Taking the plunge...

[Dez]

Well, I'm finally taking the plunge and I'm going to build a Calcium Reactor. I've got access to C02 and the valves and bubble counter already, so it's just the reactor itself I need to build. I only have 4.5 inches behind my tank (which is where everything is going)...my CO2 container does fit behind there... I have a few questions...

1. Who has tried both the upflow and downflow type reactors and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

2. Does the type of media used really matter (Aragonite vs. the commercial type stuff made for reactors)

3. I've seen many different designs with CO2 and the water from sump coming in from the intake of the pump.... and others with the CO2 coming in from different parts of the reactor... Does any of this make a difference?

4. For a 4 inch reactor (not sure if I'm going round or square yet)...how tall should it be)

5. Who's running a dual chamber reactor with a single pass on the second chamber. I'm leaning toward this design myself, but is it worth the effort for that single pass?

6. Should the feed from the sump be drawn from the intake of the recirc pump, or should there be another powerhead to feed the reactor, or should it be a siphon?

Thanks for all your time....I'd just like to do it right from other's experience.

Thank you so much...

Des

[Canadian Man]

Dez, Like I told you tonight I believe the media does make a diffrence. When Tony tried to use the arragonite larger size sand it didnt work. When he went with ARM it solved his problems. Now of course an reverse flow(bottom up) reactor would solve this problem.

I think you would want the co2 before the pump impeller so it gets chopped up and is easier to dissolve.

As far as height goes it depends on what your set up is and if you are feeding from the sump for eg.

I always thought that I needed a pump to feed my reactor and that caused nothing but problems with output rates. Now that it is gravity fed it is rock solid!

[Dez]

Any others with Calcium Reactor experience? Please?

Des

[Dez]

Anyone?

Des

[Delphinus]

If it isn't too late, you might want to consider enrolling in the calcium reactor design course currently being offered over at reefs.org. I looked that at course and was seriously tempted, I still am, I just don't remember when it was running again (I think it was later ... the other courses should be well under way by now?)

Using non-reactor-media-grade sand has other potential problems besides the non uniformity of the grain size, such as leaching of excessive phosphates into the tank. Or was that if you use oyster shells, I really don't remember.

Anyways for the cost of ARM, you're not really saving anything by avoiding it. If you have the excess sand and want to go to an upwards flow reactor, then heck, give it a try. I went with sand first because I wanted to see what would happen. It did work OK from the point of view it affected my Alk and Ca levels, but my reactor was tooooooo big for what I trying to do with it, way too tall a column of sand to try to push water through it (maybe if it was less than 12" it would have worked, or if maybe if there wasn't that extra chamber on the bottom). But like I said, $25 for a package of ARM isn't really a huge impediment. Espescially considering the cost of everything else. Acrylic, CO2, cylinder, regulator, solenoid valve, etc.

I don't know about the upwards flow versus downwards flow. Were I to build another, I'd do the upwards flow but only because I just want to see what difference it makes.

I have the downwards flow right now, and my Alk and Ca are fine. So it's not like a downwards flow is somehow inadequate.

As far as dual chamber designs ..... personally, my take on it is this: The theory behind them was that they were a good idea to use up more CO2 before returning the effluent to the tank. In reality .... it almost seems as if it was more of a fad than anything else ... last year (2001 timeframe) it seemed as if everyone was going dual chambers, nowadays I see less of it. I think .... it's a great idea if you want to have more media, and space is a concern. Personally I like a larger single chamber but that's me.

Height ... well, looking back, I dont think I needed anywhere near as large a reactor that I built. I look at the ones you can buy and reactors half the size of mine are rated for tanks 5 to 6 times larger the size of my tank. So there's some food for thought. I went big because I wanted big. But for no reason in particular. I'm sure a 18" tall reactor 4" diameter would have worked fine, too. WOuld have been cheaper to build, as well. Oh well.

Square versus round tube ..... go with whatever works for you. I like tubing, but square works fine too...

Anyways there are my thoughts... hope some of them are useful

[ldzielak]

Sorry Dez for not posting. I have been thinking of this too much. I built a PM copy with 6" x 18" tower. Got the Eheim pump and all. It worked great for 8 months, then I have had nothing but problems.

