Thank you for this guys! I’ve always been intimidated by calcium reactors and this helpful video has solidified by opinion to stay away. No sarcasm, I sincerely appreciate this content. Saves me money and future headaches. I will stick w my All For Reef and kalkwaser ATO set up combo and sleep well at night. Keep these videos coming! 🐠
Just got mine setup and dialed in and 100 times easier than my apex DOS and 2 part constantly dying or losing programming! The Milwalkee ph controller takes the guess work out and it doesn't just forget what you had set. The Kamer pump is also set and forget. Took me a few days to learn that the ARM media would not dissolve enough at 6.5 so I am running 6.0 to get a decent effluent strength. Very happy and helps me sleep better knowing everything is set properly and not going to quit.
You guys hit the nail on something I have been thinking about for a while: I would use the Calcium reactor during the day only, with the effluent running into a refugium, which would be on during daytime and not reverse to combat the low pH from the effluent. At night I would supplement only with Kalk connected to a dosing pump and a kalk stirrer, which should be enough given corals only consume 10-15% of the total daily consumption during the dark hours. This way you can probably achieve a very stable pH throughout the whole day which should be better than the 0,3-0,4 daily swings we typically have.
It's useful to have two 5 lb co2 tanks, because it's often way cheaper to have them filled at places that fill fire extinguishers, but you have to drop the tanks off for a few days. Plus, having a filled backup tank around is useful too.
People often say you don't want to put your hands in your tank because you don't know what's in the tank. And some say because you don't want to contaminate the tank which I agree with more. It's really circumstantial and these tips generally apply to specific scenarios. I'm just typing this because as soon as I set up my Marine fish tank, Dermatitis that I have had on my hands for 3 years has entirely cleared up within 2 weeks of maintaining the aquarium. I think it has something to do with the salt water but it's super interesting and I also thought prior to buying it, it could exacerbate my problem because of the salt. But nope. I feel like it's literally some kind of medicine that no-one talks about.
Tip: peg your ph, then over time, tune your bubble rate close, but slightly above the rate necessary. If your ph controller or probe ever dies, you can keep the reactor on until you are able to get a replacement with little impact to the tank.
I needed the bare minimum because I had the majority of the setup from a freshwater setup so It was not expensive for me. Green Leaf Aquariums makes quality regulators. I have mostly lps and have mine pegged at 7ph at 4ml a min. Works perfect in my system and I have not had to add media still after like a year and a half. Bullet proof to me. Set it and forget it. Alk is a consistant 8 to 8.3
Does anybody use crushed oyster shell that you would buy from farm supply in these things? The bags a big and cheap people feed it to chickens to supplement calcium in their diet so eggs shells are nice and hard.
Seems like a CO2 reactor is the last piece of “tech” I don’t have. Just recently installed a UV sterilizer. SPS haven’t even taken off yet and I’m already dosing beyond 65ml a day of two part... Seems like a reactor could be on the horizon
Every tank is different, I time my cleaning schedule based off my nitrates, if I notice my nitrates creeping up I clean a little more and a little sooner, if your nitrates are close to 0 then you won't need to clean much at all
You may want to hold off cleaning the sandbed for the first few weeks as that's a great place for nitrifying bacteria to populate. Once you're a month or so into your new system, then consider cleaning small sections of sand at a time.
You guys should make a how to setup and dial in a cal reactor with a kalk stirrer video
Wow thanks great stuff!!! 👌🏻👌🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
Thank you for this guys! I’ve always been intimidated by calcium reactors and this helpful video has solidified by opinion to stay away. No sarcasm, I sincerely appreciate this content. Saves me money and future headaches.
I will stick w my All For Reef and kalkwaser ATO set up combo and sleep well at night.
Keep these videos coming! 🐠
I was thinking the same thing. I will keep using my two part.
