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ID what type of reactor?


Still_human

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I'm not sure what reactors these are/are part of. Can anyone ID them for me? Actually, I know one is a phosphate reactor since it clearly says so on the chamber, but other than that I don't know. I'm using one as a cheato scrubber, but I don't know what it ACTUALLY is.

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(edited)

The white one looks like it was modified to run biopellets. The first one is a phosban 150 reactor made by 2 little fishes and the blue one looks like a next reef media reactor 

Edited by epleeds
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Are any, or CAN any be used as calcium reactors? I have the tank, with specifically calcium reactor attachments, so it would be extremely strange if there wasn't any more of it.

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No. Unless you add a ton of stuff to them. IMO I wouldn’t risk it and buy something that is made to be a calcium reactor. That way it works as it’s designed too. 

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The one you are using as a cheato reactor is a NextReef MR1 reactor, with what looks like the hang on adapter installed, I use the same one for carbon.  Nextreef made a two chamber one called the Monster if I remember correctly.  The flatter one is a NextReef reactor also but not sure on name, think they may have called it a Shorty.  Not sure what the white one with the pump is but was definitely set up for biopellets with that nozzle setup.

 

I don't think you could easily modify any of these to be a Calcium Reactor.

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The one on the left is a hang-on-back reactor typically used with GFO, but could also be used with carbon. It's missing a small feed pump. It may also be missing a little hanger-adapter. It hangs over the edge of a small aquarium or sump with a pump on the end of the clear tube. That drives water down into the bottom of the reactor and through whatever media is inside the reactor. Water then exits the reactor through the green tube.

 

We need a few more pictures of the big white one from different angles. However, it looks like some sort of DIY calcium reactor with a probe gland (the black thing at the top) to hold a pH probe. It looks like water is injected into the elbow that has the small valve in it. What I don't see is a place where CO2 is injected or water taken out. I also don't know if the impeller on the pump is normal or if it's using a pinwheel of some sort (which would help shred CO2 bubbles for better dissolution. You would need, at a minimum, a CO2 tank, regulator, needle valve or "carbon doser" to control release of bubbles of gas from the tank, checkvalve, and a bubble counter.

 

The gray thing is a mystery. It looks like it has an o-ring just under the blue cap. If that's an o-ring, it's likely part of a larger assembly that you only have a piece of. I also see the rubber foot underneath and some sort of feed port on the bottom side.

 

Your chaeto reactor is a regular media reactor made by Nextreef. You can Google it for more information.

 

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7 hours ago, Origami said:

The one on the left is a hang-on-back reactor typically used with GFO, but could also be used with carbon. It's missing a small feed pump. It may also be missing a little hanger-adapter. It hangs over the edge of a small aquarium or sump with a pump on the end of the clear tube. That drives water down into the bottom of the reactor and through whatever media is inside the reactor. Water then exits the reactor through the green tube.

 

We need a few more pictures of the big white one from different angles. However, it looks like some sort of DIY calcium reactor with a probe gland (the black thing at the top) to hold a pH probe. It looks like water is injected into the elbow that has the small valve in it. What I don't see is a place where CO2 is injected or water taken out. I also don't know if the impeller on the pump is normal or if it's using a pinwheel of some sort (which would help shred CO2 bubbles for better dissolution. You would need, at a minimum, a CO2 tank, regulator, needle valve or "carbon doser" to control release of bubbles of gas from the tank, checkvalve, and a bubble counter.

 

The gray thing is a mystery. It looks like it has an o-ring just under the blue cap. If that's an o-ring, it's likely part of a larger assembly that you only have a piece of. I also see the rubber foot underneath and some sort of feed port on the bottom side.

 

Your chaeto reactor is a regular media reactor made by Nextreef. You can Google it for more information.

 

Awesome, very informative, thank you very much! Yeah, I know the phosphate is just the chamber with some tubing, most of the stuff was taken apart, except for some PVC stuff which was permenantly sealed, so left together. The Co2 tank does have a large complicated contraption on it, which I'll get a picture of tomorrow. The smaller piece inbetween...i had  no clue about. I knew it was just a section of a larger unit, but I didn't see anything that it would directly fit onto, so figured I could probably find the rest if I knew what it was, and what exactly it's missing. 

