Are they a MUST?

[siaoliao]

Is it a MUST to have the 2 items?

What are they for?

[Aldaris]

no need

[RX_GAN]

not a must. for lazy ppl one. hahaha...no la..for those who are busy and find it too hard to really monitor with calcium level.

a reactor can be used with many things. phos remover...blah blah blah..so as to effectively utilise the watsoever...

all these are the toys of reef keeping. There are alot as long as u have the money, u can never get enough of them. haaha.plus space too..

Not a must and debatable as a need...but just a tool..or a toy... ur tank can survive without them.

if u have spare money, u may wan to spend it on ur tank to make u work less and get more results.

[shiok]

Sharing based on my experience, have a FOWLR tank for 3 ys+. Almost give up the hobby becos of uncontrollerable algae, cyano and diatom.

Read about FR, have doubt abt it, but since most people got good comments so I bought 1 and after using for 3 wks, the rock and sand bed is much cleaner. The cyano is disappearing slowly.

Now I am thinking of adding another FR for carbon

[xersion]

get a double chamber..

[jervismun]

Personally I think FR is essential. It will bring out the best of your PO4 removal media (usually very costly) compared to placing them in a stocking bag, chucking them somewhere in your sump tank.

As for CR, it really depends on how quickly your corals consume Calcium in your tank. Take my SPS tank for example, the amount of Ca consumed simply makes it hard to just relying on dosing (liquid or powder).

But do bear in mind thta CR is one of the most expensive set of equipments (as it requires many parts, both lowtech and hightech) and most tricky to tune... definitely require some basic understanding, luck and problem solving skills

[hammy]

Is it a MUST to have the 2 items?

What are they for?

Hey siaoliao,

A FR will utilised the media effectively meaning the surface area of the media( be it phos remover or carbon ) is more exposed to the flow through of the water. so whatever ur media is suppose to get rid of , will get rid more economically.

Not a necessity, putting a media anywhere with flow through it work just as well, but not as effective, for instance, in a canister.

A CR will dose calcium, magnesium, strotium together with trace element to ur tank in balanced proportion, maintaing alkalinity and pH at a more stable level. Thus, dosing is minimised. again it is not a necessity as whatever is utilised in the system can be dose back =)

a CR make life of a reefer easier ya.

although not a must, they are good to have.

[siaoliao]

Thanks alot for the replies. Just curious about those expensive reactors.