SPS Dominated tank

[Antdizzle]

How fesable is it to maintain an sps dominated tank with out the addition of a calcium reactor ? Guess im asking can it be done ?

[three90s&125sump]

How many gallons?

[Antdizzle]

125

[three90s&125sump]

With all the water changes you will go through you will have been able to have baught a CaX. 2 part liquid Ca dose would also be expencive prolly more so than the water changes. Other than that you can do touch ups with CaCl and try to evaporate as much water as you can for calcium hydroxide dosing. But with the addition of the CaCl you will need to do massive water changes every so often to get back the proportionality of your water.

I'm sure you could find a decent used CaX for sale at a decent price. Maybe 2 or 3 hundo.

[Fat Tony]

I agree with Jason here. You can do it with 2 part for sure, but it will get expensive. Kalkwasser with frequent waterchanges will also do it, but you have to keep up with the waterchanges. A CaRx would be the best/easiest and cheapest in the long run to manage.

[Antdizzle]

I dont have room and I change water every week and well as drip kalk, I can get a single chamber through BRS, but dont have room for co2 bottle as well as reactor

[Fat Tony]

you can have the bottle a good way away from the reactor, you will just have to run cord from the pH controller (pretty much a requirement) to the solenoid mounted on the CO2 bottle and also run the CO2 safe airline as well... it can be put in a closet somewhere away from the tank or something similar.

Just remember, setting up a reactor is just not putting some media in a reacotr and running CO2 to it. You need to have a controller and a regulator with a solenoid and quality needlevalve to control the bubble rate.

[three90s&125sump]

Get a 1 liter CO2 bottle and a 3 inch reactor chamber. It would still be much much easier and cheaper than dosing and water changes. You can get a 1 liter CO2 bottle from a paintball gun dealer. You will just have to go to a welding shop to get an adapter for the regulater to bottle fitting.

If you have a very large demand for Ca in a 125 your prolly looking at going through 150 gallons of salt per month to keep Ca up where it need to be.

[three90s&125sump]

Originally Posted by Fat Tony

I agree with Jason here..

Do you ussually disagree with Jason?

[Fat Tony]

LOL... nope, usually never... just backing up your diagnosis Dr J

[Antdizzle]

very new thing for me so ill do some research lol I dont have enuf sps as of yet as my ca is always 450

[Fat Tony]

as you add more and more SPS to the tank, the larder it is going to be to keep that number up trust me

[ckusnierek]

I have a 125 with over 75 SPS in it.

When my reactor if off I lose almost 1 dkh per day
A reactor is a MUST.

You can run the reactor remote if you need to. You can use 1/4 nylon tube and run it outside and around the house a few times if you wish. The only noise you will hear is the recirc pump chopping up the co2 and the C02 solenoid clicking. You can reduce that by matching your Co2 feed by consumption

The one I have now only have a 6x10" foot print and is about 18" tall. You could even use a paint ball co2 tank for space. But you will need to fill it often.

[luther1200]

Originally Posted by Antdizzle

How fesable is it to maintain an sps dominated tank with out the addition of a calcium reactor ? Guess im asking can it be done ?

It can definitely be done. Some people are actually choosing 2 part over Ca reactors. I have never had a reactor but I doubt I ever will. I will probably always use 2 part. I think its easier to control and you don't have to worry about the low pH issues and all that stuff. But thats just my opnion. But to the question can it be done the answer is yes.

[fox2589]

not tryin to thread jack here but how do you guys feel about running a 37 gallon with just 2 part?-drew