Ill take more pictures of the big white one with PVC and the pump attached, tomorrow, along with the tank.

other than the one I made into a cheato reactor, I doubt I'll use any of that stuff myself, but I need to figure it all out and get it all together, otherwise they'll just sit in boxes gathering dust and being useless:/

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The top picture is a regulator, solenoid, needle valve and (very dirty) bubble counter. It's part of the calcium reactor. I don't see a power cord coming off the solenoid (the black box on the underside), but I'm guessing it's just hidden in the picture.

 

The two pictures are somewhat helpful. The green line is probably the CO2 inject line. I still don't see the necessary check valve on it, though. The second line could be where water is fed slowly into the reactor. However, that would require another port for enriched water to come out of the reactor. Is there any such port on the top of the unit? If not, my guess is that feed water is injected using a tee that's in between the check valve (on the output side of the bubble counter) and the clear inject port. In this way, a slow train of CO2 bubbles would leave the bubble counter, passing through a check valve. Tank water and CO2 would mix at the (missing) tee after this check valve and be injected into the intake side of the pump where the bubbles would be shredded/agitated to encourage dissolution to acidify the water. This water would pass into the reactor body, slowly dissolving the media there to enrich the water with calcium, alkalinity and trace elements. The extra water injected into the reactor increases the pressure in the reactor, forcing an equivalent amount out through what would be the exit (overflow), which may be the clear line coming out. You can regulate the rate of flow out of the reactor with the ball valve that's there on that line.

 

Personally, I'd change the design very slightly as 1) I don't think I'd like to pull the effluent off the bottom of the line and 2) there's no place for undissolved CO2 to escape, so it's possible for the water level in the reactor to gradually drop as undissolved gas slowly traps in the reactor body. The way I'd address both is to drill and tap into either that tee near the black probe gland and install a port their or to install a port on the top of the unit. (Now, I see something red on the top of the unit in one of your early photos. This may be exactly what I'd want. Can you shoot another picture of that area so I can comment?)

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Oh, and I also see that you have a CO2 tank. That's good. 

 

I wonder if that regulator is any good now.....

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21 hours ago, Origami said:

Now, I see something red on the top of the unit in one of your early photos. This may be exactly what I'd want. Can you shoot another picture of that area so I can comment?

Sure, I'll take and post in just a bit, as soon as I can.

 

wow, that was super in-depth!!!! I didn't have even a cursory understanding or the workings of a calcium reactor, so those terms and part names are way over my head, although that did give me a general understanding of how it works:) 

I would imagine any of the missing parts are floating around in the tub, or a box, so thanks to you i can probably figure out what all I need to find. 

Yeah, the regulator is pretty filthy, it's been just sitting around collecting dust. I would imagine at least the O ring would need to be replaced. Hopefully the rest is still good, or at least anything needing to be replaced is small easily replaceable parts like the ring. At least externally I'm sure it looks worse than it is, cause it's definitely dusty and such.  

Were there pictures of any other angles/parts of the units that would help, other than the better top view of the chamber unit, at that little red cap/nozzle?

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Regulators used in fish rooms or under tanks can exhibit surface corrosion (as yours does). However, what's interesting to me is how the bubble counter looks. Normally they're clear. 

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There also seems to be a port on the other end of the elbow that has the CO2 line (can be seen better on the last pic, above the pump).  This may be where the tank water is fed into the reactor.  The tube with the valve could’ve been used to feed enriched water back to the tank.  I think that red button on top may be a manual pressure relief valve or  bleed valve.

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15 hours ago, DFR said:

There also seems to be a port on the other end of the elbow that has the CO2 line (can be seen better on the last pic, above the pump).  This may be where the tank water is fed into the reactor.  The tube with the valve could’ve been used to feed enriched water back to the tank.  I think that red button on top may be a manual pressure relief valve or  bleed valve.

 

Good eye. That's it. That's probably the feed port. 

 

As mentioned, the one thing that I don't like about this particular DIY layout is the fact that there's no outlet or way to re-ingest gasseous CO2 that accumulates at the top of the reactor. Over time, it can slowly dissolve back into the water, but if the accumulation rate exceeds to solution rate, then a bubble will form in the main reactor chamber or in that down-pipe. Eventually, it might form a bubble around the pH probe leading to poor pH control inside the reactor. The way around this would be to take the effluent from the top of the reactor, basically venting any accumulated gas out to the atmosphere. 

