Large calcium reactor and denitrafier

Bill Wann · #1 05/20/2006, 10:52 PM

I posted a pic of my calcium reactor and denitifyer in an other post and got alot of questions so I figure I would start a thread on it ,so here it goes .I had a few Schuran jetstram 2s running on my tank and they were not keeping up with my calcium load so I started looking for a larger reactor . The frist place I looked was schuran ,they have a nice large model but it costs over 4 grand . Thats alot for a peice of plastic .
I looked at all the other brands but none of them were built nice or strong . Most of the reactors out there have thin flanges that break , They use a flat gasket instead of an oring which causes them to leak and they just face glue the tube to the flange instead of cutting a grove to recess the tube into and increass the surface area for glueing .I took all of this into conserderation and found no one made the reactor I wanted not even schuran and defenitly none of the american companies produced anything of any quality or something that would holdup to years of use . I also wanted a recurculating design to reuse the co2 , only the schuran had this feature but after owning a schuran with the venturi I figured it could be done better . Its a good designbut it uses a large eheim pump a 1260 to pump water through a 3/6 hole in the venturi . What a waste of pumping power .So afer all of this I deceide to make my own the way I wanted it , I made a few thing and have a cnc router in my basment so that helped .
My design is 10 inched in diameter and 40 inches high . It holds 120 pounds of media and has co2 recurculation .
I used a similar to to a jetstram2 for the co2 trap and used a suction method to recapture the co2 and send it to the bottom of the reactor to be used again . With this design the pump ,ehime 1260 could br run wide open with no restriction . I alos incoropated a pumped drain featuer taht alows me to drain the reactor with the pump so I cand clean and refillit . Ther are 2 valves and and once open they allow you to pump the reactor water into the sump .
I used 1/2 acrylic flanges and 1/4 silicon oring for no leaks or distortion . The main body that hold the media can be removed from the base that has th eplumbing very easyliy for cleaning .

Bill Wann · #2 05/20/2006, 11:02 PM

After loading it with meadia and turing it on I noticed that it reached teh running ph of 6.2 very quick , about 2 minutes . Much diffren then my old jetstream2 . After running for awhile I also notice that it used much less co2 than I thout about the same amout as the jetstram .
So far its working ageat and I cant complain . I have made a 8 inch version a six inch version for too of my friends to try , just like mine but amaller . I have always had high nitrate due to feeding myfish way too much . but they are healty and iam not going to starve them like alot of people do to keep th nitare load down . I tried alot of diffrent things and noting worked so I figured I would try a sulphur based denitraifier They are very popular in europe but not in the US .
I used the lower half of one of my 10 inch calcium reactors as the body and there is a falt plate on top insted of a cone .
Its filled with sulphur balls and curculated from th ebottom up .
I started it with a very slow flow from my sysetm . aboy a drop a second . In 24 hours the redox droped to -300 and I measured the nitrate at zero so I started increasing the flow rate . I run about a gallon a minute and the tank is at zero nitrats it only took one week to drop it form about 20 ppm to zero . Iam impressd . hopfully this will catch on over here more in the future .

spazz · #3 05/20/2006, 11:08 PM

wow bill thats great that your nitrates are zero now. im thinking about building a smaller version of this and putting it on my tank. where can you get the sulphur beads? also i have that file ready for you. you need to let me know where you want it sent to?

xdusty6920 · #4 05/21/2006, 12:55 AM

wow. truely impressive! why arent you building these for your less diy inclined friends here at RC? im in need of both and im having the same trouble finding quality at a large size. ill take one of each!

Bill Wann · #5 05/21/2006, 02:54 AM

Hey Scott lat me know how much media you need and ill get it for you , Its kinda hard to get .
what do you think of my baby phosphate reactor I built for my uncle last night . Its only 4 inchs wide and 18 tall .

asnatlas · #6 05/21/2006, 04:42 AM

Bill your work is just AWESOME !!! I love all of your new DIY toys...

GlassReef · #7 05/21/2006, 07:59 AM

Bill, as many have already said, your work is terrific! Your posts have provided me with many great ideas that I've been able to use in my own projects. Many thanks.

I notice you use 1/4" silicone o-rings. I tried them last year. The ones I used looked just like yours (I got them from McMaster-Carr). I glued the ends together using Super Glue. I had a problem with the glued connection hardening and causing leaks. Would you mind giving any tips you might have on the subject?

exmt · #8 05/21/2006, 08:40 AM

Wow, great DIY craftsmanship! I love seeing pictures of your work...it makes me want to build bigger DIYs!

jcgreen7 · #9 05/21/2006, 11:08 AM

Bill-
I was noticing on your calcium reactor that it looks like you used grommets to make your connections on the main body. Did you use grommets of some other type of bulkhead? Where did you get them? Your projects look amazing. They look to be of very high quality. You should produce these.

3.99AfterTaxes · #10 05/21/2006, 11:50 AM

Hey Bill, you wouldn't happen to have a diagram of that Schuran-style CO2 trap would you?

And in case you're not getting enough praise - AWESOME WORK MAN!

slug · #11 05/21/2006, 11:52 AM

Nice. Do you use a venturi to pull recirculated co2 back in?

Bill Wann · #12 05/21/2006, 01:32 PM

The trick with the orings is to use silicon to seal the ends not superglue.There is no venturi thats what makes it woek better than a schuran . Iam not that great at drawing but ill try to make some sort of diagram of the bubble trap .I thought about producing them but for all the labor and mateials that go into one it would cost 1500 bucks for a big one . I use uni seal to attache the pce pipe to the acrylic tube . You can remove them and they wont crack like a glued joint will . I just like thing built to last and dont like cheap construction .

