Too soon for a calcium reactor?

[Zeither18]

Hello again everyone! I have some possible issues that may be coming at me very soon. My soon to be born son is going to have to have open heart repair at birth and me and my wife will be away from home for at lest 6 weeks. I may stop in from time to time but not as often as I should as the hospital is a few hours away. I have a 220g with 150lbs of live pukani rock and about the same in sand, I have a 55 gal sump and a phosban 550 reactor and an aqua c 180 skimmer. I have this geo 1300 I think calcium reactor just sitting here taking up space. It's about the size of a 5 gal bucket and holds 50 lbs of media if I'm off on the model. I also have a nitrate reactor sitting around that is not up and running yet. My aquarium has only been up and running for about 4 months now and am not sure if I should set all this up to help maintain my levels that I have been working so hard to maintain while I may have to neglect my system for a little time. From my understanding the reactor helps keep the alk and calcium stable so is it to soon to start this thing up while I have stable numbers with just water changes? All I have in here currently is a few clowns and a handful of Lps I'm just alscared everything is going to go down hill and have to fight to get it right again. I'm sorry if this should be in the noob area as that's what I am. But i am hoping for everyone's general thoughts. Thanks zac

 

[reefaddictx]

I think it would take longer to actually dial in your calcium reactor in the time you have. Your levels shouldn't drop that dramatically if you don't have much corals. You can make it with just a water change once a month.

 

[Zeither18]

Thanks for the quick response. I will not be leaving until the end of July How hard are these to even set up? But when or how old does the tank need to be before I should get everything started. The only think I have running now is the phosban reactor that has chem pure in it and my protien skimmer Just not sure if there is a good time or a bad time or just the right time to start the reactors up. Thanks again