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DIY Project High flow DIY reactor - now with video

When I had my JBL with an Aquamedic Reactor I didn't have much success, could be the design of the filters are not good for inline reactors. Its fine with an UP Atomizer which doesn't really rely on the flow!
 
Yep mate that's my feeling I rigged it up and dropped the water level by a few inches to allow both spray bars to be firing at the front glass, the one with the reactor attached lost so much that the water jets were a good 6 inches short whereas the stand alone filter was giving me a shower!
I've one UP inline on now, waiting delivery of manifold from Germany to split my line and another inline and bubble counter from WE, so should be sorted this week.
Shame about the JBL greenlines, they're cracking filters but as foxfish mentioned the reduced wattage consumption rather limits them to just that 🙂
I really can't splash the cash on a couple of big eheims so will just happy to get my tank healthy at the moment, my reactor could go up for sale on the site. It's just spit on and ready to go😉

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I'm looking at building a reactor but i also have a JBL Greenline!! Has anyone thought about using the Eheim Compact+ pumps? They are about £62 for one that will do 1000lph to 2000lph and because there is not media or anything it seems a cheapish way of getting enough flow through the reactor!
 
Just on a side note, I had to reduce the amount of media in my filter to maintain good flow.
I'm only using 2 or the 4 sponge filters and only a small hand full of bio rings in each tray.
Definitely don't use any filter floss etc as this will really reduce flow.
 
Any updates? I currently have a aquamedic 1000 (previously attached to an Eheim 2178) and now i have a Fluval FX6 which has way more output so i need a new co2 reactor 🙂
 
Well yes & no lol..
It would appear that the smaller vessels (10'' I think) don't work to well with high flows of CO2 but the one I featured in the vid (12'') even though only slightly larger coupes fine!
Unfortunately the 12" models are very hard to find. you can buy a 20" vessel that works extremely well but cost about £80.
So, I can still recommend the 10" model for smaller tanks but not for anything above about 100l.
In the mean time I am currently testing & developing a 600mm x 50mm reactor that lies horizontal on the cabinet floor but, Christmas has got in the way!
I can upload some pics of my prototypes tomorrow...
If you can justify the cost, or find a 20" vessel second hand & you have the room... then it will coupe with huge amounts of gas.
 
Well the FX6 is totally blowing away the co2 in my AM1000; i see mist in my tank which i never saw before 🙂
The FX6 tube size is i think 25mm; which connects to 20mm eheim tubing which then goes through the 16mm port of the AM1000 so this makes sense that flow is to high (a lot of pressure)

On the other hand, i don't feel like throwing away my AM1000 since it really performs well. Now i am thinking of creating a PVC manifold which connects to the outlet of the FX6 on 25mm, then has a T going to 20mm and to the AM1000, and a ball valve going down to limit the 'free flow' and thus forcing water to go through the AM1000, then the outlet of the AM1000 would come in AFTER the ball valve in the main line and then to the tank. Would that work?
 
Hey fox. I just built my own reactor following your plans. I have an Eheim Pro3 2080 factory rated at 1700lph connected to it. I used an 11" canister (measured from bottom to the top of the cover, minus the "bumps" for inlet/outlet). CO2 is delivered via a cheapo glass in-tank diffuser. The mineral water bottle is about 2 inches off the bottom of the canister.

I'm still getting bubbles coming out of the reactor. And I still need to run similar uncountable bps as when I used the Y-shaped Up inline diffuser. I don't mind the bubbles but I would like to run a lower bps and keep CO2 levels high.

Any ideas? Flow is reduced about 20% by referring to the 2080’s flow indicator.
 
You are using what is classed as a 10'' reactor, can you post a picture of your reactor showing it working, a short vid would be even better.
You can read lots of different opinions about reactors using less C02 that atomisers but, I am not convinced there is much difference in that respect, atomisers are very efficient in their own right. however you should be able to tune your reactor to not introduce any bubbles into the tank.
It would appear that the bottle neck has a considerable effect on the designs efficiency, you may need to experiment with different bottle shapes.
 
Thanks Fox. I also found out there's a slow leak in my bubble counter, which is probably why I have to pump more CO2 than expected. Once I pick up another one I'll test again.
 
Just playing with one of these now. the water coming in fron the filter is falling in, and creating lots of bubbles. Do I just need to wait until the air dissolves. Its noisey, and the water line in the bottle is about 1-2" below the top.

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Been using this for a week now. My dc isnt going lime green/yellow until 1 hour before lights off. The co2 is already set to come on 3 hours before lights on, and 2 hours before lights off. Bubble rate is uncountable, and im not losing any bubbles from under the plastic bottle. Ive done a fairy liquid leak test and cant find any. My concern is, if I continue to alter the start time shall I keep changing the off time too? Would the tank water be saturated with co2 enough to turn of 3-4 hours before lighrs off?

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Hi Anthony, sounds like you have a flow issue within your display. If there are no bubbles escaping, then the reactor is working very well!
What you need to do, is test the PH over the lights on period to see what is really happening.
The main question is .. are your plants growing?
Sometimes the build up of Co2 in the reactor can take an hour or more to dissolve, you should be tuning off the supply about two hours before the last of the gas has disappeared.
Please tell me more about you tank, size, flow rate etc.....
 
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