coralife calcium reactor leaks

[Just Jim]

I've been using this piece of junk for about 6 months now. Out of the box it leaked. I sealed around the pump with silicone and it worked just as it should've until yesterday, when it started to leak through the silicone. I cut out the old silicone and resealed it. I just can't justify spending the $400 for the geo calcium reactor that I want. Has anyone had luck "fixing up" the coralife reactor permantly?

 

[zaireguy]

mine just went and starting leaking on me last night.I feel the pain man

 

[Just Jim]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11528628#post11528628 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zaireguy
mine just went and starting leaking on me last night.I feel the pain man

How long did you have yours? If I had it to do over again, I'd have bought the geo 624. But now I've got $150 invested in this junk. Right now I've got a layer of silicone drying. Then I'll put another layer on top of this one, hopefully it sticks. Hasn't anyone else had this problem?

 

[zaireguy]

mine has been nothing but problems I want the geo 624 also.I have had mine about a yr

 

[Just Jim]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11528706#post11528706 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zaireguy
mine has been nothing but problems I want the geo 624 also.I have had mine about a yr

Instead of buying the geo 624, how about I give you a good deal on a "lightly used" coralife reactor? You can always use it for spare parts.:lol:

 

[Percula9]

If the silicone doesn't work, try JB weld. It worked for me on a busted skimmer. The key is inside and outside has to be sealed. I'm sorry but you get what you pay for. There is a local fish store by me with a 300gal reef. It has some of the nicest acropora and other various corals, without a reactor. It is maintained with supplements and water changes. This proves you don't need such a device to begin with.

 

[Just Jim]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11531702#post11531702 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Percula9
If the silicone doesn't work, try JB weld. It worked for me on a busted skimmer. The key is inside and outside has to be sealed. I'm sorry but you get what you pay for. There is a local fish store by me with a 300gal reef. It has some of the nicest acropora and other various corals, without a reactor. It is maintained with supplements and water changes. This proves you don't need such a device to begin with.

I have sps and clams, and over 300 gallons of volume, and I'd go through tons of 2 part if I didn't have a reactor. I tried a jb weld knock off, because my local lowes was out. It was called welder and it didn't work. It wasn't a two part though.

 

[liveforphysics]

My O-ring pump seal dripped on my coralife 500 calcium reactor.

I bought 1 size thicker and 1 size smaller diameter O-ring for about $0.20 . It's never leaked for over a year now. I also totally drilled out the extremely restrictive venturi directly above the pump mount. Now it circulates the water in the reactor like a river, and efficiency and performance increased in a big way. I use a paristilic pump to feed it, so I had no need for the venturi.

After these 2 mods that took about 10 minutes, I've been very pleased with the performance. Hopefully they can help you too!

Best Wishes,
-Luke

 

[caseyjones]

Aside from the leaks and poor design does it do a decent job at maintaining calcium levels?

 

[liveforphysics]

Yes, if you drill out the venturi and use a thicker O-ring it functions as well as any reactor I've used. For how cheap it is and how little work it requires to make it work, I think its a pretty good value.

 

[zaireguy]

I wonder if I could turn my leaking one in to a phosate reactor

 

[Just Jim]

My patch job with the silicone seems to have worked. It's almost been a week now, and it hasn't dripped at all. I don't know what caused it to leak the last time, but hopefully this buys me another year or two.

 

[zaireguy]

man I got a nice mrc off here ..no more coralife

 

[Reefer26]

leak

leak

mines leaked alot at the beggining but after a while it stopped i guess it gunked up best this to do is let the salt creep get to it im also having problens keep my calcium level up and dont know why

 

[hllywd]

I bought mine used and agree maybe it's not the best design...
It doesn't leak yet and seems to be keeping my Alk and Ca as stable as I could ask. I referred to the Chemistry forum where RHF was a GREAT help with some basic chemistry I either never knew or couldn't dredge up from the wayback files...

IME about the worst way to attempt a fix of this kind is to slather silicone on it because eventually it's going to leak again then you have a mess. I'd say the best idea here is the thicker O-ring and/or add some silicone grease to help the O-ring do it's job.

liveforphysics, I really like the idea of drilling the venturi out for more flow, I think that's as big a problem as there is with this reactor. I wonder how big a leak risk it would be to feed with a powerhead and control the drip on the output side?

Tim

 

[Whalehead9]

"I bought 1 size thicker and 1 size smaller diameter O-ring for about $0.20 ."


Were did you get the o-rings? Retail or online?

 

[laverda]

I got mine cheap as was a return and it leaked. A little weldon acrylic glue around the joints sealed it up no problem. Mine did not leak at the pump. silicone does not stick well to acrylic or some plastics.

 

[liveforphysics]

I went to a local hardware store here in Tacoma WA called McClendons. They have this O-ring bin with different sizes of O-rings. They have thick ones, thin ones, large diameter, small diameter, all sorts of O-rings. I just brought my pump in with me and found a thicker O-ring that I had to work to strech around the pump area. It took some force to get it back into the pump housing with the thicker ring, but it's never leaked, and it's easy to remove if I want to clean or inspect the pump. It was really $0.20, and really is a solution that works.

 

[Whalehead9]

the reason I asked was that I have a bunch of o-rings and one of them just happened to be the right diameter and a bit thicker, but then I could not fit the pump back on the reactor. I thought of sanding it out but decided to try to find a better o-ring.

My question is with that thinker o-ring, how much harder was it to fit on your reactor?

 

[newreef8584]

If it is at the joint in the plastic use the Weld On 2 part Epoxy I believe it is 4052. It is a very permanent solution. If it is the Oring then replace it with a bigger one.