As many have seen in my threads, I recently switched from vinegar back to pellets.
I switched to vinegar dosing and I have been daily dosing vinegar successfully for over a year now. That daily dosing is extremely tedious and I decided to get back on biopellets. I created a DIY reactor HEREfor less then $15 with a pump I had on hand and a old calcium reactor I had on hand. It worked great until I dropped it and the top ring that secures the top popped off as well as a section of the cylinder. Seeing that I was out of spare parts for a project like this, I turned to a factory reactor.
I read up on several that can handle my large amount of pellets. I settled on the Reef Octopus Octo BioCurn-120R, a recirculating bio pellet reactor that was made specifically for larger set ups. It retails just over $400 CAD (reefsupplies.ca) ($359.99 USD (bulkreefsupplies.com). Sustainablemarine.ca delivered it today. After opening the box, it only took a few moments to get it up and running. There was minimal assebly. Basically all you have to do is attach the pump with unions, the water input and output connections depending on your set up. The reactor is made in metric, they do include addapters to convert the input and output flow to imperial to fit most of what we have available for plumbing. I was very impressed with that and the packaging. The entire reactor was in a solid 2 peice molded styrofoam casing. There was no way this could be damaged in shipping. Very impressed, it is definitely overkill which is perfect.
I loved pellets in the past. I only got away from them for 2 reasons. The first was the amount of pellets I needed far exceeded my reactors on hand. The second was the loss of flow as bacterial crud builds up in the reactor clogging the flow. I was forced to clean it every few weeks or the flow would completely stop leaving the pellets dormant in the reactor. Furthermore reactors tend to push a lot of flow into one particular area, which means that you get a lot of circulation in one area, and very little in others. This seems to remedy all my previous issues. Only time will tell if this exceeds my previous issues with reactors, but after my initial introduction to it, I have a feeling that I will be a happy reefer for the near future.
Here are the specs and photos being added.
Features:
Solid construction
Refined control - independent flow valves to independently control the flow of media within reactor
Patent pending churning plate - suspends media for more contact with nutrient rich aquarium water
Easy to maintain upper containment plate
Reactor Specifications:
Capacity: approx. 900 mL
Diameter: 5”
Height: 20”
Footprint: 11.82” x 7.1"
Output Size: 1"
Inlet Feed Size: 1/2" or 3/4"
Suggested Feed pump producing 270-530 GPH (I am using a MJ1200 pump to start)
Aquatrance 1200 Pump Features:
Power Consumption: 15 Watts
Max Water Flow: 340 GPH
Manufacturer's Warranty
1 year on reactor body
2 year on Aquatrance pump
1 year on rotor
Reactor running only with a mj1200 feeding it and 5 cups of pellets.
Reactor running only with the recirculating pump running with 2 cups of pellets.
I switched to vinegar dosing and I have been daily dosing vinegar successfully for over a year now. That daily dosing is extremely tedious and I decided to get back on biopellets. I created a DIY reactor HEREfor less then $15 with a pump I had on hand and a old calcium reactor I had on hand. It worked great until I dropped it and the top ring that secures the top popped off as well as a section of the cylinder. Seeing that I was out of spare parts for a project like this, I turned to a factory reactor.
I read up on several that can handle my large amount of pellets. I settled on the Reef Octopus Octo BioCurn-120R, a recirculating bio pellet reactor that was made specifically for larger set ups. It retails just over $400 CAD (reefsupplies.ca) ($359.99 USD (bulkreefsupplies.com). Sustainablemarine.ca delivered it today. After opening the box, it only took a few moments to get it up and running. There was minimal assebly. Basically all you have to do is attach the pump with unions, the water input and output connections depending on your set up. The reactor is made in metric, they do include addapters to convert the input and output flow to imperial to fit most of what we have available for plumbing. I was very impressed with that and the packaging. The entire reactor was in a solid 2 peice molded styrofoam casing. There was no way this could be damaged in shipping. Very impressed, it is definitely overkill which is perfect.
I loved pellets in the past. I only got away from them for 2 reasons. The first was the amount of pellets I needed far exceeded my reactors on hand. The second was the loss of flow as bacterial crud builds up in the reactor clogging the flow. I was forced to clean it every few weeks or the flow would completely stop leaving the pellets dormant in the reactor. Furthermore reactors tend to push a lot of flow into one particular area, which means that you get a lot of circulation in one area, and very little in others. This seems to remedy all my previous issues. Only time will tell if this exceeds my previous issues with reactors, but after my initial introduction to it, I have a feeling that I will be a happy reefer for the near future.
Here are the specs and photos being added.
Features:
Solid construction
Refined control - independent flow valves to independently control the flow of media within reactor
Patent pending churning plate - suspends media for more contact with nutrient rich aquarium water
Easy to maintain upper containment plate
Reactor Specifications:
Capacity: approx. 900 mL
Diameter: 5”
Height: 20”
Footprint: 11.82” x 7.1"
Output Size: 1"
Inlet Feed Size: 1/2" or 3/4"
Suggested Feed pump producing 270-530 GPH (I am using a MJ1200 pump to start)
Aquatrance 1200 Pump Features:
Power Consumption: 15 Watts
Max Water Flow: 340 GPH
Manufacturer's Warranty
1 year on reactor body
2 year on Aquatrance pump
1 year on rotor
Reactor running only with a mj1200 feeding it and 5 cups of pellets.
Reactor running only with the recirculating pump running with 2 cups of pellets.
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