It's back....!
Bigger and Badder than before....
It's a Monster calcium reactor....
here's my latest creation...
as my calcium demand is getting ever bigger,
i was having to pump more and more CO2 into the reactor to keep the levels up.
so after buying an old style monster deltec FR 1016 phosphate reactor,
with connections in the side of the reactor nice and cheap.
i had the perfect donor for a new calcium reactor.
i also got an eheim 1250 pump with another bit of kit i bought earlier,
but that only needs a maxijet to run it, so it was going spare
i stayed with the ehiem as they are just about bullet proof,
and the aqua bee pumps used on other deltec reactor models are prone to failure.
i worked out the water flow velocity of the existing reactor, based on the area of the diameter of the cylinder.
and as this reactor is just over double the area, i doubled the pump size.
as it's still a bit too tall for my cabinet as an FR1016, i set about reducing the height.
by cutting off the top with the old side connections using my chop saw,
and then carefully removing the plastic wall from the top locking ring.
i then solvent welded it back on the lowered cylinder, to allow the lid to be fitted,
with a dichloromethane based solvent. and made a fillet around the bottom edge with solvent cement
i then removed the old 25mm clear pipe from the centre of the cylinder, as it is too large a diameter.
and re-welded a new 20mm clear pipe in it's place, using a 25mm x 20mm reducing socket.
i managed to pick up some 20mm clear upvc pipe from a local supplier this time.
it's looks a lot better, as well as allowing to see inside. so i used it for all the build.
i re-used the old top strainer plate, though i had to remove the acrylic tubes that held it to the underside of the old lid.
and drilled it to allow a top entry the same as the later models. to be held in place with 2 x 20mm sockets.
i started on the lid next and drilled 20mm holes for the circulation pump, and water outlet,
and an 18mm hole for the ph probe gland. i then heated the inside of this hole and screwed the gland in so as to create a simple thread. i also used solvent cement to seal the gland when fitted. and made the pipe connections including 2 unions and CO2, water inlet, and CO2 recirculation points by drilling 6mm holes and solvent welding some 6mm pipe i had left over from the first reactor build.
and made a support for the pipes out of some spare pinseal ABS i had left over from cladding my weir.
so here is the reactor basically finished, i used a spare eheim filter sponge i had for the bottom of the reactor,
and i'll probably add a bubble counter that i'll make myself,
and an FR 509 as a de-gas chamber later when i can pick one up cheap second hand.
size wise it is the same diameter as a PF601 but about 800mm tall and has a media volume similar to a PF601S
at 14kg but as the diameter isn't as wide as the 601S, it uses a much smaller pump so is cheaper to run.
and should be rated at about 400 gallons - heavy stocking - high illumination.
