kriz2fer

You could build them pretty easy or hit up wannareef he does good work from what I hear.

I understand bro simple works for a lot of people's calcium reactors just not mine. All these little things I had to buy ended up costing a grip of cash and I did it all to have a hands free setup. Now I'm done with cal reactors and using a triple dosing stand alone doser for my tank, much easier and cheaper. So far I'm loving the 2 part, don't see ever going back.

Peristaltic Pumps are the way to go when feeding a cal reactor. I tried everything, t'd off from return, aqua lifter pump and maxi jet. You need a consistent flow feeding the reactor and it's hard to achieve that with your return line or a maxi jet.

The feed pump is one of the most important part of the reactor. The regulator has nothing to do with clogging, the feed pump and the effluent valve are responsible. The effluent valve is not a regular valve you buy at he depot its small gate valve with John gust fittings. When I ran my reactor I never paid much attention to ph inside of reactor since my regulator was dead On it never needed a ph controller. I just watched my alk and if the alk moved I adjusted it based on that. I think I had my ph at 6.9... Here is a link to the gate valve I used for my effluent. http://www.usplastic.com/mobile/item.aspx?itemid=24525&categoryid=956

Yeah had the same regulator and it rocks. Feed my reactor with a bulb reef supply dosing pump and had a cr-140 reactor. My alk never swings...lol sounds like you should be on you way but I would look into getting a dosing pump for a more consistent effluent flow. Your right about about the regulator cycling, if the regulator is a good one it should hold the ph just fine without the controller turning it off and on all day.

It also wears out the regulator faster.

The key to running a cal reactor without issues is to have a solid dosing pump feeding the reactor. The second thing you need is a quality co2 regulator. Those are the most important things or you will always have you effluent valve clogging. If you don't have a solid regulator then you bubble count will fluctuate and thing will never seem stable. A lot of people buy a half *** setup and it never works and then they complain how cal reactor are problems. In order To have a hands free cal reactor setup you need to buy high quality equipment to start with. Another thing to buy is a quality John gust needle valve to control you effluent and they are less prone to clogging. Also when I you set your effluent make sure it's at least a broken stream. If you try you have a slow effluent rate It will clog faster and never be stable.

Chillers are kinda hard to use sometimes. You have a hot room and your trying to cool the tank down with the chiller, the chiller puts off heat and heats up the room. The chiller cools down the tank but heats up the room temp more, so the chiller consistently runs all day on hot days. So the only effective way to use a chiller is to place it in a cool place like outside or a different room. The chiller works against itself a lot of times.

Steve could you put me on the list to use the club par meter. I could just drive where it's at and pick it up.

I run mine for 7 hours. You can run them for 5-6 hours an still have great growth an color, most people run them at 6-8 but do what works best for you. Watch your tank and adjust as needed.

That's horrible...

Looks nice and happy.

[language filter] what a good deal on the sea swirls...

Upscale is hands down the best shop in all of Oregon. I have been to almost all of them. If there was an issue with upscales that sucks cause there is nothing better.

I would say diatoms. I havent seen brown coralline alage.

I would use Weldon. There are different types of Weldon for different uses depending on the crack your dealing with.

Any updated pic of your baby?

Most of those sps tanks with no water changes are running calcium rectors which replace almost everything sps need. Go on the sps forum at reef central and talk to what the totm are adding. Most are running zeo or hard carbon dosing while adding amino acids and coral food. I have a huge gallon of kent trace elements if you want it.

Additives for Sps....lol there only a few things to add to your tank that are proven to make a difference. Amino acids, potassium, iodine, and a couple other things. If your good with water change you shouldn't need any kind of trace elements, your just wasting your money.

I wouldn't buy neither of those skimmers. If your looking for a solid skimmer get an sro skimmer. They are hands down the best bang for the buck right now in the skimmer market. The swc is okay to and used to be a good competitor for reef octopus but now with the new bubble blaster pumps they are falling behind.

If the frag has redbugs you really can't just dip and be done, if the frag has been in the tank for a while. The redbugs lay eggs and its all over, you will have to treat the whole system at least 3 times to make sure the eggs that are hatching dont stay alive. Its a pain but the treatment I did didn't kill any crabs or inverts.

lol(yahoo)

There have been nicer Sps tank on reef central that have gone without water changes. I seen this one guy go 5yrs without a water change on a packed Sps tank. If your levels are under control and your using a calcium reactor I really don't see a need to always do water changes. Infact you go into the Sps section you will see those guys do the Least amount of water changes.

Yeah just keep an eye on it but don't try to chase a certain number. There is some of the nicest tank in the world with a ph of 7.8 packed with Sps.

You shouldn't need to use ph buffer. The ph is really not that important unless it gets under 7.8 I wouldn't pay much attention.