Reburn Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I would like to hear every ones experience on the two. I am in the process of setting up a frag tank. 48x24x12 with a custom acrylic 55 sump shooting for 100twv. I will start a build thread on this build at the appropriate time. I'm going to be 6 months getting the tank. I have already purchased the skimmer (vertex omega 130) and the bio pellet reactor reef octopus br70 powered by a sicce 2.0 pushing about 500gph and the tune osmolator 3155. I am leaning towards doing b-ionic 2 part dosing through digital aquatics new Archon unit running their dosing pumps. What is everyone's experiences with dosing 2 part and CaRxs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 lemme pseudo code this for you If SPS heavy && gallonage > 50 then CaRx Else, doser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 It will be mainly SPS and zoos. I don't care much about LPS. Half the tank 24x24 will be High light for SPS. Half lower light for zoos. SE metal halide with adjustable lumentek LK250 ballast with supplement 2x36" T5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I guess the other piece there is if you already have controllability. You're increasing your risk with both dosers or a CaRx. Especially with CaRx you want to be able to shut it down remotely if you see your DT pH start to drop. For that tank size, I'd check out the HOB Aquamaxx star nano if you can find them (they're discontinued). Aquamaxx makes a newer S-nano reactor but its only rated to 50 gallons. That size is gonna be a little challenging to find a good fit that isn't overkill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 I was looking at the reef octopus CR100. Your right 100 gallons in a pain to find an appropriate sized Carx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I'd keep in mind expected bioload of corals/clams that will need Ca/alk supplementation as well. My old tank had a total volume of about 160 gallons but was SPS dominant with larger colonies. At the end of its life, it was maxing out my Koralin CaRX rated for up to 400 gallons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 If room under the tank is not an issue just go big with the reactor and only partially fill it with media. Besides I've seen that crazed look of a reef addict in your eyes so you're going to be going to 200 gallons anyway. But if it was me I'd be dosing 2 part at the 100 gallon stage. Much easier to make micro adjustments to Ca and Alk levels, especially for 100g or smaller. Now I'm up to 300g with sps and lps I have to use a reactor but I keep my 2 part at the ready to make adjustments. In case you didn't know the reactor doses the exact same proportions of Ca and Alk so if one becomes deficient you can't just turn the reactor up. 2 part lets me make adjustments to just one parameter. To add too the insanity I still use kalk in my topoff to counter the acidity of the Ca reactor effluent. So there are times I'm running a Ca reactor, 2-part and kalk at the same time. As Pee Wee Herman said " it's like a sweater that keeps knitting, and knitting..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 I'm afraid that with a half zoa and half sps tank that I will use alk more then ca. SPS are a bit more reliable on their alk vs ca uptake. I have seen when several of my colonies of zoas go into a growth cycle my alk gets sucked up and my ca rises above 500, sometimes as high as 550. That's just using kalk in my ato in my little solona. I'm still leaning towards the 2 part dosing for the frag tank simply for the reasons you specified. Is there a big tank (200+) in my future. Sure. When. Who knows. Not any time soon. I won't be plumbing the systems together though so I will continue to think of this build as a stand alone build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 If room under the tank is not an issue just go big with the reactor and only partially fill it with media. Besides I've seen that crazed look of a reef addict in your eyes so you're going to be going to 200 gallons anyway. ... To add too the insanity I still use kalk in my topoff to counter the acidity of the Ca reactor effluent. So there are times I'm running a Ca reactor, 2-part and kalk at the same time. As Pee Wee Herman said " it's like a sweater that keeps knitting, and knitting..." You may have seen that look in my eyes too. So, I've been thinking about the same question as Reburn, and since I clearly have high CO2 in my home holding down my PH I worry about a calcium reactor making things worse. How much does a calcium reactor lower PH in general? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Depends how low you need to set your pH in the reactor to melt the media Jim. When I was using the large sized ARM media, I ran my pH in the reactor at 6.5 and it usually depressed my pH from 8.2 down to 7.9 for the high reading of the day. When I was maxing out the reactor, I had to run it at 6.2 pH and then depressed it further to 7.8 as a high. Now that I run a larger reactor and use the TLF media instead of the ARM media, I am able to run my reactor at 6.7 and my pH hits a high of 8.1 usually these days. I don't usually worry about the pH of the tank as long as it's within acceptable parameters. I aim for somewhere in between 7.8-8.4. However anecdotal, during my usage of both dosers and a CaRX reactor, I felt that I got better growth via my CaRX. I felt that it added a lot more than just alk or Ca but that many other trace elements and other metals were also being dosed as well. I think I had mentioned when you were at the house Jim that my Mg level actually slowly increased over the 3 years of no water changes. Maybe that's part of the reason I didn't have any ill effects while basically running the same water for 3 years. I wonder if that would have played out the same if I had used 2-part dosing instead? To be fair, I only used the 2-part for 5-6 months before switching to a CaRX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I'm currently switching to CaRX on my 90 (~110 total volume). I've had enough problems with dosing pumps, going to try the CaRX for a while. My dosing rant if you want to read it: http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/32756-i-hate-dosing/ To sum up my issues, dosing pumps use poor quality motors unless you buy extremely expensive ones. This is agnostic of the controlling mechanism. This makes dosing volumes change as they age. It also makes them prone to early failure. Lines get clogged. Dosing containers deteriorate. Just one nasty overdose of alk and you can nuke all the SPS in a tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 Jestep, What brand and model CaRx did you decide to go with? I agree with you on the dangers of dosing pumps. That's why I'm on the fence about it. Unfortunately the chain of events is going to be. Start with dosing pumps. Get mad or kill stuff. Get a CaRx. Get mad because my zoos go through a growth spurt and tank my alk. End up running a CaRx and dosing like Richard suggested. Since I'm still in the planning stages of my sump I can dedicate a space for a future CaRx. Is it acceptable to run the CaRx, skimmer and bio pellets in the same chamber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I ended up getting a used octopus CR140 on ebay. It was between that a GEO 6x12 or 6x18. Both reactors seem to be well recommended, the geo's probably a bit more, but they're crazy expensive unless you can find a used one. Should have it fully up tomorrow. Hopefully I can get some stable Alk and Ca without having to manually dose much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 To echo what Ty said earlier, on a very basic level, I like the idea that you're reversing the process of coral skeleton building to supplement their growth. It makes perfect sense that CaRx's are the best way to provide a "balanced meal" so to speak. CaRx's are soylent green for coral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
migs Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Haha - nice reference. Soylent green is coral! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I used BRS dosers for about a year. Once I started getting good SPS growth, I noticed that I was adding about a Gallon of ALK and CA solution every month. It wasn't very cost effective and time consuming having to constantly make sure if had enough. I have switched to a large CARX and I would never go back on a large tank. Set and forget. I check things every now and again and make sure there's no clogs and my APEX checks the PH of the reactor 24/7 so I don't worry about it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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