Hey everyone,
I've actually purchased a Calcium Reactor and CO2 tank for use with my system, but I've been a bit reluctant to hook it up thus far as it's another piece of equipment I need to maintain.
My nagging question is - are there any huge benefits over using a calcium reactor versus using dosing pumps? Either way I would be using my Apex to control either scenario. I would think that maintaining dosing pumps would be far easier than maintaining a full blown calcium reactor implementation. What am I missing?
You aren't missing anything.
First, as some have noted, if you buy chemicals in bulk the cost of two-part dosing goes
way down. Even at the rates I'm dosing it costs next to nothing by comparison with "name-brand" chemicals.
More importantly, a CO2 reactor of any kind (kalk, CaCO3, Sulpher, etc) is
complex - there's no two ways about it! Dosing pumps are cheap and simple (as in
K.I.S.S.) by comparison. Aqua Lifters work great as inexpensive dosing pumps (using them on my very high depand SPS system), but peristaltic pumps are probably slightly easier to dial in due to increased consistency. If you're not dosing a whole lot of material yet, this is irrelevant - you'll figure out the consistency issue in due course of testing and dosing while you are dialing in - which you have to do for either pump type.
I'm guessing that since you bought a CO2 reactor in that manner that budget isn't a huge sticking point - you may be inclined to go with peristaltic pumps. Their one weakness is that the peristaltic tubing will wear out periodically and on some makes the motors aren't destined for a very long life (but at $20-$25 are inexpensive to replace about once a year or so). You will get what you pay for in terms of motor life, but the tubing issue remains. More of a pain than an expense though. (e.g. I got some chinese DIY peristaltic pumps and they actually supplied a couple of meters of spare tubing with each pump.)
Tom Aqua Lifters are uber-simple pumps and should last nearly forever in a dosing scenario. The caveats with these pumps are that they don't push as hard as a peristaltic pump, so might be a little more prone to blockages (in theory...haven't experienced any issues), and they don't necessarily do anything to prevent back-siphoning during down-time. A check-valve will help, but they tend to clog and wear out quickly. This adds up to part of my dosing timer being used just to fill up the dosing tube before any dripping actually happens. It's a caveat, but one you figure out.
With either solution, don't seal your dosing reservoirs - air has to be able to get in while the dosing chemical is getting out. Otherwise a vacuum will form and eventually throttle and then shut down your dosing solution. (Experience talking here....lol.)
-Matt
