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herring_fish
06-02-2011, 12:32 PM
I have been using a dump bucket style ATS for many years but thought that I would add a kalk reactor after I saw the terrific growth in a friend's tank. He uses a skimmer and some cheato but he added a reactor and his growth rate went up quite noticeably.

I have been doing a major overhaul of my system and am planning to add a Kalk reactor but I was reading in another forum and I ran across this answer from Randy Holmes, to a question about the pros and cons of going skimmerless:


I experimented without my skimmer for several months. The primary issue that was immediately apparent was that the pH rose too much. I use limewater, and without the skimmer to aerate and bring in adequate CO2, the pH was too high.
Since I have a dump bucket that drops 2 gallons of water 1 foot, I get a good splash. I don't think that I will have an issue with not enough air exchange and the algae should keep the oxygen levels high.

Does anyone have experience using reactors? I know that the ATS community goes for a more natural environment when ever possible but how should a good reactor interact with a good ATS system?

SantaMonica
06-02-2011, 10:12 PM
Should only help. I dose limewater, mixed by hand.

When the CO2 in the water gets low because of a strong scrubber, the algae then start using up bicarbonate, which is your alk.

Floyd R Turbo
06-03-2011, 07:29 AM
Totally did not know this. It explains why my Alk uptake is so much more in proportion to Calcium and Magnesium. Also explains why about 3 months into running the scrubber, I had to add a doser just to keep up with Alk and not throwing pH off. Is this in the FAQ somewhere, or just locked into the knowledge base in your head!??!? :D

SantaMonica
06-03-2011, 08:34 PM
In the faq....

Alkalinity may in some cases be decreased, because of algae's ability to use bicarbonate to get CO2, but this depends on how much CO2 is in your water, and how strong your scrubber is. If you have lots of CO2 (low pH), then alk will not be affected, and pH will be raised.