50% off Aquamaxx - Gonna hook up the CTech T-3 Calcium Reactor

[14 foot reef]

Its been 6 years since I ran a calcium reactor, but with the amount of 2 part including Magnesium and using Sodium Hydroxide at my alk. I'm going to add this to my 850 gallon reef in hopes to cut my 2-part in half. The Aquamaxx CTech 3 at $195.00 on clearance. I decided I'd try it before plunking down $2500.00 on a Twin Tech Calcium Reactor from Deltec CRTT
Nothing like having everything perfect then throw in the ever so finicky Calcium Reactor !!!!!

May the Games Begin !!!!

cTech T-3 Calcium Reactor

INTRODUCING THE AQUAMAXX CTECH T-3 CALCIUM REACTOR AquaMaxx cTech T-3 Calcium Reactors use an up-flow design to mix saltwater, calcium carbonate and CO2 inside a reaction chamber to eliminate the need for daily two-part dosing. Not only will the AquaMaxx cTech T-3Calcium Reactor keep your levels...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

​

 

[Outlaw Corals]

That’s awesome what a great deal I jumped on that 50% off deal as well. I grabbed a protein skimmer just to have on hand in case of emergency I don’t even run a protein skimmer anymore. I run an algae scrubber but I just couldn’t pass up this 50% off sale

 

[Gtinnel]

I’ve never ran a calcium reactor before but I couldn’t pass up the price either. So I picked up the t-2 for $130.
I have been wanting to get a calcium reactor for a while but not sure if it was worth the up front cost. With the sale price of the AquaMaxx it wasn’t too much more than what the Sicce pump it comes with is worth.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I’ve never ran a calcium reactor before but I couldn’t pass up the price either. So I picked up the t-2 for $130.
I have been wanting to get a calcium reactor for a while but not sure if it was worth the up front cost. With the sale price of the AquaMaxx it wasn’t too much more than what the Sicce pump it comes with is worth.

I’ve had a t2 for well over a year now and love it. I got it when they had a 30% sale. 50% is amazing!. I tried running the reactor off the return manifold, using the pinch valve and bubble counter. It was too finicky for me, not to say that it will be for you, I have severe vision issues as well as motor control and tremors which just made it not work out for me. I ended up removing the pre filter, bubble counter, and pinch valve. I also got a kamoer fxstp to feed the reactor. Originally pulling through the reactor but the lines fouled so now it’s pushing which keeps the lines super clean….its in a sump so if it were to leak no problem, if it were outside I would stick with pulling. The life saver for me is the carbon doser. It’s pricey, but great for my personal situation as I can hear the clicks of the valve (or see the flashing red led if I put my face close) to dial it in. I had bought the tunze co2 regulator with the reactor but if you buy the carbon doser kit the regulator is included and is much, much cheaper than buying them separately. Two five pound co2 cylinders works out great for me on a 160-200 gallon system. One lasts about 3 months and I always have a backup available as most gas suppliers are not open weekends, I can’t drive anymore, and Uber doesn’t like pressurized cylinders at all! Some online diy beer brewing places have decent sales every now and then. I think I paid like $60 for both shipped (you’ll never see those cylinders again, they’re just trade ins unless you have a place that fills while you wait) It gets you out of the rental fees. Each refill is just under $15 here. People love reborn media, but I’ve found it often hard to come by so I’ve been using arm extra coarse media and haven’t had to clean out the reactor yet. So, all in all, it added up to a bit of a chunk to get what worked for me but it’s already paid for itself as I was using the premeasured 1 gallon 2 part from brs do to my vision limitations with measuring and flinging powder everywhere with my tremors. I did start running into the ph wall. I got to about 110ml a minute on the doser and it hammered the ph. I ended up adding an avast Kalk stirrer which has also been amazing. So now I’m flowing 2.2 gallons through the Kalk stirrer at night (2 cups of Kalk powder added per week) and 45ml through the calcium reactor 24/7 and my ph is back to normal. This ended up being way too long winded, I just wanted to let you know it’s actually a good piece of kit and worth every penny at full price. Best of luck!

