Calcium
- Thread starter mathewkofalk
- Start date
For 6 yrs, I use to manually dose the power (Excel Snow Melt from SAMS) directly into my sump near the skimmer. I automated it with a DRS doser, and do the line maintenace on it every 8 weeks. I personally love automation, and if you have 2-3 fail safes, usually means more time doing other stuff. Yea manual dosing and topoff is the safest, assuming you don't forget about it, but it's about time for most of us.
Calcium reactors can fail, but even when they do, it is nearly impossible for them to crash a tank. The are not too easy on the pocketbook, though and are even $250 used. The doing pumps are the point of failure with kalk or 2 part, most of the time - timers and switches can/will fail and if they stick on, you are done... if they stick off, your tank is still fine. You can make a simple kalk doser out of a 5G water jug and a John Guest ball valve that, at worst would just clog and fail to dose. Manual dosing of 2 part is pretty reliable.
IMO Calcium Reactor is by far the safest, but they are not for everybody and are not a good fit on small tanks.
IMO Calcium Reactor is by far the safest, but they are not for everybody and are not a good fit on small tanks.
True, but you cannot crash a tank unless you just ignored it for weeks and weeks. Even if you emptied the chamber into the tank as fast as you could pump water through a air line, it will only temporarily lower your pH about .1 to .2 and it will quickly bounce back up - RHF had a nice article and test on this years back. Your tank will survive. There is not a stuck-on situation with immediate crash/disaster.
If you even checked the reactor like once a week, you could tell that the media was exhausted or melted and your parameters would still be pretty close to in check. Even exhausting or melted media still somewhat performs.
Nothing is fool proof, but I can live with issues a lot better when my tank is not a white cloud of ammonia from dying corals.
If you even checked the reactor like once a week, you could tell that the media was exhausted or melted and your parameters would still be pretty close to in check. Even exhausting or melted media still somewhat performs.
Nothing is fool proof, but I can live with issues a lot better when my tank is not a white cloud of ammonia from dying corals.
One method I am thinking of is dosing pumps on a controller with a default off.. Worst thing I think can happen is failure to dose....which isn't all that bad as I do 25% WC weekly. I would catch it before levels got too low.
The biggest thing is to not trust anything electronic around salt water and anything mechanical around salt creep or calcium buildup. Its a lose lose situation..
The only thing I trust around my tanks is my knowing something will happen someday.... Be prepared for it!
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The biggest thing is to not trust anything electronic around salt water and anything mechanical around salt creep or calcium buildup. Its a lose lose situation..
The only thing I trust around my tanks is my knowing something will happen someday.... Be prepared for it!
Sent from my C811 4G using Tapatalk 2
Nope, unless you set them up wrong. Most of the reactors will fill with the CO2 and shut down when the water is displaced. Even if they don't, the return/drip line from the reactor sits above the tank and the CO2 would escape into the air and never hit the water. The most dangerous thing with the Calcium Reactor would be if the cylinder leaked and displaced all of the oxygen in your house, which is why I keep them in the basement or outside... this would be the same risk as having a welder, torch, etc.
Would a 75 gallon be too small for a calcium reactor o recently got a RKL so I think I could do one or two failsafes with it ....also I would like the tank full of coral but not a ton of sps so is a reactor even required. I always do my weekly water change but is that enough with a lot of lps some spa and other mix reef items.
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For most mixed tanks, the coralline is oftentimes the main consumer of calcium and alk. 2 part is pretty easy if your calcium and alk demands are pretty low... a few tablespoons every few days might get you by for a while. You can do this with $10 jug of Calcium Chloride at your LFS and some baking soda. One day, when this struggles to keep up, then you can roll with a different method without leaving any money on the table with your old method.
The water drips into the tank from the reactor return line. The excess CO2 bubbles escape into the air and never gets into the tank.
Most of the time, no more water gets pumps becuase the feed pump, through an airline hose, cannot overcome even 20 lbs of pressure that the bottle is putting out. In a really bad failure, it will be near 800 lbs.
Most of the time, no more water gets pumps becuase the feed pump, through an airline hose, cannot overcome even 20 lbs of pressure that the bottle is putting out. In a really bad failure, it will be near 800 lbs.
I have had components fail, for sure - regulators mostly over time and I have had them quit and stick on. I am going to run out of CO2 any day now and it will stop for a while. Unless they are installed wrong, or your chamber is the size of your tank (biocube?), even if the CO2 goes crazy there is no way that they can crash a tank. It is a safe failure, which is way better than some methods... that is all that I am trying to say.
You will see posts on the net about stuck-on regulators crashing tanks, but it is not possible if the line drips in. The reactor water is already nearly saturated with CO2, so the extra CO2 stays as bubbles and escapes into the air. Even a massive influx of 1-2 gallons on 6.5 PH water full of buffer cannot move 100 gallons of 8.1-8.3 very far - the buffer keeps it from moving very far at all.
The reef chemistry guys on RC asked for real-life actual examples a while back of a calcium reactor crashing a tank and they could not find one - there were a few that were set up wrong.
You will see posts on the net about stuck-on regulators crashing tanks, but it is not possible if the line drips in. The reactor water is already nearly saturated with CO2, so the extra CO2 stays as bubbles and escapes into the air. Even a massive influx of 1-2 gallons on 6.5 PH water full of buffer cannot move 100 gallons of 8.1-8.3 very far - the buffer keeps it from moving very far at all.
The reef chemistry guys on RC asked for real-life actual examples a while back of a calcium reactor crashing a tank and they could not find one - there were a few that were set up wrong.
I know someone that drips there reactor water in extremely arriated portion of the sump. They have ph problem and drip Kalk. So it's very possible to have a ph affect from the use if calcium reactor. A number of articles also make reference of this ph lowering affect. I think you are very knowledgable however I wanted to post because its no different then a dosing pump getting stuck on it can fail