Calcium Reactor - Bar Aquatics or MRC?

[wallyfish]

Ok now for those of you out there that use either a Bar Aqutics or MRC Calcium reactor I have narrowed my choice down to one of these two units so here are my questions. What do you like most about your CR? (please specifiy which one you have) and what is it that you wish was different, i.e., what would you change or modify on the unit you bought?
Thanks in advance for the great insight and tips here!

[optimus prime]

Well i have owned korallith which i upgraded to a barr which i upgraded to an MRC. I have finally found my reactor in the MRC. Not only the design but material and build quality is the best i have seen.

When i fist saw the barr unit i really like the clean look of it not having hoses running between the two chambers and everything is contained in the bottom of the unit. Come to find out that the way water travels between the two chambers is via some TINY grooved routed in the lids of the chambers (seriously they cannot be bigger than 1/16-1/8"). This is just not as reliable as the MRC barbed fittings. It also is a PITA to prime after power outages and always required me to remove the lid and top off the chambers by hand. The only other flaw i can think or is the barr uses too small of an Oring and i had problems getting the chambers to seal at times.

The MRC reactor design is the best on the market IMO. It uses Orings twice the size of the barr and i have not made and adjustment to mine since i got it dialed in a few months ago. Did i mention how badass this reactor is?lol
Oh here ya go

http://www.alteredbeasts.net/vids/SPSreactorSkimmerResize2.jpg

[optimus prime]

I think the MRC is easier to prime proly due to the larger path between the two chambers and the larger intake on the MRC. The barr has a 1/4" intake and the mrc is a 1/2" (i think its 1/2" maybe 5/8" i cant remmember right off)

[d4a2n0k]

I have no experience with Barr but my MRC CR-1 has been working great for the past 3-4 months. No complaints as of yet. It is set and forget, only tinker every 2-3 weeks if that.

Plus, Andys customer service is the best, should the unexpected happen.

[Omar H]

I really like my MR CR2, but then again this is my first reactor.

The only thing I would change is if I could get an extra pad for the first chamber, I would love to stop the media from tumbling inside the chamber.

The other thing that I would advise you to is to read several times the setup instructions, I followed the mfg´s instructions and managed to do it wrong. The only way I was able to set it up correctly is by following a thread with detailed instructions from RC.

HTH

Omar

[reefkeeper1]

I just went from a MRC CR2 to a Reeftek 12" single chamber. The two main reasons were the reverse flow (the MRC spray bar option looks like another way to avoid media compaction) and larger reactor chamber 6" vs 4.5" at a very attractive price. The only thing I would advise is don't bother to get the Eheim pump upgrade. I spent last weekend dealing with an o-ring link on the Eheim. I would just go with the Mag 2 or purchase the Reeftek without a pump and purchase a Panworld 10PX. Other than that, Jorge at Reeftek is very quick in responding to questions, and I'm very impressed by the build quality of the reactor. With my MRC, I had a small leak coming out of the air input (fixed it with some epoxy), and I had really tighten the first chamber's top to stop it from leaking.