Reactors must be the flavor of the month!

[StirCrazy]

well sence everyone else is building them I decided I might as well post a couple pics of the one that I am working on.

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/temppics/reactor.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/temppics/reactor1.jpg

Steve

[EmilyB]

I have a bottle.... 8)

Coral calcium and 73 Coral Minerals...

Weird ? It's a calcium thing for old broads...oh, yeah, my mother left it here.... :lol: :lol:

It even talks about pH on there...Maybe I can just drop one in my tank now and then........


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Ok, nevermind................. :roll:

[StirCrazy]

well, it is finaly done! a couple mishaps and one repluming later :shock:

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/temppics/reactordone.jpg

Steve

[Aquattro]

I'll say it again.....serious drug (mis)use :shock: :D

Oh please explain to us what all those pipes and widgets do :P

[StirCrazy]

Oh please explain to us what all those pipes and widgets do :P

As soon as i figue it out :shock: I will be sure to let you know :wink:

Steve

[Aquattro]

ROTFLMAO :P

[canadawest]

Now that is one UGLY contraption! :P

Is that a calcium reactor, or a miniature nuclear reactor??? :?:

[StirCrazy]

Is that a calcium reactor, or a miniature nuclear reactor??? :?:

wait till you see how good my corals will grow from the light this puppy will make :wink: 8)

Steve

[Doug]

:shock: Wholly-Moolly Steve. :shock: Now thats a reactor.

[StirCrazy]

Well it is up and running, I am curently pumping 60 small bubbles / min into it to get it into the zone then I will do some fine adjustments. if does take up almost 1/4 of my stand area though :shock:

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/temppics/reactorrunning.jpg

Steve

[ldzielak]

Steve,

Looks, well, no words come to me. What size is the pump? I'm interested to see your flow diagram. I had bad luck with the sponge technique, maybe you will have better luck.

Lee

[StirCrazy]

I have never had a problem with the sponge, I just shut down my old one that was running for 6 months last night and it was fine. what kinda sponge were you using?

anyways as for the flow patteren it was the result of a bad dream I had (maby after eatting to much pizza :shock: ) here is a pic of the inside of the box.

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/temppics/reactorinside.jpg

by ever account this is a single tube 24" tall reactor with a box on the bottom to increase the amount of water available to be cirulated. Basicly I just cut it in half and plumbed it so it would still act as a single tube. I just wanted the lower hight.. the totaly hight of the unit is 18"

Steve

[BCOrchidGuy]

Okay so I've built my own Ca reactor, got it all ready except I can't find those small valves to control the ammount of water leaving the thing.... Where pray tell did you find them?....

The little valve with the blue finger handle thing.....

[Aquattro]

The blue finger handle thing is a John Guest valve. Call around to various plumbing supply shops

[BCOrchidGuy]

Excellent thanks for the info....

[BCOrchidGuy]

Brad, I've been calling around and no one knows what I'm talking about, so I describe it, .... anyway, $10 each..... I was at Revy and took a look in the gardening area at the automatic watering systems, I bought a Raindrip Micro Irrigation fix it kit that has a ton of stuff, including mini inline drippers that are colour coded, Red is 1/2 gph Black is 1 GPH, they also include Pressure compensating drippers, again Red is 1/2 gph, Black is 1 gph and Green is 2 gph.
It also comes with a ton of other stuff, which I can use for my orchids, btw... the part count for the drippers are 2 of each colour in both the inline dripper and the pressure compensating dripper, and if I really want to get tiny changes in my drip rate, I can use either the 1/4 turn adjustable one, or the 1/2 turn or the full turn rotary one... very cool find

[Aquattro]

Actually, I use the irrigation drippers myself. Much cheaper thatn John Guest valves!!

[StirCrazy]

I was using the microdripers untill I changed it.. the reason I changed it.. the microdrippers slowly clog up over time so you have to stay on top of that .

Steve