Reactor feed

[MINIATUS]

What is the best way to feed a reactor. power head, return line, or a line from the tank. I do know you dont want a large feed to it just enough to keep some pressure on the system. Sorry just that I sometimes get a little dense sometimes.

MINIATUS

 

[Illusion]

I did a tee off of my return with a Jg fitting and piped that right into the reactor... Seems to work just fine... I have used a powerhead as well but they clog after a while... Was just easier in the long run to run it off the return line..

James

 

[mattseattle]

well for me the easiest and easiest way to dial in my reactor is to use a peristaltic pump. It's easy to dial in and remains consistant from day to day without any adjustment. it was a higher up front cost but glad i did it. i can easily pump up my reactor from 50ml a day to 50.5 to 51 to 60 ml a day without headache.

 

[MINIATUS]

what is a perstalic pump.
I was thinking of teeing from the return.

MINIATUS

 

[Illusion]

Matt... You use a peristaltic pump to feed your Reactor.. We are talking Calcium reactors here right? I mean I have heard them being used on Kalk reactors but not Ca reactors... On a ca reactor If you up the feed Its not going to do much except mess with the internal settings of the reactor... On a ca reactor you want as consistent input rate as possible... Since the more Input into the reactor the more back pressure on the Co2 rate.. It the input increases the co2 bubble rate decreases...

James

 

[mattseattle]

yeah, I use a peri. pump on my Sharaun and it works perfectly. It's easy to adjust and keeps consistant input flow on my calcium reactor. it feeds about 60 ml of effluent every minute. guess it may depend on the reactor on whether a peri. pump works efficiently or not.

 

[MINIATUS]

Matt... You use a peristaltic pump to feed your Reactor.. We are talking Calcium reactors here right? I mean I have heard them being used on Kalk reactors but not Ca reactors... On a ca reactor If you up the feed Its not going to do much except mess with the internal settings of the reactor... On a ca reactor you want as consistent input rate as possible... Since the more Input into the reactor the more back pressure on the Co2 rate.. It the input increases the co2 bubble rate decreases...

James

Now you lost Me.
MINIATUS

 

[Illusion]

PErsitalic pumps are dosing pumps.. what they use at Hospitals for pumping in IVs.. They do an Exact amount of liquid.. No more no less...

James

 

[bc_slc]

...so in essence what matt is using is a peristaltic pump to feed his Ca reactor so that his input to the reactor is consistent. Good thinking.

I personally have inserted a "T" with a guest fitting from my return line. There is some minor variability depending on the volume of my sump, but the reactor is pretty consistent in its feed. I have a small gate valve (ball valve would work better) on the intake side, so that the reactor is not overdriven.

Mat

 

[mattseattle]

consistent and very very precise all the time....... all i have to do to increase the ml of effluent is to turn a knob and i can easily go from 50ml/hr to 50.1 up to 55.3 or whatever easily.

it only took me 3 days or so to dial in my reactor using the peri. pump.

 

[MINIATUS]

Here's what I've come up with. the control valve for the feed will and can cotrol the feed down to drips. Cost more that the rest of the parts.

MINIATUS

 

[Illusion]

Looks good however I might make 1 suggesting... The nipple end to the reactor looks a bit big for 1/4" tubing... Might I suggest screwing in an John Guest fitting.. Its about 2.00 and will make your like a whole lot easier... I think I had about that same nipple when I first did mine and boy was it a pain...

As far as your Valve thats pretty sweet.. Though I dont think you will need to go down to drips... Consistent flow is most important... The output side of the reactor is where you really need control down to drips...

James

James

 

[MINIATUS]

It is a 1/4 in nipple, but it does look bigger in the pic. Hose on the K2R is 3/8 OD and 1/4ID. Speaking of John Guest fitting they are hard to find in Canada well Ontario anyway. I did find one I was lookig for and the price nearly floored Me. I think I was saying I can control it that far.
Here is a question for you. I know the end result is ML per hour but how much would need to be fed just to keep some pressure on the system. Does this make sense.
I have a valve for that end also but a smaller type.

MINIATUS :?:

 

[Illusion]

The flow into the reactor just needs to be consistent... I just put a john guest fitting on my return line (Dolphin 3600) and use it like that without a valve... Were talking 1/4" line here so you cant put too much flow thru it... when I used a powerhead to feed it I just used a Rio 800 and glued a john Guest fitting into it... I think that was like 300gph.. Some people use Aqualifter pumps to feed the reactor as well...
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=KTALP

AS for the output you probably have a Gardena control valve on it...

HTH<
James

 

[MINIATUS]

I'm going to do some experiments and see what happens. Thank you so much for your imput. I want to make sure everything works when I set this new system up. and not have to run all over getting parts and trying something else.

MIN :idea:

 

[bc_slc]

I also might recommend that you change the barb to a John guest fitting. Cleaner, easier and it should screw right into the gate valve you have. I think the gate valve is important. If you only restrict the output from the reactor, then the pressure in the reactor is higher and is more likely to leak. And even though only so much flow can go through the 1/4" tubing, you want it to be reasonably slow so that the CO2 gets a chance to work on the media inside the reactor. You will have to run a higher Co2 bubble count to get the pH down in the reactor if the water is flowing too quickly through the reactor.

Mat

 

[Kensn]

Does anyone gravity feed their reactor?

Just wondering..

Ken