Reef Discussion

[MTG]

Dosing pumps are an upcoming trend. they seem to be becoming more and more popular. what is everyones opinions on them?
do you think the calcium reactor is on its way to the antique store?

Personaly i havent had a calcium reactor but i do own a dosing pump that i run CA,ALK,MAG through on seperate channels.

for me this works great and i couldnt think of an easy way to dose. soon ill be buying the extention for my dosing pump so i can run even more through it ;)

 

[MagicJ]

I have previously dripped kalk, never owned a calcium reactor but have recently setup a dosing pump.

I think dosing pumps will become a popular choice now that the prices have reduced with the Chinese manufacturers getting involved. They are easy to program and you can have confidence in the amount of solution being added to the tank.

From reading others experiences, calcium reactors were the best thing available at the time but they were difficult to setup and required a seperate CO2 bottle. They also required fairly constant monitoring to make sure they were working correctly.

 

[Dr. Schell]

I currently dose (manually). Am thinkng of upgrading to a Calcium reactor as my ever-growing collection of hard corals sends me broke by sucking up all the calcium in my water!

 

[Jonny Glover]

Calcium reactors... no... They are a pain to retune with you fill them up and dosing the tank is alot better and easier.

 

[slin1977]

I know that calc reactors are "old school" however I have just got my first calc reactor whislt the trend is leaning towards dosing pumps these days.
From all the great tanks that I have seen over the past few years they were all calc reactor tanks, I have seen these tanks converted to dosing pumps and for my opinion the tanks looked better under the calc reactor regime.
I believe that once the reactor is set up properly, alkalinity will fall into line and provide a stable pH.
Calc reactors benifit not only SPS tanks but also LPS tanks providing the stability that is required when keeping a reef.
Yes, there does come a point when the needs and demand of a SPS reef tank may draw more than a calc reactor might be able to supply ... however I would like to get to that point, before I go down the dosing route.
I just dont trust the manufactures of products eg "damprid" not to change the composition of their product to be improved without our consumers knowledge.
There would of course be no harm in dosing products specifically designed for the reef hobbyist, from reef related manufacturers. :)

 

[Luke]

manually for me using , damp rid / bicarb-soda / Epsom salts

not much Epsom-salts really , i seem to do enough water changes to keep on top of magnesium

 

[MagicJ]

Luke, you need to be a bit careful if you are not dosing much of the Epsom salts - to quote from Randy

This third part is necessary to prevent magnesium depletion, and to prevent abnormal chloride and sulfate ratios in the aquarium.

The Epsom salts do a bit more than just maintain magnesium levels. :D

 

[Luke]

I do test for magnesium , Sulfate on the other hand could be a problem , I might get my ass in to gear a bit more
Thanks mate :)

 

[petes-aquarium]

Since getting and installing my Calcium reactor I haven't had to add a thing (about 2.5mths running now), water parameters are very stable since it has been added to the system. Matt since your system is about the same size as my own, it would work well.

Just my 2c

Pete.