Reactor Media

[House of Laughter]

What media does averyone use for their reactors?

House

 

[regal]

So Jim, you finally got your reactor? I am using the ARM media.

 

[House of Laughter]

Just pulled the trigger on a FULL deal - OUCH

dual stage reactor, regulator, pump, monitor, tank

Wanted to research the media first - they didn't have enough media for me to order, so I stayed away.

Stabilization here I come.

House

 

[joseney21]

WOW!!!!Jim you're holding no punches for this 180G. how big is the tank you got??can we see pics, that is if you have it at home??

 

[House of Laughter]

the tank was in reference to the CO2 tank - I got the 5lb cause that's all they had

Yeah, this one hurt though, cause I am down on cash after setting it all up and have been losing corals - haven't been able to make back a few bucks.

I got the CR-6


I
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[Tim]

Jim I have a CR-4 and I use ARM also.Works great! Welcome to the world of stability....

 

[House of Laughter]

Tim, thanks, you hae no idea(or supose you do) how frustrated I have become. Lord only knows that I will sleep at night for sure now.

A week away, now I need media and a place to get Co2

Jim

 

[jhale]

sweet reactor.

how big is the base on that?
I need one that will fit inside my stand.

 

[bad coffee]

Sweet! so no more lugging gallons (and gallons and gallons) of BIonic!

B

 

[jackson6745]

The nice thing about ARM media is that it dissolves at a highr PH level. This is great because you can maintain a higher PH in your reef. I also have magnesium granules in my reactor but they require a PH of 6.5 or lower to dissolve (which would turn ARM media to mush). This is why I am using korralith media. It tolerrates a lower PH without turning to mush.
Jim check your MG level. If it's low you should use the korralith and add some dolomite to your reactor. Keeping the MG level up by additives like bionic gets too expensive, especially in a large tank.

 

[House of Laughter]

Thanks rich - I have been dosing magesium anyway. So for now, I think I'll go with ARM and wswitch to Koralith as I need to.

Appreciate everyone responses - keep em coming.

House

 

[ShaunW]

I have been using crushed coral for some time (1 year). But that is almost exhausted in my reactor, so I am about to use ARM media.

A reactor is a must on any SPS tank that is larger than 40 gallons.

Jim, while it was an expensive up front purchase, if you want SPS growth and stability, a Ca reactor will pay for itself over time, since there is no need anymore to supplement your water with anything. Regular water changes are all that is needed.

The guy at the LFS told me that once I went into the world of Cal. Reactors that I COULD never go back? that my tank wouldn't ever be able to work without one, is this true? why would this be?

I am not sure if your tank "would not be able to work without one", however, disconnecting the reactor would have detrimental effects. The first and foremost being the inability to keep up with the high calcium carbonate requirements. Any decrease in the availability of calicium carbonate would lead to the death/bleaching, or minimially, slowing of growth of coraline algae and SPS. If death occurs then excess nutrients will be released to the water column, and we all know what that will cause, .

 

[House of Laughter]

Shaun,

Thanks for the motivation/advise - as you can see, I held back a little and didn't get the PH controller and only the monitor kit. But the rest will be top quality and should be here in a week.

I don't think I would ever want to go back. My Caps (and everyone else) is going to love me once this is done. My alk will be stable and the calcium up to a reasonable level.

Can't wait -

House

 

[ShaunW]

One word of advice, make sure you go very slowly with the drip rate of the effulent and the bubble count. Better to be under then over, since you don't want to drop your pH rapidly.

I would look for alk and Ca stability first, and set/reset the Ca and alk levels with Bi-ionic.

Remember if your Ca and alk are out of balance with each other, a Ca reactor won't help bring them into balance, since a Ca reactor releases Ca + carbonate equally. You need Bi-ionic to do that.

 

[stingnyc]

One word of advice, make sure you go very slowly with the drip rate of the effulent and the bubble count. Better to be under then over, since you don't want to drop your pH rapidly.

I would look for alk and Ca stability first, and set/reset the Ca and alk levels with Bi-ionic.

Remember if your Ca and alk are out of balance with each other, a Ca reactor won't help bring them into balance, since a Ca reactor releases Ca + carbonate equally. You need Bi-ionic to do that.

Sean,

What tank parameters do you keep?

-Steve

 

[SlamaJama]

i might have to share a pic my new reactor, i was told to use arm as well...im waiting for regulator and c2 tank.

 

[ShaunW]

Sean,

What tank parameters do you keep?

-Steve

Steve,
My levels stay very stable at:
Ca 410
Alk 8.0
pH 8.1 (lights off) - 8.3 (lights on)

 

[Melt]

waiting for regulator and media....and you live in brooklyn...head over to Tony for those things and get your toy up and runing TODAY

 

[jackson6745]

What are you guys doing to maintain magnesium levels? This is just as importatnt for growth as calcium + alkalinity IMO. I was using bionic MG but I was going through a gallon every 10 days. It was getting too expensive. Anyone running dolomite in their reactors?

 

[ShaunW]

What are you guys doing to maintain magnesium levels? This is just as importatnt for growth as calcium + alkalinity IMO. I was using bionic MG but I was going through a gallon every 10 days. It was getting too expensive. Anyone running dolomite in their reactors?

I do nothing, but this is why I like Bio-sea salt. It is buffered correctly with Mg.

My water changes replenish any lost Mg through enzymatic processes (growth).