Coral chemistry at work: Do you use a calcium reactor?

[Peace River]

Coral chemistry at work: Do you use a calcium reactor?

There are multiple ways to go about alkalinity and calcium maintenance. If you are looking to reduce manual dosing, lower costs, stabilize pH, and add some customization then a calcium reactor may be an option to consider. As a way to efficiently add calcium and carbonate ions, calcium reactors are able to benefit the health and growth of many types of corals and other calcifying creatures in your reef tank. Do you use a calcium reactor? Tell us about your experience and perspective on calcium reactors as well as share any tips that you may have to offer to the R2R community!

Photo by @jblasi


This QOTD is sponsored by: www.worldwidecorals.com

“At WWC our staff takes the worry out of the equation by culturing extremely healthy corals, giving you a hassle-free guarantee, and providing you with a full online customer service team to ensure you are completely satisfied with your purchase.”

 

[Ioncewaslegend]

Running a calcium reactor because it's the best mix of 'automation' and 'cost' for my large (250g total water volume) system.

Two-part dosing would be prohibitively expensive given I'd be keeping all LPS and SPS. When my ~55g system was happy I was going through ~30 mL of each solution of undiluted ATI essentials pro two-part per day; scaling that up, that's ~130 mL for my current system, or ~$80/month (which I expect would increase when SPS colonies take off). Calcium reactor was a higher up-front cost, but cheaper long-term.

Kalkwasser reactor was another option I considered, but would require more maintenance and fiddling than I was willing to do (especially if I need to leave the tank alone for a week or two when I travel). The benefits of my calcium reactor are 1) that it's purely automated once I got it dialed in (electronic CO2 regulator tied into my Apex, peristaltic dosing pump feed), and 2) I can monitor tank pH, reactor pH, and alk remotely with my Apex and shut it off if need be.

Down side is hit to pH, but I feed heavily and have a large refugium with chaeto, so that helps counteract the pH hit (and will further be counteracted when I hook up my CO2 scrubber at some point).

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

my tips are to use kalk till demands exceed, then turn on the ca reactor

run a second stage if you are worried about ph hit, my reactor holds about 80 lbs, and the final non active stage has 30 lbs of media. I don’t see any significant ph drop after the last cylinder

 

[GlassMunky]

Ran one for years in my SPS system before that was taken down.
If you’re into SPS heavily or have a large tank it’s one of the best and easiest way to supplement your tank. It’s also the most natural way to dose a tank IMO.
Not only does it do calcium and alk but you also get every other element in a coral skeleton since you’re literally breaking them down to feed the tank with so no need for extra things like trace elements and stuff since it’s done for you all in one thing.

Only real downside to them is possible low ph issues which can be mitigated with things like kalk and/or co2 scrubbing

 

[michealprater]

Wouldnt make any sense on my small system. Kalk is what I use.

 

[JHSteepat]

I had one (Geo) in the past, and loved it, but I am dosing kalk right now. My tank (about 150g including sump) is only a couple of month old, and I am able to easily dose enough kalk to keep up with alk loss from my 8 lps/sps frags. I dose a little over 1ml per minute using a Versa pump.

Whenever I find I can’t keep up (or get tired of mixing kalk and refilling my 5g container), I’ll look into the Ca reactor route as it really worked well for me. I also have automation which should make it easy to control and monitor pH. I’ll just dose ahead of or into the refugium.

The only downside I recall (this was around 2002) was excessive precipitation in my ac pumps and on my Ti heater -I believe due to the heat.

 

[Daveobrien]

"Running a calcium reactor because it's the best mix of 'automation' and 'cost' for my large system."

I'm running a large calcium reactor, plus Kalk as 100% of my daily ATO. Calcium reactor runs 24hrs a day, ATO runs between midnight and 7am only, to reduce natural overnight pH drops. System is cumulative 350-ish gallons, SPS dominant. Evap is usually around 20 liters/5gallons a day.

 

[Kfactor]

i run a calcium reacter and love it easy to tune and hold levels good with out buying a bunch of stuff all the time . my system is only 70g for me its about saving money in the long run

 

[trevorhiller]

No calcium reactor, my tank is too small and I don't really like the pH effects of them. I might try one out in the future just to say I've run one because I do think they are pretty cool (conceptually), but kalk & two part works really well for me. If I try one in the future it will definitely be in conjunction with Kalk/Sodium Hydroxide to cancel out the negative pH effects.

Regarding the "Calcium reactor is cheaper long term" argument...

I do wonder about the argument on cost. I don't think it is as big of a savings as much as people think. Two Part can be very affordable. Just for curiosity I calculated some costs for various DIY two-part solutions. With a calcium reactor, not only do you have the high upfront equipment costs, but you also have the calcium reactor media & CO2 gas consumables.

Alkalinity Options
DIY Arm & Hammer Sodium Bicarbonate ($6/lb via Amazon) --> $0.104 / 100 mL solution
DIY Arm & Hammer Baked Sodium Bicarbonate [Soda Ash] ($6/lb via Amazon) --> $0.099 / 100 mL solution
DIY Sodium Hydroxide ($50/10 lbs via Amazon) --> $0.083 / 100 mL solution
BRS Sodium Bicarbonate ($40/7 lbs via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.099 / 100 mL solution
BRS Soda Ash ($40/7 lbs via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.197 / 100 mL solution

Calcium Options
BRS Calcium Chloride ($40/7 lbs via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.166 / 100 mL solution

Magnesium Options
BRS Magnesium Mix ($20/gallon via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.528 / 100 mL solution
Tropic Marin Balling C ($19 via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.044 / 100 mL solution

You can easily figure out what your two-part costs you with a little math.

