New Ca reactor design with pics and drawings

[melev]

This might help some of y'all. http://www.melevsreef.com/tools.html This page contains two links to the "pins" method.

Regarding the regulator and/or controller, I use a Milkwaukee Regulator with with solenloid. It works great since I installed it 7 months ago. If you lost 300lbs of pressure overnight, you have a leak. Using soapy water, you should squirt or spray each connection to see if bubbles form. If they do, that is the leak.

My high gauge is at 1000, even 4 months later. To be honest, it hasn't budged in all that time. The low gauge is between 10 and 20 lbs. I aim for 12 to 15 personally.

The bubble counter is one bubble per second. Due to my use of Oceanic Salt, Calcium levels have been up around 550 or higher. I actually turned off the CO2 100% about 9 days ago, to let Calcium come back down finally, and I"m using Kent Sea Salt again. http://www.melevsreef.com/parms.html

The pH Controller is by Milwaukee as well. The probe is in a cup, mounted in my sump. As the effluent drips into that cup, the probe measures the pH of that water. (The cup overflows into the refugium.) The controller is set to 6.8, and when it decides it is necessary, allows CO2 into the reactor or not. With this device, I've not had to make any adjustments at all. Truly plug & play.

 

[schwaggs]

That sounds like it may be a sound solution and eliminate th need for a bubble counter.

Where do you place the PH Controller probe in the reactor?

Vmichael,

See the pixs in my post on page 33 (Link to page 33). I used a JG 1/2" tubing to 1/2 MPT and drilled the bottom out of the fitting. I placed a threaded T in the return line to the pump and put the JG fitting in the T and the probe in the JG fitting. The pH probe fits in perfectly and does not leak.

 

[neo1013]

Can anyone post a materials list please. If I ever find the time I would like to make a web page with tons of DIY projects, parts lists, and instructions. But that is when I get time. For now I want to be able to build one of these for my new 125g.

 

[Scott S]

What type of gasket material is used to seal the top? and where can I get some? I am currently leak testing everything below the cover.

 

[lavith]

I started with
Alk = 8 dKH
Ca = 420ppm
pH = 8.0 - 8.2

Effluent out
Alk = 26 dKH
Ca = undetermined
pH = 7.2

Quick question is: Should I lower more pH in the effuent out to about 6.5-6.9?

 

[New Reefer]

If your Alk increased from 8 to 26 you probably do not need to make any adjustments to lower the effluent pH - the pH INSIDE the first chamber of the reactor is probably where it should be - in the six-point-something range...

I would just let the unit run for a few days, and monitor the Alk of the tank - if that increases slowly, it's doing fine - if not, then you can increase the CO2 rate a bit.

Hennie

 

[dark8nge1]

My venturi isnt working. Water is being pushed back through the recirculation loop and intake. I followed the design on page... 26 or whatever page it was and im using a mag 5. Any ideas what im doing wrong?

 

[merlock116]

for all of you guys using the nylon screws, you can look for "thumb nuts" which make disasembly of the top very easy. They're exactly that, nuts w/ a wider radius so u can twist them out easy.

Also you can add a union w/ a cap on top to make adding additional media quicker when the reactor needs a fillup.

 

[DJ88©]

My venturi isnt working. Water is being pushed back through the recirculation loop and intake. I followed the design on page... 26 or whatever page it was and im using a mag 5. Any ideas what im doing wrong?

Can you get a pic or two for me to see? I may be able to help. If not one of my minions will.


Merlock,

Nice ideas. thanks

 

[Ruminari]

Has anyone had a problem with their Mag pump leaking? I'm running a mag 2 and it is leaking out of the intake area of the pump body where body connects to the removable piece. I checked the O-ring and it seems to be in good order. I even tried adding silicone to the o-ring but that didn't help either. Any other ideas? I did notice one very small scratch in the body where the o-ring sits. Could that be the problem? Thanks for you help everyone.

 

[jamal-188]

Ok, buidling mine this week. Did you guys build it all in one day or just glue a couple pieces, then let dry, then glue a few more....

 

[Ruminari]

For ours I made a dual stage square reactor. I really only glued 1 section per day and let that sit overnight.

 

[Ruminari]

For ours I made a dual stage square reactor. I really only glued 1 section per day and let that sit overnight.

 

[biggt 2k1]

You should let the pieces that you glue for about 2 hours or so, then you can carry on to the next joint. HTH

 

[RicoJ]

I don't understand why the picture and the diagram for the venturi don't match.

I can see the first barb coming from the reactor to the venturi but I don't see the second barb coming out of the venturi to the pump. In the picture it looks like a mpt schedule 80 pipe going into a union fitting.

 

[New Reefer]

So what, there are many ways of doing this.

The important point is to create a smaller diameter in the line, thus creating the "venturi".

 

[kabboord]

Just a note about effluent pH... I have a pH monitor and my effluent was around 6.8 and I was worried about it making tank pH too low... so I just added a 10$ air pump and stone and the cup that the effluent empties into and it brought the pH up to around 7.7 by blowing off the excess Co2.

 

[vmichael]

Just a note about effluent pH... I have a pH monitor and my effluent was around 6.8 and I was worried about it making tank pH too low... so I just added a 10$ air pump and stone and the cup that the effluent empties into and it brought the pH up to around 7.7 by blowing off the excess Co2.

or feed the effluent into a protein skimmer to aerate will also increase its PH. You want to be able to test the effluent coming out of the reactor. 6.8 to 6.9 on a 2 chamber system is great! 6.5 on a single chamber system.

You also want to monitor your tanks PH and it should be around the 8.3 mark.

Hope this helps.

 

[RicoJ]

I am going to tap a jg fitting into my skimmer and feed the effluent into it, just like vmichael mentioned.

 

[vmichael]

I am going to tap a jg fitting into my skimmer and feed the effluent into it, just like vmichael mentioned.

I had my setup like that then I started using ozone.
I replaced the efluent going into the skimmer from the CA Reactor with the excess ozone and now I drip the effluent i from the CA Reator nto the reservoir that that skimmer feeds from.

Still gets into the skimmer.

I'm in the process of building a new Berlin style sump which will incorporate all of these into the unit.