Reason my system stoped working is the media pluged up with fine sediment. I had filter floss above my screen at the bottom to keep the sediment out of the pump. Well this stoped my flow and I had no reaction going on. The only reaction I was getting is a single pass through my second chamber.

Things I have learned (IMO):

Second Chamber does not raise pH off effluent in my case (reason I used it)

Pump supplying the reactor require frequent adjustment.

You need to have good flow through the media, not filter / hold the sediment. Up flow would solve this problem, but then keep the media from the pump!!

Bubble size means more than number of bubble per min. (it all depends on what size the orifice is that the bubbles come out)

You should make the pump removable without draining the entire reactor. (valves and unions)

You should have a drain to draing the reactor.

I also use ARM, but my next reactor will most likely be an up flow. But simply removing the old media and putting in new and loosing the sponge solved my problem. But I did go to a MAG7 (huge overkill) before I got to that point.

I'll send you pics of my original and current on the weekend if you like.

Lee

[Delphinus]

Lee, post the pics in here if you don't mind, I'd like to see them too if I could. Thanks!! :)

[ldzielak]

Ok I will have to post the latest pics on Saturday when I get home. But this is the picture after week 1. I could not figure out how to adapt the Eheim to the PVC, so I had to use hose. I had deposits of some metals on the Stainless in the rotameter used on the incomming water and on the bleed at the top of the reactor. They have been removed and I use an all plastic rotameter now to see my water flow.

I also made an inline filter for the water comming in. It looks much like my bubble counter, but has a flange at one end, so I can replace the floss 1 per month.

You ca see the blue filter floss that caused all my problems, under the media. :twisted:

I replaced the pump with a mag7, and recomend them over the Eheim. Also added a valve before and after the pump and unions right at the pump for removal. I can then open the valve at the bottom to drain my system. I also found the puch lock style fittings for the 1/4 tubing that make for easy modifications.

Also you should be able to see I had a 45 elbow in side the top of the chamber, I cut the off and have the "jet" of water going straight down. I think this is better, because the level was droping at an angle before, and I get much better mixing.

http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/CAoperation.jpg

Lee

[ldzielak]

Ok, so here are the latest BIG picture links:

Reactor explained (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/Reactor_Explained.jpg)
Pre-Filter using floss (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/PreFilter.jpg)
Skimmer pump used to supply reactor (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/Take_Off.jpg)
Orings on top of reactor (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/Top.jpg)

Hope these help.

Lee

[Dez]

Well, I built my reactor, It's 31" tall with a 24" reaction chamber. Upflow design. 4.5" acrylic tubing. I'll get Jonathan to take pictures when he's here next week and post them for me... thanks for all of your suggestions..

Des

[ldzielak]

Dez,

I was thinking about the up flow design and I can't wait to see your pictures. I was thinking of using a bunch of bioballs at the top as a filter to keep the media from entering the intake (they would need to be glued together).

So the real question is does it work.

Lee

[Delphinus]

Lee:

Great looking setup.

Where'd you find the flowmeter? Hey you know what, I work at a company that supplies pipelines with .... oh wait never mind about that :P

Seriously though, some more questions. How much time elapsed from your first picture up there to these more recent pictures? Your media has disappeared (or did you take some out)?

What size acrylic did you use for the flanges?

What's the plumbing in the background? The T with two P-traps or something. Skimmer?

[ldzielak]

Tony

The flowmeter is for CL02 service, no metal parts at all on it. I had a 316SS one before, but I had a rust like deposit building up on it.

Original pictures are from about 1 year ago (Maybe 10 months). I changed the media, because I did not have enough flow through it even with the MAG7. It took me 1 hour to rinse the milk out of the media, but I have not put it back it. So I guess if you don't have enough flow, it could work when the media is fresh, but later down the road it will only get worse. I had a sponge in the bottom that cause all the problems. But in 6 months, I did use 4 inches of media.

I purchased the large flanges from Titus. The seals he sent never worked to my satisfaction, so I went with the O-rings. I real fat one on the big chamber. The acrylic is 3/8" but I find the large flange should have been 1/4" to work better with my big O-ring.

Yes that is the back side of my ETSS 800 Skimmer you can see.
Skimmer from back, before CA reator (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/skimmer_back.jpg)
Front of Skimmer (Day 1) (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/skimmer_front.jpg)
In the other pictures you can see the Iwaki 55RLT I use on the skimmer.

Lee