Calcium or Kalk Reactor

[stoney1118]

Who uses what, and why do you choose one over the other.

 

[stoney1118]

i use a cal reactor bc, honestly i got a great deal on the setup and it works well for my system sofar! i havent really ever used kalk! dont know that much about it!

 

[weaglereefer]

Both.

 

[hackman72]

weaglereefer;567506 wrote: Both.

agreed

 

[grouper therapy]

Both here as well

 

[roundman]

Both also

 

[dvara78]

What are the benefits of using both?

 

[schwaggs]

CA only for now, next project on the list is a Kalk reactor.

 

[schwaggs]

Dvara78;567577 wrote: What are the benefits of using both?

CA reactors add calcium, magnesium, strontium, and other trace elements and tend to drive the pH of your system down. Kalk reactors add calcium while raising pH. The two together can lead to a healthier pH.

 

[jef4y]

Schwaggs;567586 wrote: CA reactors add calcium, magnesium, strontium, and other trace elements and tend to drive the pH of your system down. Kalk reactors add calcium while raising pH. The two together can lead to a healthier pH.

Yup! :up:

Basically you're using Kalk to increase the pH which can be driven down by the CA reactor. It's a fine balance though making sure you add just enough kalk to absorb some excess CO2 without substantially raising calcium.

 

[acroholic]

I've always thought of a calcium reactor as the equivalent to two part dosing.

I do both as well. My Nilsen reactor is mainly for pH bumping, because I have a sulfur denitrator in addition to the calcium reactor, so I have two low pH effluents going into my water, not just one from the calcium reactor, and the effluent from a sulfur denitrator is even lower than that from a calcium reactor.

 

[hnguyen]

Just a calcium reactor for me. I never understood what a kalk reactor was for. I did have trouble with my older calcium reactor as it dropped my pH to around 7.5 during the evenings and the highest it would go was 7.6 during the day. Than I came up with the idea to make my own soda lime reactor / Co2 scrubber. After running that for about 2 days it brought my pH up to 7.9 during the day. After changing to the GEO 618 which they claim uses little Co2 and produce less Co2 in their effluent, my pH is now at 8.15 during the day and 8.08 in the evening. So I guess GEO was telling the truth! :thumbs:I think I'm happy with the way my tank is now as for as my calcium and alk levels are so I won't be using a kalk reactor anytime soon. Although now that I understand what its used for. I may look into it in the near future.