Coarse vs. Fine Calcium reactor media

[christyf5]

For my original reactor which was an Aquarium Essentials model from Ocean Aquatics, I used the fine Caribsea ARM media. I used this reactor for about 3-4 years until something went screwy in it and the water within reached 101F. (there were other heating issues within the tank but tank water was only 90F I suspect some media got caught in the pump or something). Anyway, after taking apart the reactor to clean it (a very intensive process) I decided to try out the larger grade media from Caribsea. I must say that I had a heck of a time fiddling with the CO2 settings to get it to melt and to keep my ca and alk on track. Eventually I gave up and bought a new reactor altogether (good price and right timing) which is a Schuran Pico and uses the larger grade Schuran media. Once dialed in, I've never had a problem and this stuff goes through media pretty rapidly. I've had it for about 8 months now and I've had to fill it twice. Granted it doesn't really take a lot of media.

Anyway, the schuran reactors are supposed to be super efficient which I don't really get, the pH has to reach 6.2 to properly melt the media and I think the caribsea ARM melted at a much higher pH (like 6.8-7.2 or something) which seems to me that it would be more efficient that way. I know I've had to fill my CO2 tank twice in the time I've had the schuran and usually its once every 9-12 months.

Anyway, now that I've got it all squared away I'm just as happy with this larger media as I am the finer grained stuff. However it was not successful for my "classic style" reactor (or at least I couldn't figure it out and got tired of fiddling with it).