Local Calcium reactor building course. Any intrest?
 

Stop me now if you locals think this is wacko. :lol:
I am in the process of acquiring the materials to build 4 Calcium reactors.
I was going to build them for fun and sell them (as that's what I like to do).
I then had a thoughtYes I was thinking, I know it's a suprise! :roll: :lol:

THE PENDING PLAN.
Have whoever is intrested over one weekend to assemble an acrylic calcium reactor. All the parts would be supplied by myself to assemble the reactor and have a finished unit that would be almost ready to run with the addition of the following things;
1.CO2 source
2.Regulator
3.Media of choice( I reccomend ARM).

I thought this would be an educational, fun and, more affordable way for people who are into making their own things, make something that would benefit their tank.
Now of course the material would not be free but If you are intrested in such a thing let me know by PM or Email. If you have any questions please post them. I was thinking sometime in the middle to end of February.

Thanks for Reading :wink:

how much would a full calcium reactor setup cost? do you think it is really feasable if you dont have a separate sump area? how quite are they? thanks jon.

Hey Jon,

MACO is actually offering a course on that too. Check it out:

http://www.reefs.org/maco/modules.ph...gy/public.html

Mitch :)

Sean;
Cost hasn't been finialized yet as I just wanted to see if anyone was intrested. I'll let you know when I have it finialized.

I think it IS a feasable thing if you don't have a sump. Tony for example is feeding from his main tank and putting the effluent into his tank as well and he does have a sump. They are pretty quiet....basically a mag 2 or 3 pump is all the noise you hear and the odd rush of bubbles through the impeller.

Thanks Mitch, That's where I kinda got the idea from. Mine would be a little more simple and in person I think.. More of just a reactor assembly course. I thought I would have all the pieces maybe precut and ready to assemble. I think it would give someone a better idea how a reactor works if they do some of the assembly themselves?

I think this is a great idea although I dont keep corals as of yet so I have no use for a Calcium reactor. I might be interested some time down the road when my tank reaches that point.

For those of you who have not seen Jon reactor it is a nice peice art. Very well designed and the craftsmenship was great. Almost looked factory produced. Problie a great deal for anyone interested in getting a calcium reactor.

There you go Jon. A personal plug from me. hahaha

Josh

I don't think we've seen pics of this, have we?? :P

No not yet :?
I will take some tonight Brad and if you can put them somewhere for me to post I will put some up?

Thanks Josh for the kind words.

For those asking for pics, you can see the basic idea in this thread, this will tie you over until Jonathan can get home from work and snap those shots:

Reactor assembled. Pic Now running.

I hope this helps! :)

Tony, did you ever notice that even though Darren fell off the planet, he still has more posts than anyone else? :!:


Jon, not a problem with the pics....

I am working on that!! :shock:


Steve

Hey Jon, will the reactor be an up-flow or a down-flow?

Which is better?

Well with the reactor I thought up for the course it could be either. As to what is bettet the jury is still out to lunch on that one :roll:
Some will say down flow some will say up.

-Down flow sometimes suffers from media compaction which isnt a problem with a large enough pump.
-Up flow reactors keep the media nice and loose but because the media grinds together you can get "cloudy reactor syndrome(came up with this term myself!)" which can make your tank cloudy cause of all the little particles of media.

the way I look at it is that if upflow is so good ... why are the main manufactures all doing downflow? I think that the increased mecheanical action in a upflow would break down the media quickly by wearing it against each other.. this will cause the "cloudy tank syndrome" and also cause your media to disapear a lot faster with out being totaly desolved. (it will get small enuf to sit in suspention and then go to your tank and add to the sand bed instead of being totaly desolved into the watercolume to be available as bio-calcium)

JMHO
Steve

I've got an upflow reactor, but there's a piece of foam on top of the media that prevents sediment from leaving the reactor. The sediment dissolves completely within the foam before being released to the aquarium.

Mitch

This "project" could be of interest to me. Cost could be a determining factor though...let us know when those details are figured out. So I'll give ya' a definate maybe... :? I love builiding my own stuff and dosing kalk is goona' get old real fast I can see...! :wink:

I"Resent" sent you an email Doug. :wink:

Ooops. :oops: Sorry Jon. I no longer use AOL and I think I might have had the wrong address there anyway as I went back and it wasn't there...?
I've updated my profile so can you send it again ? Sorry for the inconvenience but I'm one of those stupid smokers... :wink:

I'm very interested. What do you figure the cost will be?

Evan.

I sent you a PM Evan.
Thanks for your intrest!

I'm still interested Jonathan, just depends when and $'s. Would'nt be ready for it for a little while, but let me know when things start to come together and $'s. :D After seeing yours in operation looks like a good design. 8)
ande

I will let you know in a few days ande. :D

Just wondering if you have seen the DIY reactor at Big Als under there small display tank. Its a updraft style made with white PVC ends with a clear plastic centre. Looked pretty good.

Josh

Yea Josh, I have seen it. It is actually a pretty poor design mainly because the following reasons
1. They don't have any foam covering the intake to the pump so almost everytime I have gone in there the reactor has not been running because of media stuck in the impeller of the pump. :roll:
2. They want $1200 for a complete reactor set up made from PVC! :roll:
I guess this is not a problem for some if you have lots of money to spend.