Just got mine setup and dialed in and 100 times easier than my apex DOS and 2 part constantly dying or losing programming! The Milwalkee ph controller takes the guess work out and it doesn't just forget what you had set. The Kamer pump is also set and forget. Took me a few days to learn that the ARM media would not dissolve enough at 6.5 so I am running 6.0 to get a decent effluent strength. Very happy and helps me sleep better knowing everything is set properly and not going to quit.
I would love that setup, one day hopefully.
You guys hit the nail on something I have been thinking about for a while: I would use the Calcium reactor during the day only, with the effluent running into a refugium, which would be on during daytime and not reverse to combat the low pH from the effluent. At night I would supplement only with Kalk connected to a dosing pump and a kalk stirrer, which should be enough given corals only consume 10-15% of the total daily consumption during the dark hours. This way you can probably achieve a very stable pH throughout the whole day which should be better than the 0,3-0,4 daily swings we typically have.
thank you guys for these video i set up my calciun reactor 3 weeks ago and i was confucin about that
How about a complete guide video on using a calcium reactor with kalkwasser? For small or big systems would be great to watch!
How did you know this was exactly the information I was looking for?
It's useful to have two 5 lb co2 tanks, because it's often way cheaper to have them filled at places that fill fire extinguishers, but you have to drop the tanks off for a few days. Plus, having a filled backup tank around is useful too.
People often say you don't want to put your hands in your tank because you don't know what's in the tank. And some say because you don't want to contaminate the tank which I agree with more. It's really circumstantial and these tips generally apply to specific scenarios. I'm just typing this because as soon as I set up my Marine fish tank, Dermatitis that I have had on my hands for 3 years has entirely cleared up within 2 weeks of maintaining the aquarium. I think it has something to do with the salt water but it's super interesting and I also thought prior to buying it, it could exacerbate my problem because of the salt. But nope. I feel like it's literally some kind of medicine that no-one talks about.
Tip: peg your ph, then over time, tune your bubble rate close, but slightly above the rate necessary. If your ph controller or probe ever dies, you can keep the reactor on until you are able to get a replacement with little impact to the tank.
I needed the bare minimum because I had the majority of the setup from a freshwater setup so It was not expensive for me. Green Leaf Aquariums makes quality regulators. I have mostly lps and have mine pegged at 7ph at 4ml a min. Works perfect in my system and I have not had to add media still after like a year and a half. Bullet proof to me. Set it and forget it. Alk is a consistant 8 to 8.3
Waiting for video about ICP tests of influent from different calcium reactor media. It will be very interesting.
Makes me want to get a smaller aquamaxx once I get some stony stuff
Hai guys...normal my CR pump warm?that canister CR also ..im new using CR..2day right now
What is the size of the calcium reactor in the video.
can you use the to feed the reactor? The Kamoer cost $300?
Does anybody use crushed oyster shell that you would buy from farm supply in these things? The bags a big and cheap people feed it to chickens to supplement calcium in their diet so eggs shells are nice and hard.
Seems like a CO2 reactor is the last piece of “tech” I don’t have. Just recently installed a UV sterilizer. SPS haven’t even taken off yet and I’m already dosing beyond 65ml a day of two part... Seems like a reactor could be on the horizon
so a calcium rx is an equipment to maintain alkalinity. never had one before
When should I do first gravel clean??? With water change or, wait have had fish for 1 week and ran tank for 6.7 weeks. I went thru cycle.
Every tank is different, I time my cleaning schedule based off my nitrates, if I notice my nitrates creeping up I clean a little more and a little sooner, if your nitrates are close to 0 then you won't need to clean much at all
You may want to hold off cleaning the sandbed for the first few weeks as that's a great place for nitrifying bacteria to populate. Once you're a month or so into your new system, then consider cleaning small sections of sand at a time.
Thank u 8 weeks in now and added a day wet dry is that ok 250 gph.
Can a hydroponics CO2 system work with a cakc reactor?
Can then effluent be captured and stored for later use?
Great question! This is something we'll have to experiment with in the near future to find out the answer :D
Tanks. Like used cars no 2 alike
Considering the entire thing TLF media is going though right now....