If you have tha CO2 all ready, then the CA reactor will be a reasonably cheap DIY. It is fairly simple to build one, and once they are setup and dialed in, pretty much nothing to do routinly for maintenance. The kalk reactor is also easy to build, but requires periodic refilling and you need to have your TO water feed through it. Both have pluses and negatives. The CA reactor adds CO2 into the water and tends to pull down the ph in the tank if set too high. It does a better job of keeping up with high calcium demands, and is a balanced suppliment of CA, ALK and MG. The Kalk reactor will have the effect of possibly raising your ph, and you need to make sure it drips in slowly, a large dump can have unfavourable results to your tank. I am running both on my system. I had the Kalk reactor first, but it wouldn't keep the CA levels up adequately. I added in the CA reactor and now I have little or no need for additional suppliments to maintain the levels. With both running, they tend to balance out the ph readings. Mine stay fairly stable between 8.0 and 8.3.
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I retired and got a fixed income but it's broke.
Ed
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50 gallon FOWLR, 10 gallon sump.
130 gallon reef, 20 gallon sump, 10 gallon refugium.
10 gallon quarantine.
60 gallon winter tank for pond fish.
300 gallon pond with waterfall.
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