My CO2 Reactor, critique please

[ingg]

K, here it is.

This is for a 180g. It will go on the intake side of a closed loop run by a MAG 9.5, returning over the back of the tank and to the floor of the tank, where it will come out of 4 jets in 1/2" pvc pipe buried in the substrate.

Built in an intake, but don't think I'm using it right away, going to see how it goes feeding into the intake of the stand pipe first.

Obviously has an initial horizontal section. I built in the bends thinking that since water has a high and low velocity side as it goes through bends, this may create added turbidity to mix and mash bubbles.

25" tall, 3" pipe down to 3/4" barbs for line.

Not glued together yet, so waddya think?

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

CO2 reactor - design inspired by the lower intestine. Lol! Try it out - should
work ok. If it doesnt - add a little Pepto Bismol.

[jcali10]

Holey Moley, would you look at that thing!!! An engineering masterpiece.

[Jamie G]

Is the inside empty or filled with bio-balls ?

[ingg]

Empty inside.

Know it ain't pretty, but there is one other person I know of running a reactor inline with a pump this size - and that is Ghazanfar. When I asked him about it, he said he has to throttle his flow back a little or get bubbles misting - and suggested a bigger longer reactor than he had made to be able to run full out.

Don't have the height inside the stand for taller - so it gets zig zags, hehe.

[neilanh]

I'd rotate the intake 180°, may come in handy above the water line if you're planning on injecting into the standpipe anyway. I have troubles with needing to bleed air from my reactor and wish I had some type of bleed valve on it.

[jcali10]

Dave, Ghazanfar made me laugh with his comments. But seriously, it is interesting looking. Closed loop MAG9.5? What is that? My thinking was that the CO2 bubbles trying to rise against a water current trying to push them down causes the co2 to dissolve in the reactor.

[ingg]

It is a Mag 9.5 - a pump that will run about 650 gallons per hour after head height - with no sump, pulling off the bulkhead. No sump on a reef ready tank means a closed loop.

Your thinking is right, it is just a lot of flow because of the tank size, so reactors are a bit... larger.

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

Well, larger is the way to go on a larger tank - theres a balance between flow
rate, amount of CO2 and the length and dia of the reactor. Generally, its
safer to overbuild since PVC is cheap. I'll stick by my original suggestion of
a dual chambered design - basically two cylinders, side by side, plumbed in series.

[ingg]

Can't get there.

By the time I come down off the bulkhead and turn the corner into a Y to dual chamber it, I'd have like 10-12" vertical chambers before having to close it again. Will try it out, I think it ain't gonna work tho, stand just isn't tall enough.

Hmmm, unless I make like a diamond.... lemme think on this.

Was happy to save myself the headache of building my own stand, but sorta regretting it now, could have customized far better. Live and learn.