For my 60 gallon tank (dosing Sodium Hydroxide, Calcium Chloride & Tropic Marin Balling C), I'm spending $111/year based on my current consumption rate). Not too bad...

 

[mermaid_life]

I wish I could but it just takes up too much space compared to a doser. Maybe one day if I get to upgrade to a bigger house aka bigger tank with more under cabinet space.

 

[Tidal Gardens]

Every system has a Calcium Reactor, Kalkwasser Dosing, AND Alkalinity dosing.

 

[IKD]

I used 2-part for years on smaller tanks but when I went up to 350g SPS tank I switched to a CaRx with Kamoer pump. I have to say it’s been much easier to maintain over the long term but I wouldn’t use it for a smaller tanks as I think the cost is prohibitive for the dosing levels needed.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

The CaRx under my 240 is by the best reefing decision I've made in a while, monitor the pH in both the reactor and tank (in 3 places) from the Apex and then use the Trident to monitor the tank and turn the feed pump and Co2 regulator on/off for the reactor and I've never had more stable parameters.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

No calcium reactor, my tank is too small and I don't really like the pH effects of them. I might try one out in the future just to say I've run one because I do think they are pretty cool (conceptually), but kalk & two part works really well for me. If I try one in the future it will definitely be in conjunction with Kalk/Sodium Hydroxide to cancel out the negative pH effects.

Regarding the "Calcium reactor is cheaper long term" argument...

I do wonder about the argument on cost. I don't think it is as big of a savings as much as people think. Two Part can be very affordable. Just for curiosity I calculated some costs for various DIY two-part solutions. With a calcium reactor, not only do you have the high upfront equipment costs, but you also have the calcium reactor media & CO2 gas consumables.

Alkalinity Options
DIY Arm & Hammer Sodium Bicarbonate ($6/lb via Amazon) --> $0.104 / 100 mL solution
DIY Arm & Hammer Baked Sodium Bicarbonate [Soda Ash] ($6/lb via Amazon) --> $0.099 / 100 mL solution
DIY Sodium Hydroxide ($50/10 lbs via Amazon) --> $0.083 / 100 mL solution
BRS Sodium Bicarbonate ($40/7 lbs via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.099 / 100 mL solution
BRS Soda Ash ($40/7 lbs via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.197 / 100 mL solution

Calcium Options
BRS Calcium Chloride ($40/7 lbs via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.166 / 100 mL solution

Magnesium Options
BRS Magnesium Mix ($20/gallon via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.528 / 100 mL solution
Tropic Marin Balling C ($19 via Bulk Reef Supply) --> $0.044 / 100 mL solution

You can easily figure out what your two-part costs you with a little math.

For my 60 gallon tank (dosing Sodium Hydroxide, Calcium Chloride & Tropic Marin Balling C), I'm spending $111/year based on my current consumption rate). Not too bad...

I agree with your math on a smaller tank, but on my larger tank, having to replace my CO2 tank at $37 once or twice a year and only refill the reactor media every other year only works out to be about $100 for a 240gal tank (280gal system). When I was using a dosing system to keep my parameters stable it was costing me about $100 every 2 months (running DIY Soda Ash and BRS Ca + Mg - I was going through a gallon of BRS Ca every two weeks).

So while the CaRx costs more upfront, it's saving me its costs within the 18 months I've had it running

 

[Brett]

It would be interesting if you limited the poll to only reefers who have systems greater than/equal to 180 gallons. I would bet the results would favor the use of CaRx. Maybe even 120gallons or greater? I don't know. I do know if I had a 60 cube as opposed to my 225, I'd probably use two part dosing.

Pros for CaRX, for the most part set it and forget it/stability of water parameters. Cons, initial expense, mild affect on PH and Po4 addition. For me, excluding the initial setup cost, the other negatives are minor and are easily overcome.

I'd be interested in hearing if anyone is using All For Reef on a larger, SPS dominant tank and the costs/tank's demand for A4R. If it's economical for a 225, then I'd consider using it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd be interested in hearing if anyone is using All For Reef on a larger, SPS dominant tank and the costs/tank's demand for A4R. If it's economical for a 225, then I'd consider using it.

AFR is among the least economical methods.

 

[Brett]

AFR is among the least economical methods.

That was my conclusion. Thanks.

I did some math using their max recommended dosage (Don't know if that even comes close to meeting the tank's demand?), but it worked out to $50/month for my tank. That's expensive. But if it were only ~$10-$15/month, then for simplicity purposes and considering opportunity costs/one stop solution, it seems reasonable, but still not the cheapest. Although Mg might still be an issue?

 

[Fish Styx]

CaRx and Kalk.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That was my conclusion. Thanks.

I did some math using their max recommended dosage (Don't know if that even comes close to meeting the tank's demand?), but it worked out to $50/month for my tank. That's expensive. But if it were only ~$10-$15/month, then for simplicity purposes and considering opportunity costs/one stop solution, it seems reasonable, but still not the cheapest. Although Mg might still be an issue?

The max recommended dose (25 mL per day per 100 L) is surprisingly little alk and calcium. Not sure why they set it so low, but it would not maintain many SPS tanks.

 

[CRABDADDY]

I'm considering a calcium reactor for my 120g SPS system once it's mature enough for corals. I will take dosing as far as I can go with kalk, then add either 2 part or a calcium reactor. I'm leaning towards the reactor for ease of use and long term cost. I'm hoping I can find a used set up from a tank breakdown or something.

On my 40g a calcium reactor makes little sense and I will continue using kalk, and supplementing with AFR, as it saves space under my stand and it's simpler than 2 part.