Converting RO Unit to Media Reactor

[Stu]

I have a spare RO Unit that I would like to convert into a dual-chamber media reactor, similar to the Bulk Reef Supply one:

 

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/dual-brs-gfo-and-carbon-reactor.html

 

It appears the only difference between the BRS reactor and an RO unit is the 1/2" fittings/tubing/ball valve. My RO unit has standard 1/4" tubing and fittings, and I already have a John Guest 1/4" ball valve and a Guest reducing fitting to snap onto a powerhead nozzle.

 

Can I get away with using 1/4" tubing? My concerns are 1. Will there be enough flow coming from a maxi jet through 1/4" tubing and fittings? 2. Will the back pressure cause significant heat and/or shorten the life of the powerhead?

[Chad]

I would have the same concerns about flow. How do you feel about the permanent solution of drilling and tapping the holes to 1/2" fittings?

 

Otherwise, I would not be terribly concerned about the pump itself, IME the maxi jets are fairly resilient. It may shorten the life to some extent, but I dont think it would be prohibitively so.

[davelin315]

My calcium reactor uses a smaller gauge hose, not quite 1/4", but similar. I have made media reactors out of them before and wasn't pleased with the performance. In my opinion, if you want to fluidize the bed, it's too hard to get it to work correctly and you have to use a much smaller amount of media. I'm sure theirs work just fine, but last time I tried to make one it didn't work out so well.

[Coral Hind]

I think the 1/4" line will be too small but if you have the parts it is worth a try.

[ctenophore]

The majority of the flow loss comes from the friction along the run of 1/4" line. If you use 1/2" tubing and buy a 1/4" NPT to 1/2" speedfit adaptor, then the only flow loss will come from the single reduction at the fitting, which should be fairly minor. It should work considerably better than 1/4" tubing all the way from the MJ output to the cylinder fitting.

[Stu]

I guess I'll have to give it a try and see how it does. Dave (Lin), were the problems you had specifically with flow/media tumbling?

[Stu]

The majority of the flow loss comes from the friction along the run of 1/4" line. If you use 1/2" tubing and buy a 1/4" NPT to 1/2" speedfit adaptor, then the only flow loss will come from the single reduction at the fitting, which should be fairly minor. It should work considerably better than 1/4" tubing all the way from the MJ output to the cylinder fitting.

 

Good call Justin. I'll give it a try and post my results.

[davelin315]

It was hard to get it to tumble properly without it trying to escape the chamber. Adding a pipe that went down the bottom didn't help much and I also tried using the refillable media chambers and that didn't work, either. I ended up scrapping it and I had 1" pipe going into them. What's the design you're going with? I can point out the things that didn't work for me when I did it.

[Stu]

I was going to use refillable cartridges that DI resin usually goes in. Was going to put more porous sponges in to allow for good flow. I also saw a similar DIY on RC using some sort of plastic mesh, cut in a circle. I figured that with the media cartridges, water would be forced up through the cartridge and there would be enough tumbling. I don't want to spend 7 bucks a pop plus shipping on these, so I may have to temporarily borrow my DI cartridge out of my RO unit, empty the resin, and see if it will work with GFO or carbon. Also, I checked and the holes are either 3/8" or 1/2", not 1/4".

 

I wouldn't be going to all this trouble if I didn't have all of this stuff on hand (with the exception of the media cartridges), but it appears that I already have everything else and it's worth a shot. If it doesn't work, I'll just get the BRS one and be a little bit smarter when it comes to DIY.

[davelin315]

You'll most likely have to rip out the top and bottom padding in the media cartridges. They're made for pressure situations and so the water will not easily flow through them and they will also get clogged very easily with dust from the media. If they do clog up you may end up with the maxijet popping off due to back pressure being built up.