Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

[swk]

Does anyone have anyone pictures of their geo reactor with a masterflex setup? I'm a little unclear on what order and where the hoses should go. Also, anyone have any idea how to bleed excess air from the lid? I have the calrx in the sump so it shouldn't be sucking air from anywhere that I can think of...

 

[slief]

Does anyone have anyone pictures of their geo reactor with a masterflex setup? I'm a little unclear on what order and where the hoses should go. Also, anyone have any idea how to bleed excess air from the lid? I have the calrx in the sump so it shouldn't be sucking air from anywhere that I can think of...

I run a geo 818 but my CP is on a shelf away from the reactor and I don't have any pictures of showing how it's plumbed. That said, to bleed it, what I did was turn the recirc pump off and hold the prime button down on the cole parmer. That spins the motor on the CP at full speed which will suck the air right out of the reactor.

 

[tkeracer619]

Snap a photo of your setup and we'll get you sorted out. If you can pull the effluent from the carx lid > masterflex > out to sump that is ideal. Welcome to the club!

I run a geo 818 but my CP is on a shelf away from the reactor

You've had yours setup for a while, hows it handling the tank?

 

[swk]

Hopefully this helps. I believe I have it pushing through the reactor currently.

Also, I have tried using prime function to remove the air, to no avail. Please note the gas is not hooked up and I am running the pump high in attempt to remove the air. Thanks!

 

[tkeracer619]

Is the air just some bubbles on the top plate. If so they are irrelevant. The only time this is a problem is when large amounts of air build up and cause the recirc pump to cavitate.

Pulling is generally better than pushing simply because a clogged output could cause the water to leak past the orings, these pumps have a very high pressure capability. If in the sump it isn't a big deal.

 

[slief]

You've had yours setup for a while, hows it handling the tank?

Mine is running great but probably way overkill for my tanks current needs. I have very little calcium uptake in my tank as my tank is primarily soft coral and some hammers that grow like weeds. I do have a couple small SPS's but that's it. Other than that, my coraline algae grows insanely and if anything, that would be my major Ca consumer. I literally have new rocks growing in my tank while the original live rock is growing by inches from the coraline. Aside from my branching hammer colonies that grow like weeds, the coraline is by far the biggest consumer of Ca in my tank.

That said, the reactor has kept my parameters very stable and the Cole Parmer has made my reactor a 100% hands off perfectly consistent device.. I haven't had to touch the reactor or my Cole Pamer in months now. My caclium stays at about 450 and Alk around 9.2. I got my CP set at 25 ml/min with about 1 Co2 bubble every 3.5 seconds using my AP regulator. I've run Ca Reactors before and the combination of a good regulator and the Cole Parmer can't be beat. It's absolutely fool proof and completely set it and forget which was not my experience with the reactors I ran in the past.

I will also note that I push water through my Geo instead of pulling it through. With it pushing the water, I have no gas buildup inside my reactor. When I first set this up, I had it pulling water through the reactor and noticed some gas buildup inside. I then changed the plumbing around so that the water was being pushed through the reactor in order to expose any potential vacuum leaks which it did. I went ahead & re-sealed all the fittings with teflon paste instead of teflon tape and also removed, boiled and then applied silicone grease to the uniseal. Once I had it leak free and running well, I never bothered to put it back to where the CP was pulling through the CaRX. I figured it was working great so I left it alone and have had absolutely no gas build up since.

 

[tkeracer619]

Great , that's about how mine is running at the moment as well... actually my reactor sprung a leak at one of the fittings a few days ago and I have yet to do anything about it other than turn it off :facepalm:

Come to think of it... I should probably get on that before I forget :lol:, I just had knee surgery on the 19th and found out about the leak about 10 minutes before leaving for the Pikes Peak Hill Climb...

 

[swk]

Here my current bubble situation. I really hope this is normal as I can't get it any better than this lol

 

[slief]

View attachment 322507

Here my current bubble situation. I really hope this is normal as I can't get it any better than this lol

That's not normal or you didn't get enough of the gas out... First, did you run the reactor for 24 hours without the Co2 per the instructions? Doing so allows the media to get completely saturated with water so the air can be purgred from it. When you are running the Cole Parmer in prime mode or at full RPM, you should tilt the reactor so that the bubbles are guided to the pipe in the center of the lid. Also, as I mentioned in my previous post, the reactors recirculation pump needs to be off when you are using the Cole Parmer to purge the air.

Did you purchase this new or used? If you bought it used, I would suggest checking every threaded connection and resealing each one. This includes the fittings where the tubing connects too. Like I said earlier, I use teflon paste instead of teflon tape. I would also suggest getting some silicone lubricant and resealing the uniseal at the bottom of the reactor. Remove the seal and apply the silicone grease to both surfaces of the seal.

 

[swk]

Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

Just plugged everything in about 4 hours ago at most. The calrx sits in my sump, so air shouldn't be entering via any of the plumbing as its all submerged.

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[tkeracer619]

Here my current bubble situation. I really hope this is normal as I can't get it any better than this lol

Probably fine, any flat lid reactor will get bubbles in it like that after set up. If it starts to trap air then there is a problem. The air itself won't dissolve in the water like co2 will.

