New Ca reactor design with pics and drawings

[H20ENG]

Most JG stuff is 1/4"MPT, so you need a 1/4" NPT tap. Buy both the 1/4 and 1/8" pipe taps. You will always use them in DIY

[melev]

dark8nge1,

[welcome]

I have a tap set I bought for under $10 at Harbor Freight Tools. It should have every size you need.

[dark8nge1]

Oh really! I love that place. I think half the tools I own come from there. I'll have to go see if I can find the set. Do you know the name of the set or how many pcs there are in it. Thanks for the help!

[melev]

No, not off hand. The kit has a bunch of stuff in it, with metric thread and standard, machine and coarse. It is a small black case, but can fix threads on a bolt and create threads in a piece of material. It must have 48 or more goodies.

This kit has the smaller finer stuff, not anything to make larger holes like 3/8 or 1/2".

[jamal-188]

Wow, this thread is great!! I'd love to build one for my 200g reef but honestly don't have time to read all 45pages of this thread. I spend a few hours and am only at page 11!!

Does anybody have a simplifed verion or drawing of making this I could check out...sorry I'm really not lazy but I just don't have the time to read the entire thread but don't want to miss out on any important updates or changes in the reactor.

[melev]

This page has helped others in your situation: http://www.melevsreef.com/dj88.html


Btw, if any of you want to create a cut list or part list for me, I'll update that page with the information. Just gather it up for me and PM or email me what is needed. Thanks.

[vmichael]

If you don't care that's its not square go to http://biktop.net/aquaria and see the modified version.
Dubbed right here on this thread as the "Flux capacitor'

You can save alot of money if you use regular PVC instead of the clear PVC I used. The important part is the efluent output. Being able to see how much media you have in the unit becomes less important after you've had it for a while. Most of us change our media every 6 to 8 anyway.

[DJ88©]

heh.. well ain't that an interesting twist on it..



flux capacitor.. lmao...

[vmichael]

Originally posted by DJ88
heh.. well ain't that an interesting twist on it..



flux capacitor.. lmao...

Darren

I still like your version better. I just used what materials I had lying around.

But it works great, and even though I eventualy wanted to build your model; I didn't see the reason to since this one does what it is suppose to do.

This is the best CA Reactor thread on the Internet.

lmao too.. along with you..Thanks

[jamal-188]

anybody ever come up with a cut list?

[melev]

vmichael's link has one: http://www.biktop.net/diycornertank/dj88_reactor.htm

[jamal-188]

AWESOME!!! I'm gonna get my acrylic cut hopefully monday and get this bad boy started!!

[TAMU Reef]

I hate to ask a silly question, but is the nozzle where the CO2 and water feed in really necessary?

TAMU Reef

[camarojweed]

If you mean the venturi, yes it is necessary, the little pump and only 10-20 lbs of pressure from the CO2 tank would not be able to enter the unit because of outlet pressure on the pump, also it allows for air/co2 that has collected at the top of the unit to be drawn back out of the top and pushed back into solution...

[TAMU Reef]

I guess the reason I asked about the venturi is because on the manufactured calcium reactors, it appears that none of them mention a venturi in the description of the equipment. It also appears from pictures that they have skipped it altogether. I am especially looking at precion marines and the others???

Thanks,
TAMU Reef

[DJ88©]

double post

[DJ88©]

Initially I put the venturi on for the recirculation loop from the top of the reactor back to the pump. The nice side benefit is the draw of CO2 as well.

I don't know of any manufacturer who uses it. For the most part my design isn't what anyone is using in a mainstream manufactured reactor. I took what I felt were the best aspects of the upflow and downflow and put them together to get this design.

I decided to go with the venturi after tinkering for many many weeks trying to find a way to ensure that the recirculation loop worked to my satisfaction. I had tried a few different ways and found that many would just stop pulling from the top after a while. This was the only way that I was happy with it. And so it stuck..

cheers!

[TAMU Reef]

DJ88,

Thanks for the insight, you have clearly thought this design out a long time.

TAMU Reef

[DJ88©]

Thank you for participating..

And enjoy.

Cheers!

[bigdaddybo]

What type of pump is best to use on this CR........... Thank you bo

[New Reefer]

My reactor has been up and running for a few weeks now, and I'm really impressed. It raised my tank's alkalinity from 6dKH to 10dKH in only one week - that's on a total water volume of more than 1000 liters (260 US gallons), with lots of hard corals in it. Prior to starting the reactor I had to supplement my 24/7 Kalk drip with at least 20 grams of sodium bicarbonate /carbonate per week just to kep the alk at 7 dKH. I'm now slowly turning down the CO2 supply to stop the alkalinity from rising much further.

I had to make do with what I had available for media - I'm using about 30% correl "rubble", 50% calcium carbonate sand and 20% dolomite (to add some magnesium to the water as well...)

I made a few modifications to the original design (such as upscaling the reactor slightly; making the first chamber slightly larger than the second, as suggested earlier in this thread; replacing the perforated inflow-pipe with a perforated plate at the same height as the plate on the downflow side; and using reducer bushes instead of the barbs to form the venturi. I also placed the unit into my sump, as this freed up valuable floor space, and made it less risky in case of small leaks. It also made it *much* easier to vent the last bit of air trapped below the lid - I just let the water flow back into the sump before finally tightening the wingnuts... oh yes, and I used high grade (acid resistant) stainless steel bolts and wingnuts, as I could not source any plactic bolts and nuts locally.

The venturi sucks so strong that it made the use of a small feeder-pump unnecessary - in fact, I had to half-close the venturi intake with a plastic clamp to reduce the effluent flow rate to an acceptable level.

Here are two photos of the reactor in operation:

[New Reefer]

What type of pump is best to use on this CR

I asked the same question before I started to build mine Just check back a few pages and you should fing the post...

The pump I use delivers a "no head" 4800 liters per hour, with a maximum head of about 4 meters. An Eheim 1260 would work very good IMHO, it's just a bit expensive...

HTH

Hennie

[melev]

Hennie, nice job. Very interesting changes too.

[MK Reefer]

Just wanted to share with Darren the two I built based on his design with some minor changes, the biggest being making the updraft chamber much bigger.

I plan on using a mag 5 or eheim 1250 for this bad boy, but a few pages back I heard someone complaining about heat with the mag so now I may go with the eheim pump.

Can people post which pumps they are running these reactors with. Again, Darren thanks for the design and taking the time out to answer all the questions. The info in this thread is invaluable, and may one day put all the Ca Reactor makers out of business.

Mike

[gregt]

This thread was automatically split due to performance issues. You can find the rest of the thread here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=574223