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:
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.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.
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?