 

Still a pretty good design, though. Nice to see a pretty solid DIY effort again.

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As Tom said, that last one is a DIY Calcium Reactor.  In the first picture quoted below the bubble counter is just really dirty - looks like they filled it with water that grew algae or picked up some of the corrosion somehow from the copper.

 

In the 3rd picture below the red is to bleed air off - this is just a modified whole house water filter.  On the left side is the feed from the tank and on the right side is the effluent line.

 

In the 4th picture, that green tube is for CO2 to be fed into the reactor as was previously mentioned.

 

The black is for a pH probe as Tom mentioned.

 

By the way, up above the blue thing with holes looks to be some sort of air dryer to me or possibly a silencer.

 

On 4/10/2019 at 3:16 PM, Still_human said:

Sorry it took so long, but here's better pics of the chamber and tank top

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15 hours ago, davelin315 said:

As Tom said, that last one is a DIY Calcium Reactor.  In the first picture quoted below the bubble counter is just really dirty - looks like they filled it with water that grew algae or picked up some of the corrosion somehow from the copper.

 

In the 3rd picture below the red is to bleed air off - this is just a modified whole house water filter.  On the left side is the feed from the tank and on the right side is the effluent line.

 

In the 4th picture, that green tube is for CO2 to be fed into the reactor as was previously mentioned.

 

The black is for a pH probe as Tom mentioned.

 

By the way, up above the blue thing with holes looks to be some sort of air dryer to me or possibly a silencer.

 

 

Yeah, I don't know anything about it, i think it was all clouded up when he gave me everything. Unless it can somehow happen just sitting around being stored(not near salt or moisture).

 

do you have any thoughts on what the 'dryer or silencer' would get used for?

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(edited)

So overall, does it seem like a good, great, or blah reactor? Also, does the entire tank Ca reactor adaptor appear to need to be replaced? Is there any way I can test and tell without having to set up and run the system? I want to sell the reactor, so I'd like to make sure to know what's good and what isn't, anymore. I may be able to get a few of the new parts cheaper than most, so it would be better and easier if I replaced, or included new pieces, but I sure don't know how to check anything:/

Edited by Still_human
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So overall, does it seem like a good, great, or blah reactor? Also, does the entire tank Ca reactor adaptor appear to need to be replaced? Is there any way I can test and tell without having to set up and run the system? I want to sell the reactor, so I'd like to make sure to know what's good and what isn't, anymore. I may be able to get a few of the new parts cheaper than most, so it would be better and easier if I replaced, or included new pieces, but I sure don't know how to check anything:/



Just my 2 cents, but don’t expect to make any money on it. The most valuable thing you probably have in the pictures is the co2 tank. I wouldn’t buy a used regulator/all other parts, but again, that’s my opinion.
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17 hours ago, Still_human said:

So overall, does it seem like a good, great, or blah reactor? Also, does the entire tank Ca reactor adaptor appear to need to be replaced? Is there any way I can test and tell without having to set up and run the system? I want to sell the reactor, so I'd like to make sure to know what's good and what isn't, anymore. I may be able to get a few of the new parts cheaper than most, so it would be better and easier if I replaced, or included new pieces, but I sure don't know how to check anything:/

Honestly, the most valuable part of the setup at this point will be the cylinder (tank) from a resale perspective. Somebody with an understanding of how to refurbish, setup and operate the rest of the system might value the other parts to some extent, but the competition won't be great and, therefore, the price likely won't be much more than a token. A person with the right knowledge, though, could make it work and get some useful life out of it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/15/2019 at 11:56 PM, YHSublime said:

 

 


Just my 2 cents, but don’t expect to make any money on it. The most valuable thing you probably have in the pictures is the co2 tank. I wouldn’t buy a used regulator/all other parts, but again, that’s my opinion.

 

 

 

On 4/16/2019 at 4:00 PM, Origami said:

Honestly, the most valuable part of the setup at this point will be the cylinder (tank) from a resale perspective. Somebody with an understanding of how to refurbish, setup and operate the rest of the system might value the other parts to some extent, but the competition won't be great and, therefore, the price likely won't be much more than a token. A person with the right knowledge, though, could make it work and get some useful life out of it.

Thank you for the info. I don't have any current plans to use it, so I'm not trying too hard to balance usefulness vs price

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