New Babble Magus Calcium Reactor review

[RuGlu6]

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Bubble Magus Calcium Reactor Just arrived from China yesterday,
Build quality is very good all joints are nice and firm, Atman pump impeller/shaft assembly is very smooth should be very quiet. will set it up in the bucket with vinegar tomorrow.
1st impressions:
• Well thought out design
• Co2 recirculation
• Ph probe port
• Intake strainer (very useful to prevent plug up’s) did not see that in other reactors
• Large bubble counter
• Bottom up flow
• Large chamber, 6” tube diameter about 20” high.
• Very easy disassembly only took me 3 minutes.
• Extra “O” ring (Red)
• Cool red/white colors (similar to wide known brand LOL)
• Pump looks very similar to Eheim design especially impeller.
• Very, very attractive price including shipping. (PM me for details if you need more info)
• 220V but I got 200W transformer so its ok.
Looks like it is in sump only even though it holds water very well, and no leaks I would be hesitant to run it externally without some sort of a container under it just in case. The reason is that pipes are not hard welded to the tube. Instead they used flex rubber sleeves. See pictures. This however will contribute to less noise and vibration so that could be a good thing, time will tell.

[RuGlu6]

A little up date, BM reactor is up and running.

One more good feature that i did not realize this reactor has is top clear drip chamber.

On pic # 1 top left. Very cool, i have reactor fed from my main circ pump and whatever drops i have in this clear chamber coming from feed line the exact same drop count comes out of the unit effluent line NICE !

[Oxymoron]

Really have been considering this piece of equip. Thanks for the review and please keep us updated with your progress in the coming weeks.
Hopefully it will be a set it and forget (for a bit) piece.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Really have been considering this piece of equip. Thanks for the review and please keep us updated with your progress in the coming weeks.
Hopefully it will be a set it and forget (for a bit) piece.

So far so good i would recommend this to anyone who still wants to use this old school technology vs dosing.

The only thing so far is that i am very cautious about is pump connection method via soft rubber sleeves instead of hard piping it.
The unit is holding water nicely and now is used externally, but i am watching it like a hawk! Planning a bottom container just to be on the safe side.


One more positive point is that it uses very little Co2 thanks to a very efficient Co2 recirculation feature.

[RuGlu6]

Replyed all PM's, wow lots of interest

[Oxymoron]

Can you take some pics of it all rigged up in action?

[Stones]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

The only thing so far is that i am very cautious about is pump connection method via soft rubber sleeves instead of hard piping it. The unit is holding water nicely and now is used externally, but i am watching it like a hawk! Planning a bottom container just to be on the safe side.

I wouldn't be too worried about the external piping being connected to the main chamber via the soft rubber seals as they appear to be just square uniseals from the posted pictures. I ran an external skimmer for over 3 years that used uniseals to connect the external plumbing to the main skimmer chamber and the only time it leaked was when I had to remove the piping and piece it back together after being in constant use for several years. If you are scared about the quality of the soft rubber sleeves, just order up some replacement uniseals as there are several online distributors that carry them in various sizes.

Hi Russell, let's talk about the added features and benefits of this skimmer next time you're at the store.

Cheers,
Romin

[RuGlu6]

Been getting some PM's with same questions from different people about this reactor and decided to post question example here as an update.
Reactor is behaving really well, still dry as a bone and running externally. The only adjustment that needs to be made on mine is the effluent output drip rate. Its seemed to slow down every two weeks or so, so i had to open the supply valve to push more water through to clear the lines. I think this is because i do not use any filter socks and small lines are getting dirty. Plus the light in the sump creates growth in the red effluent pipe so i had to clear that pipe by squeezing it with the pliers and wrapping it up with black electrical tape to prevent future plug ups and it seems to be working.

Originally Posted by ******
Hello,

Thanks for your reply. I have one more question; My reactor seems to fill up very quickly the bubbles when I start the C02. I use one bubble every 4 seconds and by the time th PH drops to 6.7 my reactor is full of bubbles. In fact you can't even see inside the reactor for the fine bubbles. Does your do this?

Thanks,
***
Yep, mine was almost the same, Try increasing the output drip rate. I guess this will depend on the calcium media size. If your media is coarse then it will be easier for the pump to transfer water through the unit and therefore it will create smaller size bubbles. If media is smaller then it will take more time and effort for the pump. Mine has Atman PH1000 pump. Media is a mix of largest size media, zeo magnesium rocks, and also some small size media.

The bubbles in the reactor was the reason i built the bleed line initially, because i was tired looking at the reactor full of bubbles, but now after few month there is a lot less bubbles in the reactor, almost no bubbles at all.

If you Calcium is at good level with PH 6.7 (mine is) then you are OK.
If you need to lower the PH without injecting more CO2, then reduce the effluent drip rate and check Calcium and PH after 24 hrs.

I use one bubble of CO2 every 4-6 seconds and 3 drops per second effluent output rate.

[RuGlu6]

So it has been almost 8 month (Wow).
I am very pleased with the reactor.
Its about half full of media still.