2 part vs. Ca Reactor

I'm figuring budgets for the future of my 75G which will be an SPS show tank (hopefully) in a couple years. There won't be any diy drip systems for 2 part on this tank.

So my problem is once the time comes is it going to be cost effective in the long term to set up a reactor or just go with dosing pumps since the volume is under 100G.

What are the thought of those with experience in the matter?

 

The smaller the tank.... the more economical it is for 2 part. On a bigger tank... the cost of a reactor setup is quickly made up.

 

I know it's a hard question to answer because of so many factors like system demand for Ca and Alk.

It will be SPS dominant with some LPS and at least one clam. I don't want to buy a 2 part dosing system and then realize that going to kill me in the long run because I'm buying 2 part supplies more than twice a year. BUT at the same time I don't want to put the time in building a reactor and buying the other equipment needed only to find out that even a 75G packed with stonies and clams won't demand enough to justify a reactor.

 

Just for reference ReefMonkey, my 55 gallon is pretty stocked with sps mini colonies and frags and some softies and a large 8" derasa clam. I'm dosing 100 mL alk and calcium per day to maintain 9.5 dKH and 430 ppm of each, respectively. One gallon solutions of the BRS Calcium and Alkalinity supplements last me a little more than a month. I'm guessing I get (6) 1 gallon solutions per gallon of Calcium Chloride and Soda Ash. For me it comes to something like $60 or $70 per year going the BRS 2-part route.

 

Another option (what I do) is Brightwell's Kalk+2.

 

I'm doing something similar. I'm combining dosing b-ionic 2part and kalk at the same time. Maxing the kalk out first (it's dirt cheap) then using the 2part to supplement past it. Based on my math for the 210g sps dominate from starting I figured it would be about 4-5 years to recoup the cost of a calcium reactor over 2part and kalk... in your 75, it will take a lot longer than that.

 

I couldn't imagine going back to dosing after having a calcium reactor. They are about as close to set and forget as you could possibly imagine once you have them dialed in. I add media and 5 lbs of CO2 every 6-9 months and thats it. No fiddling, no adjusting and very little monitoring since the pH controller does it for me.
Well worth the money!

 

I've done the 2-part thing, I've done the alk thing then I switched to a Koralin reactor on my 75 almost 2 yrs now (~110g total volume).....best thing I ever did for my tank and my maintenance time. If maintenance time is an issue for you, the reactor is the way to go. I haven't touched my reactor in 9 months (the last time I replaced the media), I haven't tested my tank for anything in almost the same time (yea, I know there will be reefers who would disagree with me on this but I use my corals as a guage, if they are unhappy, it's visible.). I do monthly 15-20% WC, dose lugals a few times a week and Mag twice a month or whenever I remember. I feed pillets on an automatic feeder, other than that, I just manually feed mysis/brine a few times a week. Beats what I was doing years ago with the constant mixing of 2-part and alk, constant testing, etc.

 

I sort of say the same thing about Kalk. I use a Kalk reactor with a controlled dosing pump. Just refill the reactor with powder every so often and you're done. If you need to up the parameters, slightly change the time the dosing pump is on. If you need to drop then lower it. Very easy.

 

I liked what Kalk did for my tank while I was dosing it, my pH was always around 8.3. but the CA reactor is much easier. Also, I found that I always had to a resperator when dosing kalk, no matter how hard I tried not to get it in the air I found that everytime I refilled the kalk reactor or even when I was dripping it, I would get a slight nose bleed...figure that can't be a good thing long term.