Doser vs Reactor

[Jgomez324]

I've been going back and forth with them any advice or pros/cons would be great?

 

[Chameleon]

depends on the size of your system imo. A small system 60g or under I would do 2part until the demand got really high. Anything bigger I would start thinking reactor. Reactors are less expensive in the long run but in a small system if they are out of whack things go bad fast. Dosers are harder to nuke your tank :) = more full proof, but a properly tuned reactor is great too. Reactors inherently create more stability which we know our sps love. Properly set up dosers will work just fine too. Oh reactors take up more space = con on small system.

 

[Dave3112]

I have always used 2 part and I manually dose. I guess I'm in the minority on this idea though. I have a 125 up and running now and I had a 220 at the same time until I broke it down las year. It's more work to do it like this but it makes you look at the tank every day. I had dosers at one time but I didn't trust them so I took them offline.

 

[Chameleon]

do you dose multiple times a day dave? or is it ok for you to do it all at once

 

[Dave3112]

Multiple times a day. I dose calcium before I go to work and alkalinity when I get home from work. Then calcium after dinner and Alk before bed. Sometimes I do dose it all before work and after work. I THINK my wife follows the same regimen while I'm on travel......... :)

I have added everything all at once ( well 15 min apart) with no negative effects but I did not do it that way long term. Just a day or two at a time if I knew I would be gone for a long period of time and didn't want to fool with it.

 

[Reef Pets]

Have you considered a Kalk Stirrer. They are cheap and extremely effective.

 

[Nuocmam]

What type of tank do you plan on keeping? Several sps? Mostly sps? Mostly softies? I agree with a smaller tank without a big demand a doser should work great.