Calcium reactor setup. Need help

[plancton]

I´m planning to setup a calcium reactor under the tank.
The sump that would feed it, is attached to the tank (meaning it is on top of the calcium reactor).

Does this represent a problem when feeding the reactor?, what pump would you use?.

Does this represent a problem to the reactor in terms of lifting the mix back into the tank?.
If so how do you solve it?

 

[danjen10]

CA Reactor Setup

CA Reactor Setup

If you can be more specific about how much above or below the reactor the water will come from and go back to it would be helpful.

I have 2 Korallins. One on my main tank and one on my frag tank. One has a small pump feeding it (with a valve between the pump and the inlet of the reactor) and the other uses a small aqualifter pump that pumps like 3.5 gal/hr.

I'm guessing that the aqualifter would probably work fine for you.

Hope this helps.

 

[plancton]

The top part of the rector would be around 25" below the top of the tank.

Its just that I´ve never had a reactor and I just assume they are normally setup at the same level as the sump.

 

[danjen10]

I was in the same boat as you. I actually filled up a bucket of water outside and setup the entire reactor (without the media inside) so I could simulate actual operation. It got me a lot more comfortable.

I would recommend you do the same. I would definitely get a feed pump of some kind. If you are pushing 25" up after the reactor then you might want something a little more powerful than the aqualifter but it may still work since there will also be head pressure pushing down on the reactor.

Get you part and setup and test outside your system. There are some great articles as to how to dial in the reactor. Read them and take your time. It gets pretty easy after you get the hang of it.

I keep the details of bubbles per min, mL of water effluent per min and Alk and Ca. All are key in dialing it it.

 

[plancton]

Can I see a pic of your setup to see how you solved that issue, or any links to dialing the reactor?

 

[AcroporAddict]

I have a fairly typical setup, with the sump below the tank, and I tee off my return pump to feed the reactor. With your setup, I'd say either an aqualifter or a powerhead powerful enough to push about 60 ml/minute thru and back up to the tank.

If your reactor is a recirculating one, like a GEO that comes with an Eheim, you also might consider doing a gravity feed to the reactor and teeing off the recirc pump to feed the effluent up to the sump behind the tank. It would take a bit of flow from the recirc pump, but not much.

 

[plancton]

It will be a Vertex calcium reactor. So the feed pump does the job of feeding the reactor and the same pressure brings the output back in the sump?

 

[das75]

The Aqua-lifter seems often used. Even with the reactor below, it's like a closed loop, you don't need to worry about head-loss so a small pump is fine.

As suggested teeing into a pump works also (what I ended up doing).