• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

DIY Project High flow DIY reactor - now with video

Right just finished installing the reactor.

I went with the double bottle set up for the moment, i'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes, the co2 hasn't come on yet.

pPKveim.jpg


This is the complete set up.

lXm410l.jpg

I ran my hand in front of the spray bar and it seems flow is still strong so i'm happy with that.

The filter housing has a lot of trapped air in it at the moment which is causing a right racket coming through the spray bar. Is there any way to get the trapped air out?

apart from the trapped air I'm very pleased with the reactor, massive thanks to foxfish for the build details.
 
Looks great just one thing ive noticed, have you got the out put from the fluval going in the reactor on the right side ? I thought the inlet was the same side your co2 pipe is ? Hope that makes sense
 
happy to say most of the air has been push out by its own accord.
the co2 has just come on as well and it seems to be working a treat I cant see any bubbles escaping from the bottom of the coke bottle.

yeah makes perfect sense mark, I too questioned my self but you're right I have the tubes going in the opposite way. on this filter housing the port labelled "in" goes directly into the filter housing and the port labelled "out" goes to the middle of the housing and into the central tube.

If i connected the housing up as labelled it would have been working backwards, water would enter the coke bottle from the bottom and work its way up and out.

Also if I where to make the reactor again I would skip siliconing the coke bottle in place and instead use a bit of the green filter hose to hold it in place. I think it would give a sturdier connection. Might still change this at some point.
 
Hmm, my filter housing is labelled up in the opposite way, 'in' goes into the middle of the unit, and then would go down through the bottle, then up and out through the sides if than makes sense?
 
Well done mate, its great to be able to see inside the reactor & check how well it is working.
You might get a build up of gas, if this happens you can adjust the timer to allow for the build up to dissolve.
I have found at very high bubble rates & low flow rates the inside bottle can get about 25% full of gas & it can take up to 30 mins to dissolve once the suppy is switched off - however mine runs without a build up useing about 5-6 BPS & about 2000lph.
It is interesting that your bottle design is working though 🙂
 
I get a mist all over the tank. I'm using a Hagen 88g diffuser unsude the bottle. I'll try a different bottle shape. It is working fine at the moment, but improved efficiency is always a good thing 🙂

Dan, the trickle noise you hear is most likely gas bubbles trapped inside the filter housing. They clear eventually, especially with a bit of encouragement.
 
Hmm, my filter housing is labelled up in the opposite way, 'in' goes into the middle of the unit, and then would go down through the bottle, then up and out through the sides if than makes sense?
I have my bits and pieces too now and my filter housing wil work the same as yours jojouk, the inlet port will take water from the filter outflow pipe to the centre of the housing and will exit from the outflow port.
Just need to sort out a suitable bottle to fit, tried Robinsons bottle which is way too large and 16/22ml pipe is too small diameter to make a short adapter with, a cut down 2 litre coke bottle seems too small ttto fit and the width of the bottle is too wide to allow enough room inside the housing, I wasn't banking on the stumbling block being the bottle! any help guys and girls.
Oh and i've decided to run proper co2 tubing for the majority of the length from FE through solenoid and bubble counter then cap off with a non return valve and final piece of tubing going into the reactor will be supple airline tubing as foxfish did, if it works for him I'm not going to change this so a 4.5 ml hole through the centre to self seal the 6ml od soft tubing, I can always change this final foot of tubing anytime if needed and this way I also get to retain the small purge button to release any build up of gas too, now that bottle :facepalm:
cheers
 
I have made some progress. Fitted the a pneumatic bulkhead to one of the filter unit heads, to enable the co2 tube to pass through. Looks like it will work a treat 🙂

I'll post a pic tomorrow 🙂
 
yeah I think the 500ml pepsi bottle was the best fit in mine.

Having a slight issue with mine unfortunately, for some reason the co2 is getting stuck in the filter housing and collecting as one big bubble, when it gets to large it expels all at once coming out of the spray bar and straight to the surface as tiny bubbles.

With my old ceramic diffuser the drop checker would just be going yellow at lights on. With the reactor its still dark green at lights on.

Any thing I can do to try and sort this?
 
running off a fluval 405 which i think is about 1200lph but going to be much less than this full of media.
co2 is going through a maple wood diffuser.

Think its probably the diffuser. going to strip down the filter now and change it over for a fluval disk, should have used it in the first place but wanted it for another tank.
 
I'm using a Fluval disc, and it seems to be dissolving pretty well. I get the occasional burp from the outlet, but my drop checker is verging on yellow at a relatively low BPS. Win 🙂

If your water is clear enough, anything like floss is fairly pointless, and only going to impede flow. It's worth looking through your media and taking out anything that isn't absolutely necessary.
 
right just took it all apart. thankfully its pretty easy to unhook the filter housing with little mess, I was concerned it was going to be a tricky job.

I replaced the coke bottle with a pepsi bottle as i think its got a better shape and this time round I fixed it in place with rubber hose.

Standard 21.5mm pipe than you can get from B&Q etc fits tightly inside the bottle then I found some old tubing that was slighty bigger than the 16/22 filter hose i have this fitted nicely over the 21.5mm pipe.

l7qAjcG.jpg

The rubber tube also fitted tightly over the filter housing pipe. this is how the bottle is held in place.

llAYRIF.jpg

This time I made it so the pepsi bottle touched the bottom of the filter housing, I then cut out two notches for the water to escape.

uVSJEYM.jpg

then fitted the ceramic disk. I had a look at the maple diffuser before i took it all apart and it was actually working pretty well, it was giving off tiny bubbles but it was a lot smaller than the fluval disk.

NTx7tRu.jpg


So its all back together and running i'm just having a hard time getting all of the air out of the filter housing. its actually at the top of the pepsi bottle as the water comes in, the filter housing itself is full.

When i turn the filter off i can see the air bubble come back up the hose towards the filter, turn the filter back on and it gets stuck at the top of the bottle again.
Do you think it will push its way out eventually or is there a trick i can get to get rid of it?

cheers for all the help guys.
 
Back
Top