Bill Wann · #13 05/21/2006, 01:39 PM

a few more pics

H20ENG · #14 05/21/2006, 02:20 PM

Great work again Bill! Thanks for sharing again!

You mentioned in another thread how you keep flooding your acrylic joints with weldon before pulling your pins. Can you describe this a bit more?

Man I gotta get a CNC!!!!!!

Bill Wann · #15 05/21/2006, 02:23 PM

I dont use pins much , I like th efat side of a double edge razor blade .
just space it and hose it down with weldon 4 wait a few minuts and pull out the spacers . nice strong joint .

H20ENG · #16 05/21/2006, 02:27 PM

Thanks Bill!

In the top section of the Ca reactor, can you describe the workings? I assume the recirc is one of the fittings at the top, and the reactor outlet is the other, what is the fitting that draws from the small central tube?

Chris

spazz · #17 05/21/2006, 03:24 PM

hey bill what is with the tiny thing there! i didnt know you could build something so small. ha ha ha ha
looks great as always though. i tihink im going to build a sulphur reactor about that size for my 120.
i was working on energys rowaphos reactor last night. im trying somthing new by putting a giant twist lock on the top instead of the keyed flanges. as long as its not pressurized it will work fine and seal tight. then its just a twist of the top to work on it.

zapata41 · #18 05/21/2006, 04:10 PM

i have a large reactor that i made using the same media as you. now i see you run the ph at 6.2 , i run mine at 6.4. i maintain fine levels, ca close to 500 but alk is at 8.4. the ? is, if i drop the ph down in the reactor i will have to lower the effluent drip, currently about 3-4drips a second, but will this cause the ca to lower or stay the same, also will it lower the tank ph much. i dont run a ph probe in the tank since i have no means to alter it so why monitor it.

hope this is not off topic.

Tim

Justjoe · #19 05/21/2006, 04:42 PM

Bill,
I have some info on your acrylic panel, but your mailbox is full.
You can also email me at justjoe63@aol.com
Very nice work by the way.
Joe

nbd13 · #20 05/21/2006, 05:01 PM

Bill- I am still amazed at your work! It is stop notch.

I know this isn't the thread for it, but I did not find a thread about your new tank (like 15,000 gallons i think you said?).

Could you share your ideas on equipment for it?

What are you going to do in terms of flow? Are you going to use a surge device?

Also what are you plans for it? ie. mixed reef, sps reef, FOWLR?

Could you document the build process of the new tank? I would love to watch it take shape.

thanks Bill.

Nick

P.S. how's the skimmer working for you? I saw in another thread you are getting some NASTY skimmate! I think I saw that it almost made Scott loose his lunch, haha. ANy updated pics of it? That skimmer is a thing of beauty! Really top notch!

Bill Wann · #21 05/22/2006, 11:48 PM

I got ahold of some carribsea sulphur media toady .
Iam not sure what exactly this suff has in it but I dont trust it .
The can has about 10 warings on it about killing your tank and how this is experimental .It also says it has some bacteria in it ?
It is completly diffren tan anything I have used before . It is not a ball or pellet it is like a chip . Much lighter and smells much diffrent .
I have not decied if I will try it yet .

spazz · #22 05/23/2006, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bill Wann
I got ahold of some carribsea sulphur media toady .
Iam not sure what exactly this suff has in it but I dont trust it .
The can has about 10 warings on it about killing your tank and how this is experimental .It also says it has some bacteria in it ?
It is completly diffren tan anything I have used before . It is not a ball or pellet it is like a chip . Much lighter and smells much diffrent .
I have not decied if I will try it yet .

ouch! i dont know if i would trust something that says stuff like that on it. i might see if there is some more info on it before trusting it to a system that size.
or i would stick a couple of corals and fish in your small Q tank and see how it does on there first. if things stat looking bad then pull it off line and do a water change right away. beckey would cut some of your body parts off if you killed fred! he is such a cool fish that i couldnt experment like that.

this is beckey.

and this is beckey if you killed fred!

thesaent14 · #23 05/23/2006, 12:14 AM

hey bill i like you cal reactor i have a Q?

are those cut on a cnc machine and if so how much you spend on the machine thanks

Bill Wann · #24 05/23/2006, 12:33 AM

Yep , They are all cnc cut .
Ive got around 6k into my cnc router , Its really the only way to do this kind of stuff . Putting oring groves in flanges is a real pain without one .The hardest part is laering the software a making your darwing of th epart you want to make .

Scott
I dont think I eben want to try this stuff . Ill copy the lable and you guy have a look .
I think it is anew brand of fish killer to be honest .
It odd that a company makes something for a inteded pourpose but wont stand behide it for that pourpose. weird .

spazz · #25 05/23/2006, 12:56 AM

hey bill you got mail. its a file you have been waiting for. sorry it took so long to send it.
by the way i have been testing deffuser out on the tiny might skimmer. all i can say is wow. what a difference in turbulance. its the difference of night and day. i did a goofy looking removable defuser so i can puf it in different directions and angles. the way you have yours is comming out to be the best way to mount them in there. i still wantto do different homle sizes to see how it reacts with them. it will give me a bettr idea of flow and air output across the plate. im findingthat i have too many holes right now. or there too big in diameter.
any thought on that????

im also going to scrap my ca reactor design and go with one like yours. but im still going to try the alternitive to the co2 injection. but i plan to have the top just like yours or close to it.