Two part versus Calcium Reactor thoughts...

[Liam]

Cole-palmer dual headed doser from someone on this forum: $90
Enough 2 part to last 2 years: $100

$190 spent with $210 to waste (err, I mean spend) on corals

how many wattts does your cole palmer doser use?amd how many hours a day does it run?

 

[Liam]

I do neither, I kalk it up and as Dave said instead of changing the quantity I drip I change the amount of kalk added to solution.

kalkwasser won't meet demand on a heavily loaded reef and it does'nt matter how much kalk you add to your solution,once you exceed 1tps per gallon it will not go into solution anyway.I think you can check your solution it fully saturated by checking the ph as i recall it will be maxed out at 12.8

 

[Reef55]

how many wattts does your cole palmer doser use?amd how many hours a day does it run?

39 watts, 19 minutes per day, so 4.5 kw/hrs per year, which is like $0.77 in electricity

 

[Reef55]

What about the AC3?

Already owned. AC3 = cheap insurance for the tank

 

[ReeferMedic]

kalkwasser won't meet demand on a heavily loaded reef and it does'nt matter how much kalk you add to your solution,once you exceed 1tps per gallon it will not go into solution anyway.I think you can check your solution it fully saturated by checking the ph as i recall it will be maxed out at 12.8

That was my thought also. After the solution is saturated, the rest settles to the bottom. I run a saturated kalk solution for 16 hours a day for top off along with a calcium reactor that holds about 30 pounds of media and my calcium is never over 420 unless I dose on top of that. The amount dosed is also dictated by the amount evaporated on a daily basis when depending soley on kalk also. There isn't enough kalk in this club to meet the demands of my system. There are pros and cons to both sides. Use what works for you. I feel a ca reactor is the way to go for me. My system was never this stable without one.

 

[delta]

Already owned. AC3 = cheap insurance for the tank

See that's what I am talking about, guess you really don't need those expensive toys

 

[Dave McReeferson]

I would also worry about dosing too much at a certain point, how many ml/per gal is safe to dose a tank?

Do you mean that you would be worried about precipitation? Either way, provided you select pumps that dose slowly as I described, you would essentially be dosing the same concentration as would be found in the effluent of a reactor, at the same rate as would be found in a reactor setup.

One aspect of the two-part solutions that I worry about is that at the really high use rates, I wonder about the other elements that are being added, but not necessarily consumed by the corals. Also, with the changes in bromide levels in Dowflake, I don't know whether they days of cheap two-part solutions are coming to an end.

What i will say though is that i am far happier dissolving coral skeletons that originated from the reef

Ok, I understand the dissolving coral skeletons part being a good thing ..[but].. Then you don't know what crap is in your reactor either my friend

These are the points that are prompting my move away from a dosing scheme and to a reactor. The Bromine issue kind of opened my eyes (though it had always been somewhere in the back of my mind) that I don't really know what is, and is not, in these "manufactured" supplements. Nothing is 100% pure, and on the flip side, while the same holds true for coral skeletons, I imagine it holds true as much for bad stuff (like phosphates), as it does for good things (like the Mg I mentioned earlier, though not limited to that). Perhaps my dosing was leaving something out other than the Mg that would promote better growth and greater health.

In the end, who really knows, while we like to apply strict science and math wherever possible, so much of this hobby is based on guesswork and an individual's perception of "results".

 

[Dave McReeferson]

39 watts, 19 minutes per day, so 4.5 kw/hrs per year, which is like $0.77 in electricity

19 minutes a day, that makes your two part pretty concentrated, I would worry about malfunctions. Mr. Murphy is always waiting just around the corner.

 

[Aquaman_68]

I just spent about 20 mins typing my take on this subject...Only to loose my screen right at the end...(hit a button & it closed the window!!!) Too tired to type it again tonight..... Maybe I'll try again tommorow..
B

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

two part dosing does not deliver strontium either though.

Why not? They certainly can. My DIY may not keep up with all the demand, but it does dose some since Dowflake has substantial strontium in it. I showed in a previous article that it added, over the corse of a year, far more strontium than does using Koralith in a reactor. In fact, it adds 36 times as much. Not too much, but perhaps enough to be useful.

Purity of Calcium Chloride
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2004/chem.htm

Commercial two parts can add all the strontium they want. You have no idea how much they add. I personally do not think strontium is important at all, but some folks do.

