Reactor explosion!

[TheGrog]

No, not a nuclear one. Although that might be easier to clean up.

Today my AquaC RX-1 Calcium reactor exploded when I was flushing the effluent line. All I was doing was opening it all the way, closing it a few times, then when dialing in the drip rate, BOOM!!! The entire front panel blew off! Prior to this, it was behaving normally. It is controled by a Pinpoint controller and electronic solenoid. CO2 pressures were normal.

Any ideas on what happened?

I contacted Aqua C but I doubt they will do anything as it is 18 months old and they only have a 1 year warrantee. I know I will not be buying another one from them!

 

[karsseboom]

Too much pressure can cause these things to blow. what was your feed pump?

 

[Waterobert]

It is hard to say what went wrong, however when you have pressurized equipment it might explode! It doesn't happen very often. My guess is that your check valve (you should always have one or two) failed and let the salt water enter solenoid or regulator. Your CO2 tank has enough pressure to cause this kind of explosion. CO2 gauge was showing normal pressure, however what if it was flooded with salt water? CO2 regulator has or should have pressure relive valve. What if that valve was corroded with salt water inside of regulator? Was the CO2 tank and regulator next to your sump with salt water splashing at? Do you believe that $ 100 regulator with dual gauges and solenoid is trust worthy to keep 800-1000 psi from cracking acrylic? Anyway, I am not trying to make you feel bad or guilty. What happen to your calcium reactor could happen to any brand. Few years back good quality reactors used to have water prove pressure gauge, which would alert you that your reactor was about to explode. They don't put those anymore, so they can sell reactor for $30-50 less.

 

[mc-cro]

co2 pressure had to have built up some way, probably just as waterbert described. a small feed pump couldnt build up that kind of pressure, I wouldnt think

 

[fishgate]

***? I would also suspect your regulator. Replace if in doubt. CO2 is under close to 2000psi pressure. A failing/failed regulator will ruin your day. I worry about this occasionally on my kegerator.

 

[TheGrog]

Thanks for input.

Regulator is also 1-1/2 yeas old, and the solenoid has built in bubble counter with check valve. There is a second check valve on the outgoing line too. It is about 10 feet from any other epuipment (and around the corner) so there is no chance of salt or spray hitting it.

Heard back from Aqua C and they think there was a hairline crack from when it was originally shipped that finally gave way. They are going to take it back for analysis and replace it with a new one. Not a bad deal considering it is way out of warrante! Will be interesting to see what they have to say. They say that their units are tested with compressed air to "well above normal operating pressures" for leak testing so they are not sure what caused it either.

Thanks again and I will post more if I find out what happened. Back to manually dosing! ugh!

 

[rrasco]

That's great news. Customer service at its finest.

 

[mikejrice]

Sounds like a bad time. Good to hear that their customer service is going above and beyond for you.

Like everyone else said, with compressed gas systems bring mixed with aquariums, there are tons of possible fail points. It sounds like you did your setup right, so maybe it was a small manufacturer weakness.

Michael Rice
Marine Engineers
Sent from Tapatalk, so excuse my bad spelling and grammer.

 

[sirreal63]

I hope they fix it, but honestly it looks like an effluent clog with CO2 being pumped in. That looks a lot more destructive than just a split seam, it took some pressure to break the acrylic. Is there a check valve on the water feed side? Any excess pressure that did not go out the effluent should have gone back out the inlet side of the feed.

 

[TheGrog]

It was fed by gravity (no pump) as the skimmer is below the level of the sump.

 

[PincheReefTank]

that's great news. Customer service at its finest.

x2

 

[kenghmoob]

Wow, i never even considered that the CO2 tank can do this. How often then should one replace their regulators?