anyone built a DJ88 reactor?

kwirky · #1 04-23-2007, 03:12 AM

Anyone ever built one of these? If so, what did you think of the design?

I already have a ph monitor and a milwaukee solenoid/needlevalve so I figured this thing's so cheap to build I can't go wrong.

http://www.melevsreef.com/dj88.html
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=144438

Delphinus · #2 04-23-2007, 05:40 AM

Oh my man ... you haven't been around long have you?

At one point EVERY Calgarian had one of these. We were constantly mocked over it!! "You Calgarians and your square reactors."

I have about half of mine still (it's been pretty badly scavenged for parts in the years since I took it offline). The reason I discontinued using mine was that it was oversized, it took me 4 containers of ARM to fill it and at $30 per container that was starting to cost me a little too much to keep it running.

It's not a bad design, it's not the be all end all of reactors but it does have some merits. If you make one you won't regret it.

BMW Rider · #3 04-23-2007, 03:50 PM

I built mine similar to that design. I did not have the room to house such a large unit, so I scaled it down to fit. I made a few revisions to the original plan to simplify the construction too. I've had it running for a year and a half now, and its terrific. It hold one full container of ARM media, and that lasted just over a year. These pictures are from when I first set it up. I've since changed the CO2 feed a bit, and have added a ph probe for my controller.

kwirky · #4 04-23-2007, 04:29 PM

for my 120g tank, I'm trying to figure out if the 5g reactor design is too big or too small for my system. I'm thinking it should be future ready in case I decide to fully stock it with SPS/LPS, and maybe in case I put a few grow out tanks on as well later on.

what size is your tank, Ed? I like the idea of the smaller reactor and I'm wondering if the smaller size would be fine for my needs.

Delphinus · #5 04-23-2007, 05:18 PM

5g of reactor is ridiculously large. That's what I was running and that's why I don't run it.

Don't buy into the "bigger must be better" mentality because it's NOT.

A small reactor can service a heavy calcium load tank just as well as a large reactor and it can do it more economically. The only drawback is that a smaller reactor needs to be filled more often. But a larger reactor costs more to fill, consumes more CO2 and thus drains your bank account faster.

In a downflow reactor the media will only last so long before it starts to break down and causes compaction. The DJ88 design is half-downflow. You'll find the upflow compartment doesn't get compaction and will get used up faster than the downflow (due to the partial fluidization of the media). Althought with the new larger media available this might not be as much a concern. But with the old gravel style media it was only good for about a year anyhow, whether it got completely used up or not.

canadawest · #6 04-23-2007, 09:03 PM

Just as an aside...

I think it's pretty cool that a local guy has a usefull DIY project named after himself that's still in use and discussed even today, even if he's not around anymore.

BMW Rider · #7 04-23-2007, 11:06 PM

I'm running the reactor on my 135 gallon tank. I found that the media was pretty evenly used up in both sides after the year. I also was able to get a full year from the CO2 tank. I initially ran it for 10 months without a ph controller, so I probably used more CO2 than I do now.