Ca reactor feed question

[Delphinus]

As Kari mentioned I did pop a reactor having fed it off my sump return. Came home to find an incredible mess and an empty sump.

My mistake was making the flow adjuster valve on the output of the reactor. I highly recommend putting the flow adjuster valve on the INPUT side of the reactor.

Even if the reactor can handle the pressure, another point to consider is that a reactor under pressure will want to leak more than a reactor that isn't under pressure.

Other than that, really, anything that works, works .. I've seen people use gravity feeds, little powerheads (that's what I use nowadays .. an itty bitty maxijet or minijet something-or-other), sometimes even the recirc pump can have enough suction and discharge to draw water in from the tank and push it back. Like Pescador mentioned, you don't need pressure to run the reactor, just a slow flow and a way to fine-tune the flow if need be. 60ml/min works plenty fine for me with my current bioload and tank size.

[marie]

I have mine gravity fed from the overflow upstairs(there is about a 10ft drop), it seems to work great and there is no pump to worry about

[littlesilvermax]

Long story, me and my 4 foot tall calium reactor!

I used to feed it off of a pcx-40 that returns water to my main tank one floor above. Too much pressure in the reactor and busted two 1/4 inch acylic lids!

Having a needle valve on the input side of the reactor does not work well, at least never did for me. Every 2 days it would start to clog a little and change my effluent rate, drove me nuts!

Having the valve on the output side resulted in a very steady effluent rate, and is what I recommend. Usually on the effluent side it will not clog because there is always low ph water passing through it. Unfortunately if it is on the output side it has the possibilty of causing too much pressure in the reactor, depending on pump and how much pressure is in the line.

Eventually I just spent the dough for a used lab grade dosing pump and have never looked back.

[kari]

Originally Posted by mark

I can easily block it off with my finger.

BTW, I asked the pressure rating from the manufacturer, and I wasn't much help to myself (DIY reactor ).

Haha, that means you have to build another one the same just to blow it up testing

It's easy to stop the flow in a 1/4" line because it has a x-section area of only 0.049 inch sq. Your reactor has a much greater surface area so total forces are greater while the pressure remains the same. Most likely you won't have any problems.

[mark]

Well feed from the main pump was too much. Though I cut a groove in both the upper lower flanges, I get a little weeping past the o-ring with the pump on.

Already returned the MJ400 so guess after X-mas be looking around for a mini-jet or the like.