Kalk or cal reactor

[miqael]

Hi all,

Need to know which is the best and easy way of dosing calcium between the two or is there other way to do it.

[Achilles Tang]

A calcium reactor is the best & easiest method to deliver calcium. Drawback is the high cost of the equipment (but still cheaper & much less work than dosing calcium chloride manually & daily). Also tends to lower PH in the tank.

A kalkreactor is supplementary and does a ample job for a softy only tank... but cannot be relied on to supply a hard coral tank with enough calcium long term. Raises PH in the tank. Works with a water topup system like the TUBBY to make sure your salinity levels stay the same while dosing kalkwasser at the same time. Main drawback is that little kalk is dosed unless you speed up water evaporation.

I use both of them simultaneously to take advantage of their strengths.

[Tanzy]

I beg to differ on the ca reactor, it is certainly the cheapest but not the easiest method to dose calcium. Two parts solutions are the easiest.

[Achilles Tang]

I beg harder to differ.

Once you dial it in and tuned it to supply the right amounts of cal and alk, what 's so difficult to dose except ensuring that your CO2 bottle is filled once a year and your calcium media is changed out once a year too?

I don't see any diff with dosing a two-part and dosing calc chloride and an alk supplement. Both means manual labour on a daily basis (for hard corals tank).

[Tanzy]

The calcium reactor requires constant tuning. The flow rate can never remain the same. As the media become smaller or compact over time it alters the flow within the reactor. It takes ages to get it tuned correctly and it lasts for a month then takes a week to retune.

[Blenny]

May I know which cal reactor you r using tanzy?

[Tanzy]

Korallin 4001. Very efficient if tuned properly. Puts out >50dKH with just 6-10 bubbles/minute depending on flow rate.