 

[Gtinnel]

I’ve had a t2 for well over a year now and love it. I got it when they had a 30% sale. 50% is amazing!. I tried running the reactor off the return manifold, using the pinch valve and bubble counter. It was too finicky for me, not to say that it will be for you, I have severe vision issues as well as motor control and tremors which just made it not work out for me. I ended up removing the pre filter, bubble counter, and pinch valve. I also got a kamoer fxstp to feed the reactor. Originally pulling through the reactor but the lines fouled so now it’s pushing which keeps the lines super clean….its in a sump so if it were to leak no problem, if it were outside I would stick with pulling. The life saver for me is the carbon doser. It’s pricey, but great for my personal situation as I can hear the clicks of the valve (or see the flashing red led if I put my face close) to dial it in. I had bought the tunze co2 regulator with the reactor but if you buy the carbon doser kit the regulator is included and is much, much cheaper than buying them separately. Two five pound co2 cylinders works out great for me on a 160-200 gallon system. One lasts about 3 months and I always have a backup available as most gas suppliers are not open weekends, I can’t drive anymore, and Uber doesn’t like pressurized cylinders at all! Some online diy beer brewing places have decent sales every now and then. I think I paid like $60 for both shipped (you’ll never see those cylinders again, they’re just trade ins unless you have a place that fills while you wait) It gets you out of the rental fees. Each refill is just under $15 here. People love reborn media, but I’ve found it often hard to come by so I’ve been using arm extra coarse media and haven’t had to clean out the reactor yet. So, all in all, it added up to a bit of a chunk to get what worked for me but it’s already paid for itself as I was using the premeasured 1 gallon 2 part from brs do to my vision limitations with measuring and flinging powder everywhere with my tremors. I did start running into the ph wall. I got to about 110ml a minute on the doser and it hammered the ph. I ended up adding an avast Kalk stirrer which has also been amazing. So now I’m flowing 2.2 gallons through the Kalk stirrer at night (2 cups of Kalk powder added per week) and 45ml through the calcium reactor 24/7 and my ph is back to normal. This ended up being way too long winded, I just wanted to let you know it’s actually a good piece of kit and worth every penny at full price. Best of luck!

I really appreciate your input. I was doing some research on the forum before buying it and found where you had one. I was considering reaching out to you to see if you still had and liked it. I’m hoping to run it in another room of my house and pump the water to it with a masterflex peristaltic pump. I’m not sure if having the effluent running through 30 feet of line that is hard to access is a bad idea though. I also plan on having several leak detectors around it that would turn it off if it leaked. Plus I’ve been looking into flow sensors for 1/4 inch line, but again I’m guessing effluent would be hard on them.
I still have some parts to get and some more research to do. I’m kinda excited about it. I’ve been on the fence about getting a calcium reactor for several years now.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I really appreciate your input. I was doing some research on the forum before buying it and found where you had one. I was considering reaching out to you to see if you still had and liked it. I’m hoping to run it in another room of my house and pump the water to it with a masterflex peristaltic pump. I’m not sure if having the effluent running through 30 feet of line that is hard to access is a bad idea though. I also plan on having several leak detectors around it that would turn it off if it leaked. Plus I’ve been looking into flow sensors for 1/4 inch line, but again I’m guessing effluent would be hard on them.
I still have some parts to get and some more research to do. I’m kinda excited about it. I’ve been on the fence about getting a calcium reactor for several years now.

I don’t think the effluent going through rodi tubing 30’ into a separate room would be a problem. I have a similar situation with my water change and dosing where I have a multitude of rodi tubing going through walls and into a closet where all the equipment is. I just flush those all out every year or two with diluted muriatic if needed. The tubing on the pump is another story though and why I switched to pushing. Two problems occurred, the tubing around the pump roller fouled and on the kamoer, there’s a barb reducer that goes from 1/4” silicone to 1/8” silicone and another that goes from the 1/8” silicone to the 1/8” tubing around the rollers. Those little barb adaptors have a pretty small passage that would get clogged pretty easily. When pushing I don’t have any issues at all and everything stays clean. Something to think about with a remote mount is the displacement of water in the reactor when you refill media. Just opening up the reactor there is very little spillage but once you add a gallon jug of media you’ll have a bit of overflow to contend with. So you may want a super soaker (it’s a large squirt gun that you could put in the cylinder and extract water with) and a bucket. I don’t know about the flow sensors. Pushing, the inlet would be ok as long as the sensor picks up slow flow. When I looked at the Neptune units I think they had to have quite a bit of flow to register but I could be wrong…my memory isn’t the best ha! On the effluent side, I’m pretty sure you’d have issues but you could probably just use one sensor anyway with leak sensors. Fun times ahead…think of all those happy @Battlecorals colonies you’ll be feeding!

