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I decided to pick the collective brain of Reef2Reef to see if anybody has any ideas why my effluent flow on the Deltec 601S calcium reactor won't stay consistent. It will always, over time, dwindle from a slow stream, to drips, to nothing in the span of a couple of hours.
Through research of the reactors and my own observations, I've come across what I think can explain it:
1) It appears to be a pressure related issue. More CO2 gas into the reactor, the higher the pressure due to displaced water, which causes the water going into the reactor to change with the variable pressure of the reactor, depending on the feed pump used
2) Most recommend a solid state pump such as a peristaltic to always deliver the same amount of flow irregardless of pressure on the other side of the equation. Not an option in this case, peristaltics that actually last are noisy and this is in my living room... trust me on my experience with peristaltics, I used to use them all the time to sample groundwater when I was an environmental scientist.
What baffles me is I've had a Korallin C1502 and a no name reactor that I've run for 3-4 years, neither one had pressure issues and would always deliver a steady effluent flow. Is it just the design of the Deltec? The Korallin was complicated in its own right but the no name reactor was just a simple tube, with a pump, an area for CO2 injection, an input for new water, and an effluent port for exiting water. Simple as can be! The flow always was steady. They were all fed via my return pump flow.
I think my next idea is to remove all sources of trapped CO2 to reduce the ability to pressurize the system with CO2 input. I think this is the main difference between my new Deltec and the Korallin and generic CaRX... there seems to be a collection point of CO2 at the fine filter sponge at the top of the CaRX. The main reason it has one is that Deltecs were designed to run with a fluidized media so the fine sponge keeps particles from getting into your recirculation pump. I think the CO2 gas that gets trapped there starts to displace more and more water and pressurize the reactor, causing my unstable effluent flow issues. This is the only main difference I can see with the Deltec versus the other reactors I've used, there is an actual location where CO2 gas can collect and as more collects, more water is displaced causing the pressurization of the reactor.
If anybody else has dealt with this before, please share and let me know what you did. I'm racking my brain here wondering why a super-expensive CaRX with a well respected name is not performing as well as a simple tube reactor that a elementary school kid could build.
Through research of the reactors and my own observations, I've come across what I think can explain it:
1) It appears to be a pressure related issue. More CO2 gas into the reactor, the higher the pressure due to displaced water, which causes the water going into the reactor to change with the variable pressure of the reactor, depending on the feed pump used
2) Most recommend a solid state pump such as a peristaltic to always deliver the same amount of flow irregardless of pressure on the other side of the equation. Not an option in this case, peristaltics that actually last are noisy and this is in my living room... trust me on my experience with peristaltics, I used to use them all the time to sample groundwater when I was an environmental scientist.
What baffles me is I've had a Korallin C1502 and a no name reactor that I've run for 3-4 years, neither one had pressure issues and would always deliver a steady effluent flow. Is it just the design of the Deltec? The Korallin was complicated in its own right but the no name reactor was just a simple tube, with a pump, an area for CO2 injection, an input for new water, and an effluent port for exiting water. Simple as can be! The flow always was steady. They were all fed via my return pump flow.
I think my next idea is to remove all sources of trapped CO2 to reduce the ability to pressurize the system with CO2 input. I think this is the main difference between my new Deltec and the Korallin and generic CaRX... there seems to be a collection point of CO2 at the fine filter sponge at the top of the CaRX. The main reason it has one is that Deltecs were designed to run with a fluidized media so the fine sponge keeps particles from getting into your recirculation pump. I think the CO2 gas that gets trapped there starts to displace more and more water and pressurize the reactor, causing my unstable effluent flow issues. This is the only main difference I can see with the Deltec versus the other reactors I've used, there is an actual location where CO2 gas can collect and as more collects, more water is displaced causing the pressurization of the reactor.
If anybody else has dealt with this before, please share and let me know what you did. I'm racking my brain here wondering why a super-expensive CaRX with a well respected name is not performing as well as a simple tube reactor that a elementary school kid could build.
