Grrr. My biopellet reactor died

[Delphinus]

Sorry to hear. I'm with others on this thread, that outlet sounds too small.

To be honest, I find the whole trend of "recirculating this or that" (skimmers, reactors, etc.) to be a little bit of needless overcomplication. The fact that these units sit in sumps means that water is recirculated even on one-pass designs anyhow. Generally speaking, KISS principle is the way to go.

[asylumdown]

yah the only logic behind it is the setting tumbler ate independent of flow, but these problems with mulm building up inside the reactor (let alone clogging parts) just doesn't seem to happen with one pass reactors, as the water moves at such a clip it's evacuated as soon as it's produced.

I wouldn't buy one again, but it was 4 or 5 hundred bucks and I don't want to replace it it so I'm going to try and work with what I have. I'm 99% certain I can address it's most serious design flaws.

Tony, you know anyone in Calgary that's got a drill press? I will even supply my own drill bit...

[Spyd]

I have read about numerous issues with multiple recirculating reactors. IMO they are not worth it at all. Stick to the easy to use, hassle free reactors like the Vertex models. All I did for the reactor was made a DIY screen at the top of the reactor to prevent the pellets from leaving the reactor as they shrunk. It is truly set it and forget it from there...

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Spyd

I have read about numerous issues with multiple recirculating reactors. IMO they are not worth it at all. Stick to the easy to use, hassle free reactors like the Vertex models. All I did for the reactor was made a DIY screen at the top of the reactor to prevent the pellets from leaving the reactor as they shrunk. It is truly set it and forget it from there...

Yes, that is what I did initially with mine, with material from Michaels. But now Vertex makes that screen filter and I bought that, too. Works good.

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Yes, that is what I did initially with mine, with material from Michaels. But now Vertex makes that screen filter and I bought that, too. Works good.

I was just about to post that they now make those screens. Great idea though, as i'm sure almost everyone using them for pellets had the same issue.

[asylumdown]

well since buying a new reactor of a comparable size would be in the 100-130 range, plus I'd then have to buy a pump, I need to work with what I've got. Though for anyone else who comes across this I definitely recommend either a recirculating design that has large diameter effluent lines, or not going with the recirculating variety at all.

Well my dad had sold his large drill press bus he still had a small desk sized version that was more than up to the job of drilling through the plastic cap. With the bulkhead, valve and fittings Denny hooked me up with at Concept yesterday, I was able to do this:



The inlet line, while larger than the effluent line, is still a pretty small hose, so my flow through is still going to be limited by the amount of water that can be sucked in to the reactor. At least now to clog and shut down completely I'll need to produce enough mulm to block a 3/4 pipe. If this ends up being limited in functionality due to the inlet line, I should be able to modify it to a larger hose as well.

[Stones]

Nice work! I'm sure this should alleviate your clogging problems. Your intake line shouldn't need to be scaled up because your reactor uses the recirculating current to keep the pellets tumbling as opposed to the intake water being used for that purpose.