Calcium reactor feed pump question

hybridazn · Mar 16, 2016

I've been thinking about what pump to use to feed the reactor. I originally thought I was sold on using this quiet one 1200 (317gph, adjustable) as the feed. But the more I thought about it the more I kept thinking I wasn't sure on that choice. I don't want to put too much pressure inside the reactor by not being able to slow the pump down to match the effluent. So digging around I garage I found this:

A stenner 45mp1. It's only a 3gpd (25psi) pump. Would this be a better choice than the quiet one?

I posted this in my build thread but wasn't getting any love

so I figured I'd post here as well.

Thanks all!

AZDesertRat · Mar 16, 2016

The Quiet One is fine other than its not a very good pump. It only develops maybe 2-3 psi so it's not going to pressurize the reactor and the output can be restricted as much as you want without harming the pump.
It would not be my choice of pumps though as I have had two Quiet One pumps go up in flames literally, one was a 1200 the other a 4000.
They are loud, run hot, draw more power than comparable more efficient pumps and have trouble starting in a power outage. After my experiences I wouldn't recommend one to anyone. Besides that you will want more than the 3 gpd the peristaltic pump delivers, a steady drip is much more than 3 gpd.
I went from the QO1200 to a MaxiJet 600 and it worked perfectly.

hybridazn · Mar 16, 2016

AZDesertRat said:
The Quiet One is fine other than its not a very good pump. It only develops maybe 2-3 psi so it's not going to pressurize the reactor and the output can be restricted as much as you want without harming the pump.
It would not be my choice of pumps though as I have had two Quiet One pumps go up in flames literally, one was a 1200 the other a 4000.
They are loud, run hot, draw more power than comparable more efficient pumps and have trouble starting in a power outage. After my experiences I wouldn't recommend one to anyone. Besides that you will want more than the 3 gpd the peristaltic pump delivers, a steady drip is much more than 3 gpd.
I went from the QO1200 to a MaxiJet 600 and it worked perfectly.

Thank you for the info, I wasn't sure of the pressure the quiet one would create within the reactor.

AZDesertRat · Mar 16, 2016

When you look at an aquarium pump it should have a published pump curve or graph which shows how high it will pump and how many gph it will pump at various heights. One foot of head is equal to 0.433 psi pressure or the inverse is every 2.31 feet of height is equal to 1 psi pressure. Without looking up the pump curve, I'm guessing the QO1200 is rated for around 6-8 feet of head maximum which means at 8 feet it does not move water, shutoff head. Marine Depot and Premium Aquatics have pump curves and comparisons for lots of common pumps.

reefjunkie53 · Mar 17, 2016

Do you think the tom aquatics pump was a bad idea I just put on my new skimz monzter the only reason I bought it was I saw a lot of other ppl using them it works awesome so far and is super silent

reefjunkie53 · Mar 17, 2016

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ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1458218348.928127.jpg

AZDesertRat · Mar 17, 2016

What is the Tom's rated at? If your effluent drip rate is 30 drops per minute that amounts to about 5 gallons a day. With a display that large I'll bet your drip rate will be much higher than that though, I drip 30 or more in my 100G.

reefjunkie53 · Mar 17, 2016

It's is a 3.5 gph pump

Ryan Hunter · Mar 17, 2016

I would use the Stenner pump and my personal preference would be to pull through the reactor rather then feed the reactor if possible.

hybridazn · Mar 17, 2016

Ryan Hunter said:
I would use the Stenner pump and my personal preference would be to pull through the reactor rather then feed the reactor if possible.

Could you explain how you would pull water thru the reactor if there isn't a feed putting water in the reactor?

Ryan Hunter · Mar 17, 2016

hybridazn said:
Could you explain how you would pull water thru the reactor if there isn't a feed putting water in the reactor?

My case I run a Schuran Jetstream and the "feed" line is simply submerged in the sump and a Stenner pump is pulling the water through the effluent line. Basically running a siphon through the reactor. Either pushing or pulling water through accomplish the same thing but most reactors do not like any kind of pressure so pulling is preferred.

hybridazn · Mar 17, 2016

Oooh I see. Makes total sense now, thanks for clearing that up! I may look into that.

Is this a common practice? I don't think I've ever heard of this before.

Ryan Hunter · Mar 17, 2016

hybridazn said:
Oooh I see. Makes total sense now, thanks for clearing that up! I may look into that.

Is this a common practice? I don't think I've ever heard of this before.

There are several good threads about this around some of the other forums. Not sure if they can be mentioned but they show up with a quick Google search.

Reefing4eva · Mar 17, 2016

I have everything being fed off the manifold including my calcium reactor..I'm able to control the flow by a ball valve.I have a controllable DC pump to control the flow also

hybridazn · Mar 17, 2016

Reefing4eva said:
I have everything being fed off the manifold including my calcium reactor..I'm able to control the flow by a ball valve.I have a controllable DC pump to control the flow also

I thought about doing this as well. But inconsistencies in flow scared me away from doing this.

hybridazn · Mar 20, 2016

So I checked the flow out of the stenner pump and it did 70ml/min so that equates to 4200ml/hr so that's a little over a gallon per hour. Strange it says it does 3gpd?