Grrr. My biopellet reactor died

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Yes, that is what I did initially with mine, with material from Michaels. But now Vertex makes that screen filter and I bought that, too. Works good.

I was just about to post that they now make those screens. Great idea though, as i'm sure almost everyone using them for pellets had the same issue.

[asylumdown]

well since buying a new reactor of a comparable size would be in the 100-130 range, plus I'd then have to buy a pump, I need to work with what I've got. Though for anyone else who comes across this I definitely recommend either a recirculating design that has large diameter effluent lines, or not going with the recirculating variety at all.

Well my dad had sold his large drill press bus he still had a small desk sized version that was more than up to the job of drilling through the plastic cap. With the bulkhead, valve and fittings Denny hooked me up with at Concept yesterday, I was able to do this:



The inlet line, while larger than the effluent line, is still a pretty small hose, so my flow through is still going to be limited by the amount of water that can be sucked in to the reactor. At least now to clog and shut down completely I'll need to produce enough mulm to block a 3/4 pipe. If this ends up being limited in functionality due to the inlet line, I should be able to modify it to a larger hose as well.

[Stones]

Nice work! I'm sure this should alleviate your clogging problems. Your intake line shouldn't need to be scaled up because your reactor uses the recirculating current to keep the pellets tumbling as opposed to the intake water being used for that purpose.

[denny_C]

good job buddy i knew you could do it

sorry i never got back to you my inbox has been a mess all day lol

[lastlight]

nice work on the reactor but considering the issues you had getting those counters in place you should be beaten like a rented mule for working with primer and cement on them!

[BlueTang<3]

Originally Posted by lastlight

nice work on the reactor but considering the issues you had getting those counters in place you should be beaten like a rented mule for working with primer and cement on them!

I was about to say the same lol,

[asylumdown]

erhm, I was just putting those there for, uh, visual effect. I didn't spill any of either (I actually did all the brushing and gluing in the sink, which might have been worse actually), but I did get a large dollop of silicone on my floor that I just discovered. oops.

in any case, success! I just dosed the reactor with MB7, and things are tumbling away. I can already tell it's improved as particulates that previously would have just hung around tumbling with the pellets are now rising and evacuating the reactor. My main problem now is that the force of the water leaving the enlarged effluent pipe is now stronger than the suction of my protein skimmer. Before with that little hose resting right on the lip of the skimmer intake line 100% of the effluent got sucked in to the skimmer. With 3/4" plc pipe sitting in the same place, it's blowing down right past the intake. I might have to cut an inch or two off the effluent pipe.