ok I know it's not the most vital piece of equipment
but it seems to make the hobby allot simpler and help
corals to really grow.. I went to a local store today
that was supposed to have knowledge about the units I
left disappointed. they only carry two models the
Coralife and Deltec the Coralife is cheep in my
opinion and the Deltec was 500 bucks I only have a 130
gallon tank,just for the unit. been doing allot of
looking and I keep coming back to this unit http://www.myreefcreations.com/castandard.htm looking
at the CR1 or CR2 and I can get a monitor and all for less
then that Deltec.
It all depends on what you think is simpler.If you think more equiptment/elctronic controllers/CO2 regulators,etc.. are simple than a calcium reactor is for you.For me,simple is this.The less equiptment/electronics you have,the less you have to worry about.A simple gravity fed kalk doser that's fed by a float-valve is just as effective at maintaining alk/cal as a calcium reactor.Unless you have a tank that has such a high demand for bicarbonate/carbonate and calcium than typical methods can maintain then i see no reason to have a calcium reactor.