How does a calcium reactor work?

VickyH

VickyH

AC Members
Mar 7, 2007
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Medway, Kent
Can someone please explain simply how a calcium works and how it is incorporated into the tank set up? Sorry for sounding dumb but I would like to keep some hard corals eventually and have been told one of these will be very beneficial. Won't be for a while yet but I would like to understand what I'm looking at!
Also does anyone use the tunze or schuran overflow box? Any good?
 
Some of the guys in my reef club have amazing SPS dominated tanks, including Kip Peeler that was a tank of the month for Reefkeeping.com http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/totm/index.php

I'm presently trying to get my cal and alk levels up and when I asked he and the other guys with SPS dominated tanks if I should consider a reactor on my 55 they actually said they'd not do it just yet and instead suggested I go with a good 2 part dosing instead. Their feeling was that if I become heavily stocked with clams and or SPS then the reactor would make sense but until then the other would be what they'd do themselves.

By the way, the reefers here at AC had the same advice, a 2 part system so that is what I've started to do in the last week.
 
Sadly he has developed an issue with it this year and as a result has lost pretty much every single acro. Just the acros but the buckets of skeletons he has removed is sad. Everyone that has gotten frags from him both locally or on reefcentral has offered to give him frags of the same so he can start them again but he is understandably disheartened. In fact when I first got into the hobby and was asking for advice he suggested I run and take up stamp collecting instead. A lab has learned of his story and are running tests to try to figure out what the cause of the mystery illness is.
 
A calcium reactor basically works on a couple of basic ingredients, a container ( the reactor ) and the media ( calcium carbonate ) and carbon dioxide. All that happens is the water is passed through the reactor and over the media with the carbon dioxide being injected. Injecting the carbon dioxide will effectivly make the end product acidic by lowering the pH. When the pH is lowers and becomes acidic, the calcium carbonate is then disolved and flows into the aquarium to be absorbed by the corals etc..Its simply connected to the system via pipe work.

Hope that helps..

Niko
 
So does this lower the PH of the tank or does the disolved calcium then increase or stabalize the PH?
 
Grins said:
Sadly he has developed an issue with it this year and as a result has lost pretty much every single acro. Just the acros but the buckets of skeletons he has removed is sad. Everyone that has gotten frags from him both locally or on reefcentral has offered to give him frags of the same so he can start them again but he is understandably disheartened. In fact when I first got into the hobby and was asking for advice he suggested I run and take up stamp collecting instead. A lab has learned of his story and are running tests to try to figure out what the cause of the mystery illness is.
Click to expand...

That is sad. That's an immense amount of time and energy to see disappear. I wouldn't even be concerned with the money of it . . . well it would be my last concern.
 
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