New Ca reactor design with pics and drawings - Page 3

pantinor · #51 02/15/2003, 11:37 PM

Me again, do you have a gasket sealing your square top flange to the lower flange when you screw it down?

Cheapreef · #52 02/16/2003, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pantinor
Me again, do you have a gasket sealing your square top flange to the lower flange when you screw it down?

You have to have a gasket, or you'd have water all over your floor.

I believe Darren uses 1/8th Neoprene.

Clinton

Lunchbucket · #53 02/16/2003, 01:37 AM

yeah i use 1/8" neoprene too

40 durometer

Lunchbucket

DJ88© · #54 02/16/2003, 02:31 AM

Hmm this thread answers itself..

who needs me here?

Thanks guys.

pantinor · #55 02/16/2003, 11:15 AM

Doh. should have re-read the other posts, too quick on the keyboard. thanks though!

DJ88© · #56 02/16/2003, 01:02 PM

As an FYI. I am working on some Viso drawings right now. In between studying and homework I will slowly get some together.

I can't sit and email them out to all those who want them tho. What I will do is put JPEG's on here and once the entire drawing is done I will post a link to the VISIO drawing for anyone to download. I won't be redoing them in CAD tho. Sorry.

Mr_Quality · #57 02/16/2003, 02:38 PM

I liked it so much I built my own.

Slightly different, but same idea. In the photos, Iâ€™m leak testing it w/ tap water. I put the pump next to, instead of in front of the chambers and I hard plumbed both sides of the chamber rather than run flexible tube to the upflow side. I have only one tube at the top of the rctr to catch and return excess CO2. The draw from the tank will be pushed from a minijet to one of the venturis. The return to the sump comes from the bottom of the downflow chamber instead of from the top of the chamber. In the test, I have a short loop of tube going from the sump intake to the sump return (ie. I short circuited it) and I haven't connected the T-fitting for the CO2 feed yet.

I was wondering though, when itâ€™s up and running why does it need to be filled to the top with water? You can see in the first photo where I have the water from the upflow chamber cascading down into the downflow chamber. What would be wrong with using it that way when I actually run it w/ ARM?

and

Lunchbucket · #58 02/16/2003, 06:47 PM

if you don't fill it up won't you just get a TON of air bubbles sucked up by your pump? it would be like running 1/2 of your inlet in air and 1/2 underwater

Lunchbucket

Crawdad1 · #59 02/16/2003, 06:49 PM

When building these reactors what makes one able to run on a 800 gallon system and another only a 200 gallon system? Is it the amount of media area?

DJ88© · #60 02/16/2003, 11:56 PM

Quote:

When building these reactors what makes one able to run on a 800 gallon system and another only a 200 gallon system? Is it the amount of media area?

Media is one part of the equation. Another to think about is total water volume. When you start running a high demand system or volume to be able to meet the demands you will need to replace what is taken away. In a high volume system you are going to need to have a higher volume output out of a reactor than say a reactor for a 30 gallon system. When you look a the amount a reactor generally runs for a smaller system you can expec 100 or so ml per minute to be able to keep up to the demand as the size of the tanks volume in comparison to the turnover through the reactor isnt too bad. But if you were to try and run 100 ml/min on say a 300 gallon tank you'd not be able to keep up with the demand. in a 30 gallon system 100ml/min is about .9% turnover per minute. in a 300 gallon system 100 ml/min is .09%. ten times lower. With ten times the tank volume you aren't going to be able to work it.

Now where I was going with this is that to meet this higher need to achieve those results as far as effluent rate you are going to not only need more media but more water volume as you are going to be turning over the volume of the reactor at a much faster rate. By this I mean to achieve the same %age turnover that meets a 30 gallon tanks demands you are most likely going to need a similar rate(most likely less but) for a similarly stocked tank(how full it is not how many corals it has total). To get that %age or what is needed you are going to be pushing a higher flow rate through. It may not need to be ten times as high but it will most likely be higher. And so you aren't pushing a ton of unused CO2 into the tank you'll want to have a smiliarly larger reactor volume so that the CO2 has time to be consumed.

For a time being you will be able to just keep boosting the CO2 rate and flow rate. But after a while it will be counterproductive by increasing the amount of CO2 entering the system.

Hopefully you can sift through all of that..

in a nutshell.. to meet the needs of a larger system media is one thing you will need more of, reactor water volume is another.

man that was alot easier..

pantinor · #61 02/17/2003, 11:30 PM

Sorry to be thick but is this diagram right? See the attached diagram that I attached. This will be my first attempt at building one of these so bear with me.

My question is about the effluent flow. what causes the pressure for the effluent to be pushed up this tube back to the tank?

My guess was that the green line was the effluent and the red line was the water in from the tank, but the previous posts said otherwise.

Thanks again!

DJ88© · #62 02/18/2003, 12:47 AM

That is exactly it.

Except I am running the CO2 into the water intake not the recirculation line. Not that it really makes that much of a difference. Just my little quirks I guess.

Quote:

My question is about the effluent flow. what causes the pressure for the effluent to be pushed up this tube back to the tank?

The pump injecting water in will force water out. I have a 1/4" irrigation valve right after the pump to adjust the flow. I prefer to run it that way as it doesn't pressurize the reactor as much.

Good luck with it..

pantinor · #63 02/18/2003, 11:09 AM

thanks dude, you rock!

DJ88© · #64 02/19/2003, 12:22 AM

Glad I can help.... If it gets someone a Ca reactor on their system.. all the better.

Napalm · #65 02/19/2003, 02:30 AM

DJ88,

Great design!!! I recently started looking for Ca reactor designs, and I definitely like everything about yours. I think I am going to build one.

What are you using for a recirulation pump? I have now idea how much flow is needed. I can't see it needing too much, but it looks like you have a decent size pump. Thanks for the awesome thread!

DJ88© · #66 02/19/2003, 10:14 AM

Napalm,

Thanks.

I used an ehiem 1205 I had sitting around collecting dust. A mag3 or mag 5 is another option. I'd recommend a MAG5 personally. I like having the water flowing at a decent rate.

Have fun.

Mr_Quality · #67 02/19/2003, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Neoprene. Cut to shape. Works wonders. That is pretty much what I use for any gasket I need to make.

DJ, Where do you get your neoprene sheets? I tried using a sheet of pond-liner (feels and smells like what inner tubes are made of) but I suspect it doesn't compress enough to get a good leak-free seal.

Mike