So it's 2010 now. Who still uses a calcium reactor and who's all on 2-part dosing?

[MitchM]

I have parked my 2 calcium reactors in the barn. I got really tired of the salt water getting past the "one way valves" and ruining the solenoid, C02 leaks, clogged intake hoses, sticking regulator gauges.
It started to feel like a Rube Goldberg way to dose calcium.

I'm now dosing calcium and magnesium from ChemMaster with a Profilux doser set up.

Mitch

[globaldesigns]

I personally do everything manually. I use to premix all my calcium, DKH, MG, Str and so forth, but stopped even doing that about 4 months or so ago.

Now I have a chamber in my sump, located near the starting phase of the sump. this chamber sits in the water about 3/4 in, and the bottom is slatted. In the bottom of this container, I put about 1/2 inch of course foam (like what is used in reactors) to cover the slats and provide a simple barrier.

On a daily basis, I measure out my recipe of dry goods (All now Seachem) and then dump the goods in the chamber. What happens is that the water flow around the chamber (especially underneath) draw out the dosing's, and as it leaches out, fresh water also goes in to replace the saturated water and the process keeps happening. Eventually the dry goods are gone.

What is nice about this, is that I don't have to fuss with premixing, and I find my parameters to be perfect with very minimal swings.

Just another way of doing things, I find this solution to work well for me.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by zoaElite

- Krzysztof Tryc Reef keeping mag Volume 8, Issue 14

Guess always a first. One wonders how many more incidents we never hear about.

[Delphinus]

It's not the dosing part that has me nostalgic. I use some peri pumps and it works well enough. It's not like it's not keeping up the levels or anything like that ... I just hate mixing the stuff up. Hate it. Did I mention that it's messy, and I hate it? Because I hate it. I'd probably do it more often if I didn't hate it but .. I hate it. I'm not sure if I can make myself clear here: I hate mixing that stuff up!!!!!!!

Whereas a reactor ... bubbles counting? Check. (There's the daily investment of time). About every 6 months or so .. top up some gravel. About every year or so .. refill the CO2 cylinder.

How is that worse?? It's not. Guess the only thing is the CO2 part of the equation...

[Myka]

I haven't owned a calcium reactor since the late 90s. I despise them. I have been 2-part dosing ever since I discovered it pretty much.

Currently I have a dual doser for calcium and alkalinity. I use Fauna Marin balling salts. I have Rubbermaid food storage containers that holds about 3.5L. I mix 270g Sodium bicarbonate into 3L of RO/DI water, mix that for 3 hours with a powerhead so it actually dissolves, and pour it into one of the containers. I mix 300g Calcium carbonate into 3L of RO/DI and put that into the other container. These containers last about 4 weeks. The concentration is as suggested on the back of the Fauna Marin packages. I'm not sure if I could mix them more concentrated or not. I'm going to email them and ask. However, I find I am constantly turning up the timers to dose more and more every week or which is annoying because the numbers are always falling, and I'm not around often enough to monitor well enough. So...they aren't set and forget.

EDIT: I have been thinking about buying a third doser to dose kalk at night which would make the jugs of Ca and Alk last longer. Also I don't have to dose magnesium - I use H2Ocean salt, and doing a 10 gallon water change once a week keeps magnesium around 1400 ppm as per Salifert kit. I also dose Potassium into the fresh saltwater mix to raise K to 380-400 ppm since it is very low in H2Ocean salt (~250 ppm).

[Milad]

so it sounds like dosing is a pain in the butt unless you mix up 50gals of each....
maybe ill stick to my calcium reactor

[fishytime]

Profilux doser here.....Ca and Alk.......mg is done manually......been thinking about adding two more pumps to the unit to dose the mg and phyto.....easy breezie to adjust.....not so easy to remember to fill the reservoirs

[michika]

Yeah, my memory is over taxed enough as it is, I think I'd run the risk of continually forgetting to re-fill containters.