grassi Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 A new one was too expensive. A used one was expensive. A diy round one was expensive too.. So I made it square. Should work in the same way. I'm almost ready to the water test and then find a MJ 400 or 600 to test it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Before you put water into it call me... I see some you need to know about... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 5, 2009 Author Share Posted October 5, 2009 You scared me Frank! :-)) I did a fast water test and seems to work, except the top flange. Maybe I have to add a couple of bolts or some sort of gasket. I will give you a call later. Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stylaster Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 i want to see this thing in action! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 Looks good...my first DIY reactor project was square as well...a square calcium reactor. It worked great(too good in fact), my tank was just too small to take advantage of it... :( I get my gasket material from A-Boy Plumbing on Terwilliger across from Fred Meyers. Its 1/8" thick rubber. It comes in 6"x6" sheets for $2.99. Its on the first plumbing aisle where all the toilet plumbing accessories are on the bottom shelf. It works great to seal flat surfaces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 Looks good...my first DIY reactor project was square as well...a square calcium reactor. It worked great(too good in fact), my tank was just too small to take advantage of it... :( I get my gasket material from A-Boy Plumbing on Terwilliger across from Fred Meyers. Its 1/8" thick rubber. It comes in 6"x6" sheets for $2.99. Its on the first plumbing aisle where all the toilet plumbing accessories are on the bottom shelf. It works great to seal flat surfaces. Good to know! Ive been wondering whare to get some small piece of rubber for gaskets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 Thanks for the advice Frank. I'm gonna setup the test like this: Dosing pump>reactor>sump. The pressure should be minimal inside the chamber. For now I'm gonna use an aqualifter with a barb valve before the reactor. In december I will be back in Italy and a client of mine will give me a few peristaltic pump to test (they use them for milking equipment). stylaster, I'm gonna start the test in a few hours as soon as the pvc cement is ready, I will post some pics :-) Ryan, thanks a lot for the hint... I'm using a temporary gasket for now, but I will check out A-Boy Plumbing. It is alway difficult to find good sources for gaskets, o-rings and materials in general. I'm very happy about this diy. Almost free and it was fun to built it :-) The square shape is not used a lot for reactors and skimmers, I think mostly because of the cost of producing it vs buying large quantity of acrilyc tubes. The amount of media a square shape can hold is way more than a cylinder. Nice for short stands like mine. Next project is gonna be a square ca reactor :-)) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 Test Test went almost ok. Just some leaks near to the top flange that I'm gonna fix. I just used weld-on N3.. The reactor was stirring well and serving kalk slowly. Some pics: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfisher Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 Looks great! Good job. Now, how do we order them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 This project started just for fun, but to be honest it could be a good idea to sell some units. I would like to finance one project I have in mind (a cheap Reef controller based on Arduino Duemilanove). I would buy something like this. It wasn't available so I made it. Problem is that building a square one is cheap if you do it yourself: it requires more time than a cylinder shaped one. You have to cut, glue, test... The materials itself are not more than $40 + pump ($14 new). But there are at least 3 hours of work. Now I'm gonna test it for a few days connected to the tank and see what modifications are needed. There are always :-) Then maybe I will make a few more, same size for now. It is about 2 gallons, so is good for most of the tanks in the 55-120 I think. Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfisher Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 I have a 49g corner, space is very limited in the cabinet. If I took measurements would you be interested in a customer , smaller build? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 Sure. Mine was built considering the small cabinet I have and the tank size. What's your daily evaporation rate in average? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 Sent you a pm Roy. At now the reactor is running in test mode. More than 24hrs and it looks good. I'm gonna post a picture soon with the new fancy black top flange Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfisher Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 reactor I top off 1" every 3rd day 36" canopy 2 ros actinics and 250w MH 8-10" off the surface. I have a 12" deep x 10" tall x 10" wide space above my canister if I built a shelf to hold one.. or behind and outside the cabinet 8x8x? tall (whistle) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 What's your total volume in gallons? 12''x10''x10'' is good.... I'm thinking about a 7''x7''x10''. It is about 2 gallons... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 So I got about 10 pm's and emails in a few hours.... To all of you, I need to know the average daily evaporation. This is the first important data. The reactor should match that first. Then I need to know the free space you have in your stand. Taller is the better, but I know it is critical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 Some more pics 24 hours test Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfisher Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 reactor What's your total volume in gallons? 12''x10''x10'' is good.... I'm thinking about a 7''x7''x10''. It is about 2 gallons... 49g corner with a Eheim pro 2 ( 2 gallons ) so, 51 ish. Evap= roughly 2 gals every 3 days. I am topping off 1-1.5 inch evap using a 5 gallon water jug and guessing the aount. I can get precise over the next week if it will help. Thanks for q's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 Newfisher, the 10'' in height is your maximum space? We need to leave you some room for hands so you can open the lid and put the kalk... It could be 6x6x10 if you have some room on the top for maintenance or 8x8x8 with a pvc spray bar, so all the calk will be mixed (the elbow is probably not enought tp cover that surface). Also I would use a 90 elbow fitting on the top flange to save more space. Let me know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfisher Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 reactor Sending a P.M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 7, 2009 Author Share Posted October 7, 2009 Thanks Newfisher, got it. Ok, after a safe test now the reactor is up and running. The micro valve is easy to adjust to have the right flow back in the sump (about 1 drop per second in my setup). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfisher Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 looks GREAT under there.....I think the square looks better than round!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 Yes it does. I like it a lot. I'm looking forward to build the square calcium reactor :-)) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smann Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Looks good, where did you get the plastic screws and wing nuts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClayTheSavageFraser Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Can we make a CA REACTOR FOR ME? I need one for my 240!! Clay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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