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Reactor or dosing?


matty

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With my new tank I want to address the issue of either dosing or running a reactor to deal with levels. The thought of either baffles me as I have always relied on water changes to maintain levels, I have no idea how to do either. What would you suggest? Why and if you prefer one over the other, why?

 

I recieved 2x 1.1 ml dosing pumps with the apex I bought but wonder if I wouldn't be better off selling them and getting a calcium reactor.

 

Any help or advice would be awesome!

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It's totally going to be a heated topic fueled by personal preference when in reality you can find awesome looking tanks with either method.  Reactor is old school Hardcore, and if you have the space to set it all up and the patience to get it going then I say go that route. If your limited on space then I say go with a dosing pump. If there is a true benefit of either, I truly wouldn't know as I have seen great results from both. If you don't believe 2 part can work I advise checking out this awesome Tank of the Month: http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/25-tank-of-the-month

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It's totally going to be a heated topic fueled by personal preference when in reality you can find awesome looking tanks with either method.  Reactor is old school Hardcore, and if you have the space to set it all up and the patience to get it going then I say go that route. If your limited on space then I say go with a dosing pump. If there is a true benefit of either, I truly wouldn't know as I have seen great results from both. If you don't believe 2 part can work I advise checking out this awesome Tank of the Month: http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/25-tank-of-the-month

 

No reason for it to be heated or for it to even be a debate, both methods work extremely well if done properly... It really comes down to your husbandry style and how you want to spend your money.

 

A reactor is going to have a larger up front cost but it's very low cost and takes very little to maintain it... I run reborn media in my reactor and have never had to supplement mag into my system (using arm media I did have to supplement mag however) Setting up a reactor is really simple and it's a piece of cake to dial in if you've got good equipment.

 

One of the biggest reasons you see people going from 2 part to a reactor is because of the amount of Alk and Cal required, at some point you'll find your dosing pumps are constantly cycling to keep up with demands of your tank. Now if you have a tank with lips and softies the demands will be much less than say a tank like mine that's wall to wall sps colonies. I'm actually in the process of designing a new reactor for my system because the demand about has my current reactor tapped out.

 

Something else to consider is that if you're talking about an sps tank you'll have to be supplementing more than just Alk, Cal and Mag to replace the other depleted elements. A reactor will provide most of those elements on it's own.

 

I was a 2 part guy for many years and had great success with it as long as I didn't do something stupid like priming my dosing pumps and letting the ALK run overnight and spike my tank... I did that more than once  :doh: Thankfully it never killed anything just pissed it off and then I had to let it naturally drop and then turn the dosers back on.

 

I personally always ran small bottles so that in the instance that one of my pumps failed and stuck on (or I left it on like an idiot) that there was never enough to completely fry my whole tank, at least that was the theory since I never emptied a whole bottle into the tank but I can imagine a small bottle doing a lot less damage vs a gallon of Alk solution going into the tank.

 

So in the end, one takes more work than the other to maintain, and one costs more than the other. Personally i never saw much a quality difference between the two when it came to growth etc. I prefer the reactor purely because it's less for me to mess with or forget to maintain. 

 

I should also mention I made all of my own 2 part so my Alk and Cal supplements were dirt cheap, but I still had to take the time to make them.

 

So they both work equally well, pick which one best fits your husbandry style...

Edited by Arsonmfg
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I have a new design of CA reactor, I call it new school reactor. much easier to maintain and adjust. Plus, it is space saver! i am looking for a manufactuer to fabricate a prototype. Do you want to try once I have the prototype?:O

 

Do you have a proof of concept or is this something completely new you've come up with? Let me know if you have a cad drawing or something similar and I might be able to help you with getting that prototype built.

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No reason for it to be heated or for it to even be a debate, both methods work extremely well if done properly... It really comes down to your husbandry style and how you want to spend your money.

