Ed Seeley
Member
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.
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DIY Project DIY Reactor - pictures, assembly and testing
- Thread starter Ed Seeley
- Start date
altaaffe
Member
Great stuff Ed - I can't wait to get started on mine now. Got most of my bits last week, just waiting on the hoetails coming through the mail.
Tony Swinney
Member
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
Cheers
Tony
Ed Seeley
Member
Tonser said:
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!
Themuleous
Member
Great write up, Ed 🙂
Sam
Sam
JohnC
Member
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
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
Simon D
Member
Brilliant work Ed, I love the clear piping so you can see what's going on in there.
Got to get one of those!
Got to get one of those!
Ed Seeley
Member
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.
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.
Tony Swinney
Member
Excellent Ed ! Look forward to the your reports !
Tony
Tony
Ed Seeley
Member
Here's the reactor plumbed in, not bled and totally empty of water;
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;
After 15 minutes the water level is rising;
After about 30 minutes there's just a bit of air left at the top, still mixing with the water constantly;
Close up of the mixing;
After about an hour and a half almost all the air has gone;
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!
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;
After 15 minutes the water level is rising;
After about 30 minutes there's just a bit of air left at the top, still mixing with the water constantly;
Close up of the mixing;
After about an hour and a half almost all the air has gone;
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!
JohnC
Member
hi,
out of interest what is the flow rate on the filter your testing it with?
best regards,
john
out of interest what is the flow rate on the filter your testing it with?
best regards,
john
Ed Seeley
Member
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.
It's now running with no media inside with about 1.5bps of CO2 being injected.
JamesM
Member
/me is excited.
Looking great Ed 🙂
Did you manage to test that mesh stuff yet?
Looking great Ed 🙂
Did you manage to test that mesh stuff yet?
Ed Seeley
Member
JamesM said:
Not yet. It's still got the bioballs in. I think the mesh may gather too much rubbish!
sisko
Member
Nice work!!! 😉
Ed, can I ask where did you get those hosetails from?
Ed, can I ask where did you get those hosetails from?
Ed Seeley
Member
sisko said:
From LBs Horticulture. They're barbed LDPE fittings. http://www.lbsgardenwarehouse.co.uk/category.asp?cid=OXQQZN7FFG67RA0KV7GHB3RAHJ6HCE1O&cat_id=BARBFIT
Just remember you need the 16mm fittings for 12mm inside diameter tubing and 20mm for the 16mm inside diameter tubing.
Ed Seeley
Member
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.
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.
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!!!
)
Some close ups of the fittings,
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.
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.
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!!!
)Some close ups of the fittings,
Joecoral
Member
May I ask, why silicon instead of using solvent weld?
Ed Seeley
Member
Joecoral said:
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.
Joecoral
Member
Ed Seeley said:
Fair enough then 😀
