Started Building My DIY Calcium Reactor

Iv been buying more and more SPS corals for my tank, Im up to 12 or so decent sized frags, one large arco, and a hand full of LPS. I decided its time to setup a Calcium reactor! I was going to go with the MRC HOT reactor, but would not get the same satisfaction with it as I would from building my own.

I dont have a lot of room in my stand, and do not want the reactor to sit outside of the stand so I decided to design a insump reactor that will hang inside of my sump in the front left corner.

I chose this design to base my design off of: http://www.melevsreef.com/dj88.html

I scaled it down and redesigned the plumbing/ventrui setup to take up as little space as possible.

Heres a rough design of how Im going to build the body of the reactor:


The black handles off of the sides will hang over the sides of my sump

The dimensions will be 4.5"x4.5"x10.5"

The plumbing will come out of the bottom via 1/2" bulk heads.

I am going to use a MJ900 for circulation

Here is the pump/plumbing setup I put together today:






Co2 will be injected into the left fitting, water from my sump into the center fitting, and the right fitting is for the Co2 re-circulation loop.

Now that I have the pump/plumbing put together, I will be able to finalize the reactor design, and have my local arcylic shop cut the pieces for me!

Stay tuned!

 

I finalized the design and dimensions then placed my acrylic order. All of the 1/4" acrylic cut to size, holes drilled, & top flange cut will only be $35!

Heres some pics of the final design:







The two holes at the bottom of the reactor are where the 1/2 bulk heads will go. I will put a JG "L" on the top lid where the raised square is for the Co2 re-circulation loop. I will put anther "L" towards the bottom of the reactor on the side in the smaller chamber for effluent to exit the reactor. Flow into the reactor & drip rate of effluent will be controlled with a needle valve from MRC: http://www.myreefcreations.com/product_info.php?products_id=223

I will also use MRCs PH probe holder which I will place on the lid of the reactor.

 

After playing with the plumbing & MJ900 today, I decided to swap the 900 out for the 1200 and also re-did the elbow/venturi to clean it up a bit and re-locate the JG fittings.

I also made the spray bar that will go inside of the reactor in the larger chamber.

 

wow some really neat handy work there dude..

 

Very nice! 8)

 

Look nice but if its going to hang on back and outside the system I'd forget about a Maxi jet period and go with a Ehiem or small Mag pump. I'd never trust the O'ring on plastice that far. I will add that when someone came out with his Kal reactors they found out they leaked .. Carlson DIY I think they called them many many yrs ago .

 

tangster, the reactor is actually going to sit inside of my sump in one of the front corners. The main reason I chose the maxijet is because is very small, much smaller then the mag2. The maxi jet will be fully submerged.

Tangster, what is your prefered Co2 regulator?

 

Update:

I picked my acrylic up this morning. I am very impressed with the precision they cut everything with! If you need acrylic and live in the Portland, OR area I highly recommend Tap Plastics!

All of the acrylic cut to size cost $35!





Handles that will hang over the side of my sump & support all of the weight of the reactor:



Test fitting pump/plumbing to base plate:




Test fitting all of the acrylic pieces together with masking tape before I cement anything together:












Looks like everything fits/lines up perfect. Now its time to start gluing everything together!

 

man looking sweet I think your onto a winner

 

best regulator I ever used was the Milwaukee MA957 units