 

[Gtinnel]

I don’t think the effluent going through rodi tubing 30’ into a separate room would be a problem. I have a similar situation with my water change and dosing where I have a multitude of rodi tubing going through walls and into a closet where all the equipment is. I just flush those all out every year or two with diluted muriatic if needed. The tubing on the pump is another story though and why I switched to pushing. Two problems occurred, the tubing around the pump roller fouled and on the kamoer, there’s a barb reducer that goes from 1/4” silicone to 1/8” silicone and another that goes from the 1/8” silicone to the 1/8” tubing around the rollers. Those little barb adaptors have a pretty small passage that would get clogged pretty easily. When pushing I don’t have any issues at all and everything stays clean. Something to think about with a remote mount is the displacement of water in the reactor when you refill media. Just opening up the reactor there is very little spillage but once you add a gallon jug of media you’ll have a bit of overflow to contend with. So you may want a super soaker (it’s a large squirt gun that you could put in the cylinder and extract water with) and a bucket. I don’t know about the flow sensors. Pushing, the inlet would be ok as long as the sensor picks up slow flow. When I looked at the Neptune units I think they had to have quite a bit of flow to register but I could be wrong…my memory isn’t the best ha! On the effluent side, I’m pretty sure you’d have issues but you could probably just use one sensor anyway with leak sensors. Fun times ahead…think of all those happy @Battlecorals colonies you’ll be feeding!

I already run my AWC lines the same way through my ceiling and haven’t had any issues with them plugging up. If it needs flushed every year or so that isn’t a big deal either. I could probably siphon the water out of the reactor before refilling with media. Plus this setup will be in an unfinished utility room, so some water spilling is not that big of a deal. It was the apex flow sensor I was looking at, and now that you mention it there probably does have to be a decent flow rate before it will register it. You likely just prevented me from wasting money on it.

Also I was a kid in the 90’s so an explanation of a Super Soaker is not necessary at all.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I already run my AWC lines the same way through my ceiling and haven’t had any issues with them plugging up. If it needs flushed every year or so that isn’t a big deal either. I could probably siphon the water out of the reactor before refilling with media. Plus this setup will be in an unfinished utility room, so some water spilling is not that big of a deal. It was the apex flow sensor I was looking at, and now that you mention it there probably does have to be a decent flow rate before it will register it. You likely just prevented me from wasting money on it.

Also I was a kid in the 90’s so an explanation of a Super Soaker is not necessary at all.

Ha! You probably survived lawn darts then too!

 

[Gtinnel]

Ha! You probably survived lawn darts then too!

Absolutely. I remember playing with my cousins as a kid and we would throw them straight up into the air and then avoid getting hit. It really is amazing that non of us ever got hit with one.

 

[lbacha]

Just purchased a T3 as well couldn’t pass up the deal and I already have a CO2 setup from when I had high tech planted tanks

 

[Gill the 3rd]

I did the same thing. I purchased the T3 for my 300 gallon reef tank. I can barely keep up with the 2-part and kalk dosing so Ive been looking to get a calcium reactor. Perfect timing for me.

 

[lbacha]

The T-3 showed up today and for the price it is a pretty nicely constructed piece of equipment . Can’t wait to see if it works as well as it looks.

 

[zenx2]

Purchased T1 for 110.00 bucks!! So far reactor is awesome! Very quiet no leaks and so glad to be rid of dosing pumps. I will say I feed it with versa which would be fine but I got a a bad pump. Ecotech is sending a new one no questions asked.

 

[14 foot reef]

Wow did my 850 gallon reef really settle down when I added the Aquamaxx T-3 smooth alk, calcium and mag.
My DOS pumps almost never run now.
If you're on the fence about a calx reactor, jump off the fence and order one.
Get the Carbon Doser regulator and the Kamoer wifi pump, and all problems are behind you.

 

[lbacha]

Wow did my 850 gallon reef really settle down when I added the Aquamaxx T-3 smooth alk, calcium and mag.
My DOS pumps almost never run now.
If you're on the fence about a calx reactor, jump off the fence and order one.
Get the Carbon Doser regulator and the Kamoer wifi pump, and all problems are behind you.

I’m very impressed with the T-3, great reactor for its MSRP price, at 50% off it was a steal

 

[Gill the 3rd]

Glad to hear the T3 is working out great for you guys. I’m about to finally hook it up to my 300 gallon systems since I’m running out of 2 part.