New Babble Magus Calcium Reactor review

[RuGlu6]

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Bubble Magus Calcium Reactor Just arrived from China yesterday,
Build quality is very good all joints are nice and firm, Atman pump impeller/shaft assembly is very smooth should be very quiet. will set it up in the bucket with vinegar tomorrow.
1st impressions:
• Well thought out design
• Co2 recirculation
• Ph probe port
• Intake strainer (very useful to prevent plug up’s) did not see that in other reactors
• Large bubble counter
• Bottom up flow
• Large chamber, 6” tube diameter about 20” high.
• Very easy disassembly only took me 3 minutes.
• Extra “O” ring (Red)
• Cool red/white colors (similar to wide known brand LOL)
• Pump looks very similar to Eheim design especially impeller.
• Very, very attractive price including shipping. (PM me for details if you need more info)
• 220V but I got 200W transformer so its ok.
Looks like it is in sump only even though it holds water very well, and no leaks I would be hesitant to run it externally without some sort of a container under it just in case. The reason is that pipes are not hard welded to the tube. Instead they used flex rubber sleeves. See pictures. This however will contribute to less noise and vibration so that could be a good thing, time will tell.

[RuGlu6]

A little up date, BM reactor is up and running.

One more good feature that i did not realize this reactor has is top clear drip chamber.

On pic # 1 top left. Very cool, i have reactor fed from my main circ pump and whatever drops i have in this clear chamber coming from feed line the exact same drop count comes out of the unit effluent line NICE !

[Oxymoron]

Really have been considering this piece of equip. Thanks for the review and please keep us updated with your progress in the coming weeks.
Hopefully it will be a set it and forget (for a bit) piece.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Really have been considering this piece of equip. Thanks for the review and please keep us updated with your progress in the coming weeks.
Hopefully it will be a set it and forget (for a bit) piece.

So far so good i would recommend this to anyone who still wants to use this old school technology vs dosing.

The only thing so far is that i am very cautious about is pump connection method via soft rubber sleeves instead of hard piping it.
The unit is holding water nicely and now is used externally, but i am watching it like a hawk! Planning a bottom container just to be on the safe side.


One more positive point is that it uses very little Co2 thanks to a very efficient Co2 recirculation feature.

[RuGlu6]

Replyed all PM's, wow lots of interest

[Oxymoron]

Can you take some pics of it all rigged up in action?

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Can you take some pics of it all rigged up in action?

Sure no problem it will be massy though, lots of tubes and wires.

A little update:

• the clear "drip chamber" is almost full of water now so cant really see the drops, but still easy to control by the effluent drops.
• i made a little modification to the clear Co2 recirc. line (top pic # 1)by cutting it at the top and incorporating a "Vent" line. Got tired of waiting for all the air to dissolve.
• This reactor is Not for a small tank ! my tank is 65 Gal + sump but to keep SPS corals happy all i need is to keep Ph at only 7.0 to keep high Calcium level. This one is rated for 240 Gal so its a bit oversized for my tank. Should have gotten a smoller one.

I still think this is a very good unit. It is running externally for now.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Can you take some pics of it all rigged up in action?

ok here you go.


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I am pointing to a line that i modified and inserted a "T" to vent the reactor from air bubbles. Got tired of waiting and also when to much air inside it makes noise. But when vented it is silent.
Ph probe is now in.

[Oxymoron]

Thanks for this,
What kind of controller are you using?
I'm very interested of your impression in a couple of weeks with regards to it being a set it and forget type deal device, once it's dialed in and to a certain extent of course.
It would be nice to only have to mess with it on a bi monthly basis type deal.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Thanks for this,
What kind of controller are you using?
I'm very interested of your impression in a couple of weeks with regards to it being a set it and forget type deal device, once it's dialed in and to a certain extent of course.
It would be nice to only have to mess with it on a bi monthly basis type deal.

You are welcome.
I do not use a calc reactor controller, just PH probe. The controller you see on the pic is a Tunze controller for water movement pumps and Wave Box.

The reactor is running very quiet and the only noise from it is when it recirculates Co2 every few seconds. I am running it at Ph 7.3 now and dialing in very slowly to be easy on SPS ( i have lots of SPS). Corals are already responding positively with nice new growth. I will reduce the PH slowly in next few days down to 6.9 and will keep it there for some time and see what calcium level will be
If your tank is 120 Gal or less i would consider smaller version.
This will be set it and forget it device mainly because i feed it from my display tank return pump line. The most unreliable way to feed the reactor is gravity feed, second worst is small power head. So the drip rate is the most PITA in regards of calcium reactors use. As long as Co2 is injected and water circulates it should be very simple to use after that.
You will only attend to it when you need to recharge the media and that will depend on the rate of calcium consumption by the corals. This was the reason i got the larger one, because it takes more media.

Oh, BTW the white layer at the bottom of the chamber is Magnesium, makes it easy to keep the level up.