Is making a Calcium reactor hard?

I have been really thinking allot about making one since the prices to me are just a bit out of reach.

What is the hardest part of making a reliable reactor, and why do people shell out $700 instead of making one?

I see the shape of the chamber can be square which tells me I can use sheet stock acrylic and avoid having to buy expensive cylinders. So other than the cost of the pump and co2 regulator where does the value $300 to $400 come in on the store bought units?

 

If you make your own, be sure to make a second chamber to keep the ph levels normal before going into the tank again.

Now for the regulator, don't get any normal regualtor, unless it is a reef fanatic regulator. the milwaukee, jbj, and all the others are not good and are prone to failure, often in a short amount of time. The tank is a simple deal, any will do. I would make sure to put a PH probe holder in it as I would not ever try to run a CA rx without a ph controller. I use a milwaukee ph controller. That unit works fine.

Making your own calcium reactor can be done, but I have yet to see any homebrew ca rx that is as efficient as purchased reactors as far as use of CO2. Some purchased CA rx's are more efficient than others in that respect as well.

 

From my understanding the reason for using a cylinder is to allow even flow through the media (like any media reactor, they're all cylinders). It's all about even contact time. If you get any channeling happening in the media, or you have any inconsistencies in the flow through the media then you may end up with inconsistent output as the low pH water isn't in constant contact with the media to dissolve it consistently. If you don't get consistent output then, at best that defeats most of the reason for having a calcium reactor, at worst it could kill a bunch of coral or something.

That's just my understanding of reactors, it may be wrong, if you do decide to go with a square design I would make sure to research it to be sure it's going to perform how you expect it to. I've never seen a square reactor, do you have a link to one by chance?

I think aside from the cost of acrylic tubing there is a certain amount of money that is put into making nice, easy to use lids for the chambers, maybe a little R&D time/materials if you're making a new design, probably wear and tear on drill/router bits, money for the weld-on, probably a good bit of time assembling and finishing the whole thing off nicely. The usual stuff.

I imagine time is a good part of it, people don't just make things to sell to strangers for the cost of materials.

I also imagine that if someone could really do it cheaper, they would, so since there's no real secret to making them and someone felt they could really make money making/selling them, that someone would. They look simple but when you get up close I imagine it takes quite a bit of time/materials/effort to get one working well.

My 2c, and not trying to discourage you from making one if you feel you have the necessary skills and tools.

 

There are some plans out there to make your own, but it will still cost anywhere from $150 on up. You need the Co2 valve and regulator, tank. The Ph probe is expensive too plus the pump. I would not make a square one either, I believe Screwtape pointed that out pretty well although I have seen them before. It will be cheaper to DIY, but you will need to do a lot of research to understand exactly how it works and what you need. You don't want to mess it up and have a Ca/Alk storm in your tank.