calciuum reactor help

adidas · #1 02-29-2008, 08:38 PM

hmmm the guage on the right says 5, the one on the left we had at between 0.1 and 0.2. not sure which one is which

Pescador · #2 02-29-2008, 10:29 PM

I'm running the same reactor, what is your effluent flow?
Mine is on the high side I think about 200ml/min. Co2 is about 60bpm.
PH in the reactor is about 6.8. My Aquamedic regulator is preset at about 18-20psi. I open the needle valve on the reg to get a steady flow and fine tune it with a Redsea needle valve.
I'm pretty impressed with the larger media it's only gone down about an inch in 2 months I would have used 1/2 a chamber of the fine stuff in my K2R.

adidas · #3 02-29-2008, 11:34 PM

is psi the guage on the right? mine is at 5.and how do i know what my effluent flow is at?

Delphinus · #4 02-29-2008, 11:48 PM

I'm not sure what units 5 and 0.1 would be. The two numbers though, should represent inlet pressure (the pressure on the inlet side of the valve, the tank, basically) and outlet pressure. Tanks are usually around 800psi or so when full. The other pressure unit I know of is kPA (kiloPascal) but I think it's something like 1.5 psi per 10 kPA which means 800psi is something like 5500 kPA.

Unless the guage is reading in "thousands of kPA"? I guess that would explain the 0.1 reading though because 18psi is about 100-something kPA which would be 0.1 "thousands of kPA".

There's nothing on the guage itself that says what the units are?

adidas · #5 02-29-2008, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus

There's nothing on the guage itself that says what the units are?

lol it's all in chinese or something.. all i know is that the BPM is around 70-80...is there any dangers of having it run the way it is? the effluent is running at about the same speed as a 100gpd RODI filter

Delphinus · #6 02-29-2008, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adidas

lol it's all in chinese or something.. all i know is that the BPM is around 70-80...is there any dangers of having it run the way it is? the effluent is running at about the same speed as a 100gpd RODI filter

My guess is the units then are probably "thousands of kPa". The bubble rate is not abnormal. So long as your effluent pH is at 6.7 (or where-ever you want it set at), it should be pretty safe.

Assuming you get 100gpd out of your 100gpd RO/DI (usually you don't get the full flowrate out of those things, but let's just ignore the details for the sake of guesstimating the flowrate

) that's. . um .. 100gpd =~ 400 litres per day = 400,000 ml per 24 hours ~270 ml per minute (1440 minutes per 24 hours). Hmmm, ok, that seems a little fast.

60ml/min is basically on right on the verge of starting as a steady stream, whereas any slower it's actually perceivable as a "fast drip-drip-drip-drippety-drip."

Basically I'd just take a known volume container (measuring spoon, measuring cup, whatever), and count how long it takes to fill up to a certain level, from that you can figure out your flowrate.

adidas · #7 03-01-2008, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus

My guess is the units then are probably "thousands of kPa". The bubble rate is not abnormal. So long as your effluent pH is at 6.7 (or where-ever you want it set at), it should be pretty safe.

Assuming you get 100gpd out of your 100gpd RO/DI (usually you don't get the full flowrate out of those things, but let's just ignore the details for the sake of guesstimating the flowrate

) that's. . um .. 100gpd =~ 400 litres per day = 400,000 ml per 24 hours ~270 ml per minute (1440 minutes per 24 hours). Hmmm, ok, that seems a little fast.

60ml/min is basically on right on the verge of starting as a steady stream, whereas any slower it's actually perceivable as a "fast drip-drip-drip-drippety-drip."

Basically I'd just take a known volume container (measuring spoon, measuring cup, whatever), and count how long it takes to fill up to a certain level, from that you can figure out your flowrate.

ok thanks..i will do that.

Delphinus · #8 02-29-2008, 11:52 PM

Sorry, missed your second question there.

To measure my effluent rate, I just take a 15ml measuring spoon and count the seconds it takes to fill. I run my reactor at 60ml/min so I expect it to take 15 seconds to fill the spoon - and just adjust accordingly until I get it close (it's pretty fussy work getting it dialed in just right).

You could always get a peristaltic pump but they tend to be pricey. There are those that are fixed-flow for around $80-120 but you can also get adjustable peristaltic pumps but they tend to run in the hundreds to thousands of dollars (depending on how used&abused a model you can find on ebay or whatever).

adidas · #9 02-29-2008, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Sorry, missed your second question there.

To measure my effluent rate, I just take a 15ml measuring spoon and count the seconds it takes to fill. I run my reactor at 60ml/min so I expect it to take 15 seconds to fill the spoon - and just adjust accordingly until I get it close (it's pretty fussy work getting it dialed in just right).

You could always get a peristaltic pump but they tend to be pricey. There are those that are fixed-flow for around $80-120 but you can also get adjustable peristaltic pumps but they tend to run in the hundreds to thousands of dollars (depending on how used&abused a model you can find on ebay or whatever).

i just have the lil valve open all the way, is it unsafe to run it all the way open?