If it looked like that tomorrow I would think there is maybe a leak somewhere but since you just set it up you just haven't gotten all the air out.

 

[tkeracer619]

If you bought it used, I would suggest checking every threaded connection and resealing each one.

Ya don't say

So here is my leak, I got this reactor for free IIRC. Anyways, the bottom fitting on the second chamber had yellow epoxy coating the fitting, It didn't leak so I left it alone. Last media change I noticed some water at this fitting and put a little weldon 16 around the threads where it went into the tube. The fitting was still leaking and worse now. So I cut off the epoxy with a razor blade, you can still see it in the threads of the john guest fitting. You can also see why there was epoxy. I got this 3rd hand (at least) and somewhere along the way someone screwed in this fitting too tight splitting the glued in pvc bushing. They then used some epoxy in the threads and permanently put the fitting in place.

I'm not going to risk trying to get it all out to replace as the tube will probably crack and this reactor only needs to last another year or so. I cleaned it up the best I could and starting around the john guest threads put a liberal amount of weldon 16. I then dripped it over the edge along the crack and worked my way around the bushing to encase it. Not perfect by any means and not pretty but I honestly don't care. It's a free fix and I'm sure if some 2 part walmart epoxy can hold for 7+ years weldon will last as long as I need and longer. Now it's just a waiting game, which is fine because I realized I am out of media and it's almost time for a refill...

 

[swk]

To take advantage of the reactor being in my sump, do you think it'd be easier to remove the ph probe and purge the remaining air through the larger opening?

 

[Krazie4Acans]

I don't want to hijack the thread but what is everyone using for media of choice? I have been using Rowlith C+ and love it because it's an all in one media. I'm finding it very hard to find this media anymore. I thought about switching to ARM but then I have to add something to help support the Mag levels. Any suggestions or a link to a thread where this has already been discussed? Thanks. Krazie :jester:

 

[slief]

To take advantage of the reactor being in my sump, do you think it'd be easier to remove the ph probe and purge the remaining air through the larger opening?

Nah.. You will end up with more air when you put the probe back in unless the lid is completely submerged. just shut the recirculation pump on the reactor off, turn the Co2 off and run that Cole Parmer at full speed until you get the excess air out. If you have a small valve on the inlet side of the reactor, you could always plug that up for a few minutes so you can create a vacuum inside the reactor to further purge any air but the Cole Parmer should have no issue sucking the air out. Especially if you til the rector back and forth to help guide the bubbles towards the fitting/hole in the lid.

 

[slief]

I don't want to hijack the thread but what is everyone using for media of choice? I have been using Rowlith C+ and love it because it's an all in one media. I'm finding it very hard to find this media anymore. I thought about switching to ARM but then I have to add something to help support the Mag levels. Any suggestions or a link to a thread where this has already been discussed? Thanks. Krazie :jester:

I use a combination of Reborn large media and ARM. In my 2nd reactor, I run solely ARM smaller media.

 

[swk]

Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

Nah.. You will end up with more air when you put the probe back in unless the lid is completely submerged. just shut the recirculation pump on the reactor off, turn the Co2 off and run that Cole Parmer at full speed until you get the excess air out. If you have a small valve on the inlet side of the reactor, you could always plug that up for a few minutes so you can create a vacuum inside the reactor to further purge any air but the Cole Parmer should have no issue sucking the air out. Especially if you til the rector back and forth to help guide the bubbles towards the fitting/hole in the lid.

Thanks for the help. I have been running the reactor all night with the recirc and the cp running at 160ml. I'm using reborn media, which seems pretty porus, so I'm sure it doesn't help. No co2 added yet. I will try purging all the air after work and if I still experience the same issues I'll pull the reactor and go through the damn thing lol.

Meanwhile, my litermeters are quietly running reliably, doing their thing. I swear the fish are looking at me, laughing talking about what an idiot I am for not being able to leave well enough alone.

 

[swk]

Also, can someone just glance at this for me to see if I'm in the ballpark here? I'm majorly worried about jacking up my parameters and ****ing my large collection of sps pieces off....

Tank is a 75gal display with a 20 gal sump. Currently using 68ml of Randys DIY 2 part recipe 1. I'm going to start with 35ml of effluent and will start the reactor at a ph of 7. I will try 30bpm and hope that gets me near the proper ph in the calrx.

Sound reasonable?

Also - is it normal for the masterflex pump without a head on it to be whisper quiet, and then to be louder with a SS easy load 2 head on it? Simply put, do the head cartridges create noise?

 

[EvMiBo]

Personally I'd go with ~15 bpm to start out, at ~4psi bubble size. Keep an eye on alk and adjust from there (as long as your alk doesn't sway a lot your coral should be okay). Fwiw, I've always kept my reactor pH around 6.8-6.9 with great results using reborn media. Basically, smaller changes are better..

 

[swk]

Personally I'd go with ~15 bpm to start out, at ~4psi bubble size. Keep an eye on alk and adjust from there (as long as your alk doesn't sway a lot your coral should be okay). Fwiw, I've always kept my reactor pH around 6.8-6.9 with great results using reborn media. Basically, smaller changes are better..

Great! Thanks for your input. Anyone else please feel free to chime in