Other than those 2...well only 1 problems It's concept is fine. Just not the prettiest reactor I have seen.

There is no way that I would pay 1200 dollars for a PVC reactor. I dont know where those guys get some of there prices. I was not considering buying one anyway just thought I would get some feed back on the design and let you know about it since you are considering doing a DIY project with a couple people.

We need a store like JL or Saltwater connections to come this town.

Josh

I don't think that Calgary alone has the demand, so it would have to compete in the mailorder business as well.

Mitch

I think you are probably right about that, although Saltwater Connections has done it in Winterpeg, and they have a way smaller population then us.
I wouldnt want to take on the risk although I was just throwing it out there hoping someone else might.

Josh

It's a thought that crosses my mind every day. I would like to do it out of my house though and have mainly mail order. The locals would be able to pick up though :D

I think the start up cost would be very high, more then most could handle without a large bank lone. (tanks, website, equipment, licences) not to mention the countinued upkeep of electric costs etc. Not for the fant of heart.

Josh

Try putting together a business plan, just for fun... :wink:
Then have a look at how cheap you could sell things for.....and still make a living....... :shock:

Mitch :)

Unfortunately it is a lot of work. I've tried bugging Jayson to come move out here (he has family here anyways) but ... I guess he's pretty well dug-in now... ;)

Running a business out of one's home is very tricky. For one, you are at the complete mercy of your neighbours (and your competitors ... and your suppliers, some of whom are not very subtle about not welcoming garage businesses). Unfortunately you can be shut down very easily. Just ask Larry and Wanda :( ... I feel very bad for them ...

More power to anyone who tries this .... I've always wanted to, too, but basically decided against it for now, for two reasons .... 1) I'm not convinced the local market is there in numbers yet and 2) I have no desire to try to compete against the likes of SWC (who I wouldn't want to compete against anyways, since he's been very good to me), and then of course the juggernauts like J&L and aquariumpros.ca ....

My plan now, is to convince Jayson he really wants to move to Fiji, and I'll buy his mail-order business off HIM, and get SWC to move to Calgary that way. :)

(Only problem with that plan is ... it involves someone OTHER THAN ME moving to Fiji ... screw it ... I'm just moving to Fiji myself!!!!) :)

Ok ... um ... I guess I better get back to my reality and day job now .... sigh ....

You could always talk to an existing business and see if they would want to sell, then turn it into your own version of JL or SW connect.

Then you have to take into consideration the future of the industry as a whole, where it's going, ect.......

....maybe take out a mortgage on your house...

.....have your wife "on side"....

...... :shock:

ect.

ect.

ect.

Mitch :wink:

I've looked into it already, actually.

I think I'll keep my money in real estate and emerging small business mutual funds! (that'll keep the entrepreneur in me satisified)(I hope)

Mitch :lol:

Who did design that reactor of yours Johnathon? Curious. Looks familiar..

Eerily familiar..



:shock:

Can I step in here for a second. Darren, I posted a link to your thread, which I thought clarified that you are due the credit for the design work. Yes, to be clear: I built your reactor design, and Jonathan & I built our reactors together. We have put in several modifications though, so technically the reactors are no longer identical. Jonathan actually wanted to pursue his own design ideas, however I wanted to use your design, and so I convinced him otherwise. I thought you were aware of this... If you weren't, then I have to apologize for that. You may take up the issue with me if you wish. Privately. I hope I haven't caused any bad feelings. Beleive me, not the intent here. I beleived your reactor there had some merit. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. (There. I said it. :P )

Jonathan is now trying to pursue his own designs.

Whoooah.. tony..

chill buddy..

I was joking..

I couldn't give a rats a$$ what you do with the design. If I were concerned I wouldn't put pics and Visio diagrams online for all to see. Would I? Let's think about this. I KNOW it was my thread. Hence my sarcasm.

Holy cow.

I guess now that I have reached 2000 posts I shall call it a night once again.

Ciao..

Jon If you put together a business plan you will see that it will set you back a pretty penny,even if you want to do a garage business. I just bought a new building to move my business to(need more space). The cost of doing what I want to happen there will be close to $200,000.00 That is not even the cost of the building. I know Tony that you want me to go there, but Indo/Fiji is looking better than Calgary.We will see what I can convince my wife of. I have a plan to move there in 5 or so years if all goes well. If you decide to do it Jon best of luck. Tony if you have a whack of cash I can be on a plane to Fiji tommorrow.lol

Well It probably won't happen anytime soon....I belive it's the wack of cash thing.....and a lack of :roll: :lol:

Jayson if I had that whack of cash I'd be on that plane. ;)

Darren, consider me chilled. ;) I'm sorry if it looked like I came on strong, but I just wanted to be sure that I had given you due credit. To be fair, the tone of your message wasn't clear whether it was a humourous sarcasm, or an icy sarcasm. I apologize that I interpreted it wrong.

2000 posts already? Sheesh get a life. :P

Hmmm didn't Bruce make that design of reactor befor Darren? :wink: :lol:

Steve