've never done this but I was reading about people doing this the other day on RC I think. It makes sense, but it's a little scary. :P

[ramsey]

Todd is the one who turned me onto the kalk by top off method.

For awhile I was dumping a kalkwassar surrey into the tank every evening. But I would forget or my spoonful was heaping sometimes, final result was that I wasn't getting a steady influx of kalk.

So I went back to Todd's method. I have a five gallon top off bucket wired directly to my rodi. Every few days I add kalk to the bucket, and stir it when ever I think about it. Keeps my ph about 8.04-8.2. If I put too much kalk in the top off my ph rises a few points past (last week it went to 8.25) but for the most part it's right around 8.14-6.

When I do a water Change I flip the switch to the salt water brute... I bring that up because the steady drip of kalk does foul the lines. The other day I had to work some of the sediment out of the float valve. I'm going to wire in a direct feed for the rodi on the delivery side. Who's will give me the positive pressure to clear the lines when necessary.

I should have picked up mikes calcium reactor when he had it for sale.


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What does you alk stay at with kalk? I started running one of those inline Tunze kalk "stirrers" but it pushed my alk to about 8.5dkh after a few weeks which was way higher than I wanted (trying for 6.5-7dkh). Just curious what it's done in your tanks. I'll probably bring it back online once I have more SPS and my demand for calcium goes up and alk starts dropping. It did raise my ph from around 7.8-8 to 8-8.1 and made it slightly more stable during the light cycles.

[allan]

I don't check my alk often, but it seems just a hair low. This was my last readings.

21101

Every week or so I put a small handful of Epsom salt into the top off container.


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[ramsey]

10.4dkh was your last reading? How do your SPS do running that high and do you do any type of carbon dosing? I've read keeping alk right around sea water if you're carbon dosing is key for SPS which is why I'm running mine lower than most people. I e also read a lot lately about keeping alk super stable to avoid SPS problems. So I've been focusing mostly on that and keeping phosphates low lately. What's the Epsom salt for? Magnesium? If so, I had no idea you could do that, I need to test but it's good to know I could just use that.

[CoryDude]

One thing you might want to look at since your dripping it is super saturating the water with kalk using a weak acid like vinegar. Then slow you drop down since it'll be more concentrated. I've never done this but I was reading about people doing this the other day on RC I think. It makes sense, but it's a little scary. :P

Read about it but never tried it myself. Right I'm leaning towards using the calcium reactor and supplementing with kalk as needed.

I remember talking with Todd about his kalk top off. I could never wrap my head around his method of mixing kalk in his makeup water and just having a continuous drip into the system. We've always been taught to use fresh Kalkwasser and his results were the exact opposite of what you'd expect.

[Big_Pun]

cory im very happy with my kalk reactor its very simple and keeps up with my needs via ato. all controlled with reef keeper elite.

[ramsey]

One thing I was thinking of doing when I have the need is having two top off containers, one with just water, and the other with a kalk stirrer or just dissolved kalk. When my ph drops at night, top off will be done with kalk, when it tops off during the day, it'll just be straight up water.

I think a lot of it depends on your uptake though. A lot of the big SPS tanks that win TOTM on big forums use a calcium reactor, a ca reactor and kalk, or two part. I don't remember seeing any that are using just kalk. Again, it seems like you're limited at a certain point with just kalk. That assuming you have a big mature SPS tank.

[ramsey]

Oh yeah, the other thing with kalk via ATO is knowing how much you top off. If you pump more freshwater into your tank during certain times of the year, it could cause stability problems since you'll also be adding more kalk certain times of the year.

[Big_Pun]

Oh yeah, the other thing with kalk via ATO is knowing how much you top off. If you pump more freshwater into your tank during certain times of the year, it could cause stability problems since you'll also be adding more kalk certain times of the year.

but it changes gradually through out the year so it doesnt stress the coral. ive been using the reactor with mh and with led and havent seen a change. if you have a good top off controller it should be lil amounts added through out the day and night.

[CoryDude]

but it changes gradually through out the year so it doesnt stress the coral. ive been using the reactor with mh and with led and havent seen a change. if you have a good top off controller it should be lil amounts added through out the day and night.

But that's my big problem right now. I don't have a controller, just the osmolator. I had a pm kalk reactor in my shopping cart at marine depot.com, but Ramsey's point and he fact that I could nuke my tank without a controller kept me from following through.

Troy offered to let me use his old Matt monster ca reactor, so I'm going to give it a try. These alk and ph swings have damaged some nice sps and I don't want to risk any more.

[Big_Pun]

a simple reef keeper and sl1 and floats switches would work. my reef keeper just controls the mixing pump in reactor and the pump but a osmolator and a pump timer should be just fine. how many gallons of water does your tank use in a week?

[CoryDude]

Depends, but 5-7 gallons is the norm.

[FireWater]

That's not too bad Cory. I plan on running a kalk set up soon. Getting tired of dosing and forgetting to dose. After looking at Chris's and several other set ups I'm still going back and forth on running my ATO into the reactor then to sump or running the rector separate. Either way I feel the controller is a must for safety.

[ramsey]

but it changes gradually through out the year so it doesnt stress the coral. ive been using the reactor with mh and with led and havent seen a change. if you have a good top off controller it should be lil amounts added through out the day and night.

That's been my experience too. Well, at least, I seem to top off about the same amount. I've just read other people's experience so thought I would mention it. Maybe they keep their house hotter than I keep mine in the summer or something, who knows. But it is something I'd keep an eye on, just in case.

[ramsey]

That's not too bad Cory. I plan on running a kalk set up soon. Getting tired of dosing and forgetting to dose. After looking at Chris's and several other set ups I'm still going back and forth on running my ATO into the reactor then to sump or running the rector separate. Either way I feel the controller is a must for safety.

I agree, I have mine set up to text and email me if the temp or ph gets too high. I generally think ph monitoring is a waste, but it's handy for kalk or ca reactors.

[allan]

I monitor my ph, but the RKE doesn't control anything.

I had thought about using a fan to control the ph. If the ph drops, the fan turns on, evaporation increases, more kalk water is dripped into the tank. Ph rises to the appropriate level, shuts off the fan, evaporation slows down.

Right now my ph stays pretty steady with normal evaporation, maybe about two gallons a day.


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[LuckySingh]

Good point Allan . Fan is the best way to raise ph ..
Usually in my all tanks I never had ph problem if u have a good circulation ...kalk is a very good way to raise ph and make up for other stuff aswell ..
Kalk reactors if used properly can be a great success ..if u are worrying about rise in ph via just don't run the kalk pump too much to mix the kalk within the reactor ...
Mine was connected via auto top off also and I used to run the mixing pump once a day only to feed kalk which always kept my ph stable.. Also if ur tank is old enough it will maintain the ph regardless u dump more kalk .. I have seen some people running the mixing pump for several times a day that's a calling for a disaster .
Also if u are controlling via rke or apex shut down the auto top off for 30 Mintues when u run the mixing pump on kalk reactor ..

The main thing u need to worry about is back siphoning if feeding kalk from the sump instead of ATO ...it has happened to me and can kill everything ... Extra back flow preventing valves and a good feed pump is recommended if doing so !!


Thanks
Lucky Singh