CaCo3Reef Media Reactors Review/Issues

[GMGQ]

Hi All,

I just wanted to share my experience with these media reactors thus far, as they are still a fairly new offering to our community. I had heard others were having similar issues as me, so I thought we could share and maybe find some common ground/solutions. This is in no way a slam on Eli’s product. He’s been Extremely helpful via email and on the phone. I could have some lemons?

Anyways, I got in on the monthly special with a friend, so we got 2 reactors for free. He didn’t really need a spare, so I bought it off him. I wanted to run HC GFO in one, and ROX1.3 in the other, to battle the crazy hair algae issue I’ve been having.

My initial plan was to run each one with a MJ1200. For the first reactor, I hooked it all up, filled the cartridge ½ full of HC GFO, and plugged in the pump. Water slowly filled the reactor. Very slowly. I checked back later, and it had finally filled up the reactor. Water was literally “dripping” out of the output line. The valve was on full blast, so it was not choked back at all. The MJ1200 pushes 295GPH.

I even tried tilting the reactor on it’s side, so that the HC GFO was along the side of the canister, allowing water to flow straight through the reactor, but that made on difference.

Now the tubing that comes with the reactors is all 3/8”. I thought maybe it’s too narrow, and causing a bottleneck for the flow. So I went to HD and got all ½” fittings (bought the wrong ones to screw into the reactor, but eventually got all the right parts). I also dug up an old GX-2400 pump, which pushes 633GPH. Plugged it all in. No difference?? The water was maybe dripping a bit faster, but something inside was definitely creating a blockage. I had tried putting the valve on the intake and choked it back (thinking maybe it was too Much flow, but it didn’t make a difference). I checked the intake right before it goes into the reactor, and the GX-2400 is pumping full blast at this point.

By this point I had been emailing Eli to discuss the issue. Apparently he was aware, as a few of his other customers had mentioned the same thing. So he said he was going to upload a youtube video with instructions on how to remove the filter at the top of the internal canister. Sure enough he uploaded it, and I went ahead and did it. This involved heating up the top of the canister to melt the glue, and pushing the block of filter material off, taking it out, and putting in the foam filter that came with the reactor. After I did that, the flow did improve, but only to a small trickle now.

I emailed Eli again, and he suggested that he should give me a call and walk me through some steps, so he kindly called me. While on the phone, we tried one suggestion where we swapped the intake and output. So the intake would have the pump feeding water into the reactor, DOWN the middle through the canister and media, out the BOTTOM, and UP the sides. OK, this definitely increased the flow out of the reactor! Hallelujah. He said it made no difference if the water goes up or down through the media, it’s still making contact and allowing the HC GFO to suck out the phosphates. So I told him I’d give this a shot for a while and see how it goes.

Since this was working out, I decided to go ahead and hook up the other reactor with ROX1.3. I filled it ¾ full. I kept the tubing as 3/8” just to see how it would do. I got a Tee and split the output from the 633GPH pump to feed this second reactor. At first I left the intake and output as is, but again, the reactor was being filled VERY slowly. So I swapped the lines on this one as well, and that sped it up. Eventually it did fill up, and water flowed out of it at a decent rate.

Here’s how it looks:

Left Reactor:
- HC GFO
- all 1/2" tubing

Right Reactor:
- ROX1.3
- all 3/8" tubing

- left sides of reactors are OUTPUT, right sides are INTAKE

***

It’s been a little over a week now, and the flow rates have dramatically dropped off again :S The output from the HC GFO is a Very slow drizzle now (more than dripping, less than a trickle). The output from the ROX1.3 reactor is drizzling out of the 3/8” tubing as well. None of the inputs are choked back, all the valves are open full blast. I even tried cutting off flow to each reactor, so that one reactor would get full flow from the pump, but that made no difference. There’s some major blockage going on, and I think it’s the bottom of the cartridges.

I had taken out the cartridges, and noticed no visible blockages on the bottom, and the foam at the top had actually been blown down by the inflow, so it wasn’t blocking anything. I even unplugged the intake, and tried blowing air into the tube, and it was HARD (it was like blowing into a straw, with your hand blocking the other end).

Thoughts? I was thinking of buying a replacement cartridge from BRS, as they look compatible, but the bottom looks different. However, they are $9.99 each, and I did not intend on having to replace these cartridges...