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DIY Project DIY Reactor - pictures, assembly and testing

Still waiting on those. The supplier has let down my source a few times; he's had orders but they haven't been included. He's working on it for me.
 
Tonser said:
Looking great Ed - I now see why the clear pipe was so important, its great to see the diffusion is working ! Look forward to the further tests.

Cheers

Tony

He he!!! Glad you get it mate!!! It's quite hypnotising to watch (or maybe I should just get out more - it's been a long weekend doing far too much work for school tomorrow!)

I'm going to try the netting material at some point stuffed either at the top (to break the flow up and the bubbles coming into the reactor) or at the bottom (where it will stop any micro-bubbles exiting the reactor at high flow rates). I'll also try Bioballs (which will float around and do both things hopefully!). I think it will still be best empty though!
 
Hi,

I'm totally excited now. Glad it works so well as i deffo can't fit the 65 mm one in my cabinet. I've got my 405 on the tank just now and the fish are getting a touch blasted so am eagerly awaiting one of these babies to go with the hydor 300 to reduce the flow somewhat.

Keep up the excellent work.

John
 
Brilliant work Ed, I love the clear piping so you can see what's going on in there.

Got to get one of those!
 
Right; testing part 2 continues today!

All the fittings have now arrived apart from the tees to inject the CO2! They are on the way but the problems with the supplier are still causing a bit of a delay! Tim is keeping me informed of progress. If they don't come then I've got a couple of other ideas that will do the job brilliantly so no big deal. That also won't stop me assembling the reactors so I can make those up this weekend!

The 20mm hose fittings are perfect for 16/22mm pipe and are a nice tight fit.

That won't affect the testing though as I have mended my old injection method using a 12mm inlet pipe and airline connector with plenty of araldite around it now!

The first test is going to be one to check the efficiency of the mixing. I'm going to start the reactor up, without bleeding the air out, and see how long it takes to remove the air!

Once I've done this I'm going to try adding mesh and bioballs to see if they make any difference.

Updates will follow with pictures later.
 
Here's the reactor plumbed in, not bled and totally empty of water;
IMG_0022.jpg


After switching on the water immediately starts mixing in and the bubbles mix together. This is literally less than a minute after switching on the filter;
IMG_0025.jpg


After 15 minutes the water level is rising;
IMG_0026.jpg


After about 30 minutes there's just a bit of air left at the top, still mixing with the water constantly;
IMG_0028.jpg


Close up of the mixing;
IMG_0030.jpg


After about an hour and a half almost all the air has gone;
IMG_0032.jpg


Remember this is all air, not CO2, and the water is now so saturated in gas that there are bubbles everywhere - just like pearling!

I'm leaving the tank for a while running so that this gass will vent off before resuming testing. Oh and the rugby's on soon!!!!

Next I will try to compare adding CO2 into an empty reactor compared to one with some Bioballs and/or netting in the base. The idea is that the media in the base will slow the water down further preventing micro-bubbles going back into the tank, if any do!
 
hi,

out of interest what is the flow rate on the filter your testing it with?

best regards,

john
 
It's an Ehiem 2128 so rated for 600lph. With the 12mm pipe fittings and media in the filter it will be less than this obviously.

It's now running with no media inside with about 1.5bps of CO2 being injected.
 
JamesM said:
/me is excited.

Looking great Ed :)

Did you manage to test that mesh stuff yet?

Not yet. It's still got the bioballs in. I think the mesh may gather too much rubbish!
 
Well I finally had time (in amongst sorting out leaking pipes in the garage!) to get the production line started today!
The first stage is sealing the threaded fittings with silicone. Once that's dried tomorrow I will drill the holes for the airline/bleed valves and glue those in with silicone. Then I can glue the assembled end pieces onto the clear pipe using PVC cement and they will be done!

First I dry assembled everything to check they were all there and work out who's is who's.
100_2141.jpg

From left front to right these are Tonsers (two sets), LondonDragon's (with the spare 16mm hosetails), Simon Doherty's, JamesM's, Hijac's, Egmel's (with 12mm fittings) and then Aquariculture's at the front right with two 90 degree bends.

I then relocated to the kitchen and took all the fittings apart and cleaned them thoroughly with methylated spirit to make sure there is no grease on the threads that will prevent a total seal with the silicone.
100_2142.jpg

100_2143.jpg


Then the silicone was applied to the male thread (the bit that goes into the other thread) and the seals tightened up fully. After that the excess silicone was smoothed out with an apllicator (wet finger!!! :lol: )
100_2145.jpg


Some close ups of the fittings,
100_2146.jpg

100_2147.jpg

100_2148.jpg
 
Joecoral said:
May I ask, why silicon instead of using solvent weld?

If you were to solvent weld the Polypropylene threaded fittings into the PVC you would never get them apart. By siliconing them they can still be removed if you need to get access or switch the size of the hosetails. Also solvent weld is really best joining PVC to PVC rather than different plastics together.
 
Ed Seeley said:
Joecoral said:
May I ask, why silicon instead of using solvent weld?

If you were to solvent weld the Polypropylene threaded fittings into the PVC you would never get them apart. By siliconing them they can still be removed if you need to get access or switch the size of the hosetails. Also solvent weld is really best joining PVC to PVC rather than different plastics together.

Fair enough then :D
 
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