Sorry, I wasn't meaning that to me taken so literal, just pointing out one of those topics where both methods give great results but personal preference  :)

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I would most likely be running reactors in my tanks if it weren't for the need for a below tank sump involved with a reactor. I don't have a below tank sump in my two 66 gallon Red Sea Max systems, so it is difficult to imagine how I could rig a reactor up for my systems. Setting up dosing pumps was much more feasible for me, and I have recently settled on the Triton Elementz after using BRS 2-part for a few years. You have a below tank sump in your Cadlights system, but it doesn't look like there is much room in the cabinet for a CO2 bottle and a reactor. I know that you are going for a clean look, and you'll likely have an easier time achieving that with dosing pumps and some small reservoirs for your alk and ca.

 

Regarding trace elements, you can replenish these when using a dosing regimen by incorporating frequent water changes into your regular maintenance, since these should be present in your salt mix. (Red Sea Coral Pro is my salt of choice.) If you want to minimize water changes, you could add trace elements with your Ca, Alk, and Mag by using Triton Elementz like I do, however this is a 4 part solution and requires significant space in your cabinet for 4 bottles and 4 channels of dosing pumps.

Edited by Lexinverts
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It sounds like my style of lazy reefing might fit better with a reactor. As far as room goes, there isn't much in my stand but I thought if I got one of these:

http://m.marinedepot.com/products/uj00176/aquamaxx-s-nano-calcium-reactor

I could fit it in my sump and since the Apex is in the closet, I could put the bottle in there and use the ph probe for the reactor.

I'm never going to have a full SPS tank, I like Lps and zoa's more so my demand won't be huge but the clam I have will need it.

Anyone use the Aquamaxx reactors?

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I have a new design of CA reactor, I call it new school reactor. much easier to maintain and adjust. Plus, it is space saver! i am looking for a manufactuer to fabricate a prototype. Do you want to try once I have the prototype?:O

 

Yes!

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Who was it that won tank of the month a little while back on a cube tank? He had a aquamax nano I believe (had it hanging on the side). Tank was gorgeous!

 

All I can say for reactor vs dosing is this: I switched to reactor and couldn't be happier. I literally check my effluent flow every few days and that's about it, mostly just a visual check. I ran my reactor for a year on one bag of Reborn and one tank fill. Aside from the first month or so of getting it dialed it's just been set and forget. With dosing I was always mixing up more two part and worrying about doser losing prime or getting clogged somehow. It's been so much easier with the reactor I don't think I'd have it any other way.

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As far as a safety factor for your tank, both have drawbacks. Dosers can malfunction, and a Reactor can overdose CO2. I would still feel safer with a reactor, although it has it's limitations. if I were to use an automatic doser, I would not prepare a large amount of solution in the reservoirs, in case of a malfunction.

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And if your limited by CO2 tank size, aquaticlife sells a paintball co2 reg adapter so you could use smaller paintball tanks instead of the larger 5+ lb ones

oh well then should check paintball sites to see if you can get it cheaper. Also how about using carbon fiber tank? Just curious, when I played paintball I had a very large Nitro duck carbon fiber tank.

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oh well then should check paintball sites to see if you can get it cheaper. Also how about using carbon fiber tank? Just curious, when I played paintball I had a very large Nitro duck carbon fiber tank.

The adapter is $15. A 20oz CO2 tank locally cost about $40 with a free fill.

 

Carbon fiber tanks for paintball are for compressed air only. You need an aluminum co2 tank. Using these is more common on planted tanks that use less co2.

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If you have the room in your closet I'd go for a 10 or 15# bottle... The cost is like $7 more to fill a 15# bottle vs a 5# bottle.

 

Even with a small demand, you'll be refilling that paintball tank like crazy.

For sure, if space isn't an issue go big and never worry about refilling. For reference, 16oz/lb so a 5lb tank holds 4x as much as a 20oz co2 tank. Just saying its a possibility if space is your only issue.

 

Wasn't this tank going to be plumbed into a closet sump?

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