OneReef

Calcium Reactor:


I am going to run a calcium reactor again on this new tank. After some consideration, I have decided to do alot of SPS again. I know from my past experiences, that my SPS grew much better when I ran the Ca reactor, as it kept my Ca and Alk much more stable. On my previous tank, I had an Aquatic Systems Design reactor, but had sold it with my tank last time. Fortunatelty, one of my friends just happend to now be selling his reactor since he is switching to a fish only tank. I got his reactor, which was good for me since it is an Aquatic Systems Design as well, and I am very familiar on how it works. I will be running it on a 5 lb. CO2 tank with a Milwaukee regulator on it. I tend to run my Ca reactor between 6.6 and 6.8 pH. I like a drip rate of about 1 bubble count per second to a ratio of 3-4 drips per second into my sump from the effluent line. The pH probe is a lab grade Sybon that will be in the Ca reactor, and run from my ReefKeeper Lite Plus.









Skimmer:



I have had experience with different skimmers over the years, including Aqua-C, Euro-Reef, Octopus, and Vertex. My last skimmer was a Vertex Alpha 170 Cone skimmer with a Red Dragon pump. It was an awesome skimmer.

This time I chose a smaller skimmer, a Super Reef Octopus XP-1000SSS cone skimmer. It has a Bubble Blaster pump, which is supposed to be an excellent pump. I have found in the past that since I keep my tank so clean, and do very regular water changes, that too big of a skimmer will not perform well on my system because there is not enough junk to pull out of the water. I always ended up with very light colored water in the cup, and not filling up very much, whether I ran it wet or dry. So I went smaller this time, it is still rated for up to a 125g tank, but it is the smaller model in the cone line. I think it will fit perfectly for my style of reefkeeping. I have learned that larger is not always better, as it will not skim anything if oversized on my system.

It fits easily in my Eshopps sump, with plenty of room left over. It is a space saving model since the pump is mounted under the skmmer and not off to the side of it. That will also make it easier for me to vaccuum detritus around it, since we now know of my OCD tank cleaning tendancies.

Everyone I know that has an Octopus skimmer has always liked them. I have tried a couple of them in the past and thought they were good as well. I am looking forward to this new one since it has a cone body, and also has the upgraded nice pump. It has a gate valve on the output to really fine tune the performance.