Aquarium Engineering-ACR Calcium Reactor

[dadnjesse]

Has Anyone who has one of these reactors had a problem with back feeding to the sump when you cut power to the pump feed. Mine is back flowing when my pump shuts off. I assume because the feed is at the bottom. The problem I see is if the whole reactor back flows all that high alkalinity water my tank will crash.

 

[BrianReefer]

Has Anyone who has one of these reactors had a problem with back feeding to the sump when you cut power to the pump feed. Mine is back flowing when my pump shuts off. I assume because the feed is at the bottom. The problem I see is if the whole reactor back flows all that high alkalinity water my tank will crash.

Yes, and it once caused a massive all spike that nearly destroyed my high end acro tank, which is why I switched from a dedicated pump to teeing off of my return. No issues now.

 

[dadnjesse]

Yes, and it once caused a massive all spike that nearly destroyed my high end acro tank, which is why I switched from a dedicated pump to teeing off of my return. No issues now.

That's what I'm doing feeding it off my return, but if i cut power to my return it's back flowing.

 

[BrianReefer]

That's what I'm doing feeding it off my return, but if i cut power to my return it's back flowing.

The back flow for me was because the dedicated feed pump was submerged and caused a reverse siphon. With mine teed off above the sump water level, when I turn off the return I don’t get that reverse siphon...

 

[dadnjesse]

I ordered a check valve. Not sure that will work, I will have to test it.

 

[jpas]

Did your reactor not come with a check valve?

 

[dadnjesse]

Did your reactor not come with a check valve?

It came with the control box but the feed is on the bottom of the reactor and it's back flowing when I cut power to the return pump.

 

[dadnjesse]

Ok now my reactor is not filling to the top, its down 1 1/2 from the top. The float is under the water level. Is this normal. It's being fed from my Fluval SP6 that's 3434 gallons per hour

 

[dadnjesse]

I keep calling Bill but get no answer. I'm pretty frustrated at this point. I know it has a lifetime warranty but I'll probably die before he answers the phone.

 

[fish head]

I have a calcium reactor of bills works great !! but other that a extremely crappy company to work with.
my stuff has been on order for year in October and still hasn't shipped everything's get parts here there.
ive had the big skimmer in my garage over two months waiting on parts and of course they shipped ... I can keep going and going but I will not recommend him at all

 

[ca1ore]

All too common an experience unfortunately. I bought a bunch of stuff in early 2019, and after a myriad of missed commitments, undelivered promises and frankly surprisingly poor quality control I still don’t have what I felt I had paid for. I had intended to buy a number of other things from him ..... glad I didn’t.

 

[dadnjesse]

Well I was thinking of converting it to a regular Reactor and using my Cole Parmer Peristaltic pump I already have. I could add a Ph probe and run it that way.

 

[ca1ore]

I ended up just building my own, very happy with it. I did have a couple of minor issues, and for a while refused to take my own calls LOL ..... but it’s been running flawlessly for a couple of years now.

 

[ScottB]

Ok now my reactor is not filling to the top, its down 1 1/2 from the top. The float is under the water level. Is this normal. It's being fed from my Fluval SP6 that's 3434 gallons per hour

Have you tried purging the air? I find I need to do this every week or two as microbubbles collect. But I have never seen that much air in an ACR reactor.

 

[dadnjesse]

I talked to Bill and we found the float was installed upside down. It seems to be working now. I have been running it for 4 days without problems.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

For further reference Bill sent me these instructions for setting up the reactor

I setup my ACR last night on a frag tank to tide me over until it gets used in my build. I followed along using the instructions that were posted by @reeflife3 , but noticed that it is missing a step as the connection of the CO2 from the valve box to the reactor is never covered. No matter as I already had a good idea of how things were to be connected, but for new users, it would cause confusion.

Here is my reactor for reference (there are multiple iterations already of the ACR), along with a temporary stand I put together from scraps.

Someone mentioned an auto purge capability. I have not heard about this and was planning to DIY an auto purge myself. Can anyone point me to any info on this?

Dennis

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Doh, I just noticed the reactor in my photo is turned so that the ports on the lid are not visible. I have the version with 3 ports in a row, 1 is effluent and the other 2 are CO2 and both connect to a shared pocket in the lid. For my installation, I used 1 of the CO2 ports to connect to the CO2 output on the valve box, and the other has a tee with 1 line running to the venturi and the other going to a manual valve for purging.

I stuck coloured dot stickers onto each port on the reactor and valve box to help identify the port type and the matching hose colour that connects the two. Bill should consider something similar, perhaps with a more robust vinyl sticker, when he ships the units out to help new users sort out what goes where.

Dennis

 

[dadnjesse]

The auto purge is an additional add on. It is not on his website to purchase. I wanted to purchase one, I sent bill a message trying to get one but never got a straight answer back.

 

[reefandreptileautomation]

All I gotta say is everything being said is common. Bill never answers phone calls. His warranty is frankly worthless. I would have thought he had changed his ways but it is the same BS it has always been. As for the backfeed I had the same problem and he mentioned I won't need a check valve.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

All I gotta say is everything being said is common. Bill never answers phone calls. His warranty is frankly worthless. I would have thought he had changed his ways but it is the same crap it has always been. As for the backfeed I had the same problem and he mentioned I won't need a check valve.

The reports of back flowing had me wondering. I just put my ACR into service and had no check valve on it. I just did a test, turned off the pump and controller on the ACR and pulled my feed line off (the equivalent of the feed pump stopping). I got an immediate stream of water back flowing out of the ACR feed line. This surprised me as I was thinking the ACR being sealed, along with the effluent valve being closed, would prevent the back flow. After thinking about it, the ACR is under pressure, 10 PSI to be exact, so the feed line will definitely back flow as the pressure normalizes with atmospheric. It will probably even back flow after that as air bubbles work their way along the feed line to replace water already in the unit. I installed a check valve to prevent this from occurring.

As for dealing with Bill, I am just about to send in a deposit on a custom sump valued at several ACR units. I do this after waiting 11 months for my ACR unit to ship. The original estimate was 2 months. I also experienced lots of trouble with contact and when I did, my unit was just about to ship, for months. Towards the end, I was so frustrated, I started sending very un-Canadian like emails (no please and thank you's :mad: ). When the unit arrived, I realized it was worth the wait. He really does do an excellent job machining the purpose made parts for his equipment. That is why I am willing to use him for my custom sump as I know the outcome should be worth any possible aggravation in the process.

Besides, he assures me they have got better at shipping things in a timely fashion. I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Dennis