Help with ZEOvit reactor please

[surgeonfish]

How do you keep the water level in your ZEOvit reactors above the ZEOvit?

I have been using the ZEOvit system now for 2 weeks. I bought the GroTech ZF110 filter/reactor. I am turning the feed pump on and off at 3 hour intervals. I somehow thought that when the pump was off the filter remained full of water and the ZEOvit would stay submerged. Silly me. I checked the filter tonight and found that when the feed pump is off, the reactor slowly drains down to the water level in my sump leaving >50% of the ZEOvit dry. How do you keep the water level above the ZEOvit. I don't want to raise the water level in the sump if possible.
Thanks

[andresont]

1 Check valve
2 Back flow preventor
3 Simple tubing pipe loop between the pump and the ZEO reactor.
Loop must be as high as you want your water level to be. the is no pressure issues because you only need 50 -100 gal/hr flow.
hope this will work for you.

[Delphinus]

Ew, I don't like check valves (in general) but I'm not sure you really have any other option in this case. If you did a tubing pipe loop that would work, but only if you had a siphon break at the top of the loop (otherwise it will still just back siphon), then you have the issue of a little water stream spraying out of it when the pump is on.

The only other thing I can think of is try a sort of mini sump. Ie. a 10g tank on its own that you can have the water level where-ever you like and have the reactor sit in there. You could direct water from your overflow into this tank and then overflow from there back into the main sump.

The drawback to this is obviously the practicality - unless you have a lot of space and/or a dedicated tank room it's probably not an ideal option either.

The simplest is probably the check valve. (Did I mention "ew" yet? )

[Tom R]

I found the same problem. Less than half of the ZEOvit was below the high water mark of my sump. I looked at increasing the depth of the water in the sump but became concerned about the possibility of flood during a power outage. I know that this would be for a short period of time as after your first or second cycle of ZEOvit change out the pump in the reactor will run all the time 24/7. I decided to leave the pump on 24/7 and adjust the flow to half for the break in period. My reactor had a flow valve so it was just an adjustment to reduce the water volume to half. You have to do something as the bacteria will die if the water flow is shut off and the ZEOvit is left to dry out.

Tom R

[Delphinus]

What about just putting the reactor in a salt bucket sitting in the sump? And just let the water overflow the bucket into the sump when the reactor is running?

A bit ghetto maybe, but I didn't realize that you're supposed to only have the 50 on/off thing at first (sorry - I'm a zeo neophyte - I want to go zeo but I'm not on it as yet). So after the break-in period you can just have the pump on all the time and not have the bucket.

You might have to throw some LR at the bottom of the bucket to weigh it down. And you can drill a hole in the bucket if the water level is too high and let the water spill out that way.

[andestang]

I have a point on my supply line that is higher than my Zoevit material that has an airline tube plumbed over to the top return line/pipe. When the pump is on the water from the airline tube just goes into the return and when the pump is off the airline tube will cause the break in the siphen. When you go to run full time just plug off the airline fitting on the supply line or leave in place for any power failures.

Originally Posted by surgeonfish

How do you keep the water level in your ZEOvit reactors above the ZEOvit?

I have been using the ZEOvit system now for 2 weeks. I bought the GroTech ZF110 filter/reactor. I am turning the feed pump on and off at 3 hour intervals. I somehow thought that when the pump was off the filter remained full of water and the ZEOvit would stay submerged. Silly me. I checked the filter tonight and found that when the feed pump is off, the reactor slowly drains down to the water level in my sump leaving >50% of the ZEOvit dry. How do you keep the water level above the ZEOvit. I don't want to raise the water level in the sump if possible.
Thanks

[surgeonfish]

Thanks for all the advice.
I think the easist is to just keep the pump running 24/7 and reduce the flow as Tom R suggested. The problem with making any mods with the GroTech filter is I need metric plumbing supplies.
Here is a link to a mod similar to what andestagg is describing: http://zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3500 (sorry it is in Spanish but has nice pictures).

[Jason McK]

You can also just run the pump 24/7 but cut the flow rate significantly.
Sorry I would suggest you post on Zeovit.com to get possible flow rates

J

[andresont]

How about just attaching a rubber glove with fingers cut off on the output of the pump?
This will allow a water flow only one way in to the reactor and will (theoretically) prevent from draining back when pump is off.
At least it worth a try imo.