 

[Liam]

two part dosing does not deliver strontium either though.

Why not? They certainly can. My DIY may not keep up with all the demand, but it does dose some since Dowflake has substantial strontium in it. I showed in a previous article that it added, over the corse of a year, far more strontium than does using Koralith in a reactor. In fact, it adds 36 times as much. Not too much, but perhaps enough to be useful.

Purity of Calcium Chloride
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2004/chem.htm

Commercial two parts can add all the strontium they want. You have no idea how much they add. I personally do not think strontium is important at all, but some folks do.

great test Randy,thanks for the link.

It sure does open ones eyes to all the components of those supplements.

 

[chew*]

kalkwasser won't meet demand on a heavily loaded reef and it does'nt matter how much kalk you add to your solution,once you exceed 1tps per gallon it will not go into solution anyway.I think you can check your solution it fully saturated by checking the ph as i recall it will be maxed out at 12.8

I thought it was 2 tsp per gal.

Theres a simple solution to keeping up the demand, Open top with a fan evaporates twice as much water as not using a fan and keeps temps down. So 2 1/2 g topoff a week on a 30g tank is now 5g week...Im sure some of the 6 ft long tanks can evaporate quite a bit more than my little 24" opening.

 

[ReeferMedic]

I thought it was 2 tsp per gal.

Theres a simple solution to keeping up the demand, Open top with a fan evaporates twice as much water as not using a fan and keeps temps down. So 2 1/2 g topoff a week on a 30g tank is now 5g week...Im sure some of the 6 ft long tanks can evaporate quite a bit more than my little 24" opening.

You can add 10 tsp per gallon if you want. A saturated solution is a saturated solution.


I already evaporate 2-3 gallons daily. A bit higher in the summer months. I don't think it would be enough for my system no matter how much evaporated. Not to mention that I don't want MORE water evaporating into my house. A calcium reactor is a better way to go for me imho.

 

[chew*]

You can add 10 tsp per gallon if you want. A saturated solution is a saturated solution.


I already evaporate 2-3 gallons daily. A bit higher in the summer months. I don't think it would be enough for my system no matter how much evaporated. Not to mention that I don't want MORE water evaporating into my house. A calcium reactor is a better way to go for me imho.

I agree it's not for everyone and won't work in all applications.

I thought the saturation point was at 2 tsp per gallon?

 

[ReeferMedic]

I thought the saturation point was at 2 tsp per gallon?

That sounds about right. What I meant was that if you add more than is needed for a saturated solution, it will just sink to the bottom of the container.

 

[Liam]

I thought it was 2 tsp per gal.

Theres a simple solution to keeping up the demand, Open top with a fan evaporates twice as much water as not using a fan and keeps temps down. So 2 1/2 g topoff a week on a 30g tank is now 5g week...Im sure some of the 6 ft long tanks can evaporate quite a bit more than my little 24" opening.

I just added 0ne teaspoon to one gallon of ro/di,result was 12.0ph.
I increased in 1/2 teaspoon increments up to 4 tsp and the result was still 12.0.
so from my tests with my kalk and my ro/di i suspect anything over 1 teaspoon per gallon is kalk down the drain so to speak.

It could be possible my meter max's out at 12,i am not sure on the range of my acIII

This is an easy test for folks to do,i would be interested to see some other results.

 

[dz6t]

two part dosing does not deliver strontium either though.

Why not? They certainly can. My DIY may not keep up with all the demand, but it does dose some since Dowflake has substantial strontium in it. .

Thank you, thank you. It is great to know. Now I can stop dosing Strontium separately. BTW, I found that coraline algae like strontium a lot.

 

[dz6t]

What i will say though is that i am far happier dissolving coral skeletons that originated from the reef than dosing various icemelt products that contain many unatural susbstances and i see that as a dissadvantage that should be on the list.

Dowflake (aka ice melt) also came out of the ocean. Dowflake is extracted from sea water.

Try to image how those coral skeleton got crushed up...rolled over by giant metal (yes, metal) roller on land.

 

[Liam]

Thank you, thank you. It is great to know. Now I can stop dosing Strontium separately. BTW, I found that coraline algae like strontium a lot.

yeah you can stop dosing arsenic also Dong

 

[dz6t]

yeah you can stop dosing arsenic also Dong

Remeber, what ever in Dowflake was already in the sea water.