UncleBen's DIY external CO2 reactor

[uklau]

Hi,

Nothing new about the design of this reactor. Just want to share what I started off on National Day last year . Managed to put it into test (newly set up tank) & found it to be very efficient in disolving CO2. No gas accumulated in the reactor after 7 hours with 4-5bps.

Below are the details:

Front view - Fabricated a copper tube (much easier to fabricate compared to stainless steel). The tube was fabricated in such a way that the outer end is slightly bigger than the inner end. Drilled a hole at the breather-valve & jammed the tube through the hole from outside in. Surprisingly, this is a good way to keep the tube in place. No epoxy or any form of glue & it stayed at it was since day one & without leaking.


Bottom view - To be on the safe side (kiasu), I put a layer of silicon at the inner side.


Bottom view with CO2 diffuser attached - To allow easy positioning of diffuser. In the event that cleaning is required, it can be detached easily.


The heart of this reactor is how the inlet was desgined (to create a great turbulance in the canister). To be continued..... need to look for the photos taken ages ago

[illumnae]

looking forward to updates i'm in the midst of gathering the items to make mine. lacking the pvc pipes now as i don't have the time during office hours to go to a hardware store to buy them...whenever i'm free (like today), they're closed

will the copper tube cause problems in future with shrimp?

[uklau]

Could not find any photos taken during the construction of the reactor's inlet(the part, which creates the turbulance in the canister). Guess must be that the camera was running out of battery .

Back to the topic. Shown below is the photo taken for the completed reactor.



In this design, the water flow through the canister via the original path. Water flow from the outer side of the black tube into the tube only via the holes at the bottom of the tube. Since this filter cartridge comes with O rings, which prevent water bypass, I'm using back the original cartridge by removing the cotton wool & cover the holes using a shrinkable tube. The diffuser is positioned towards the bottom of the canister (to dissolve the CO2 better).

Now, the heart of this CO2 reactor is to create a great turbulance at the canister inlet with the minimum back pressure. I made use of a 22mm white PVC pipe (electrical pipe) & drill the biggest hole that it can accomodate at the end of the pipe. Cut the end with the hole to the correct length & jammed it into the inlet (the left side of the front view photo). The hole on the pipe is tilted to direct the incoming water to hit the wall of the canister, instead of letting the water flowing directly to the bottom of the canister. I'll take a photo of this part when I service the reactor (which I believe would be few months down the road )

This CO2 reactor is working well with the flowrate of 1000l/h or above. I would not be able to comment on other flowrate as I do not have other powerhead to do the testing.

[uklau]

looking forward to updates i'm in the midst of gathering the items to make mine. lacking the pvc pipes now as i don't have the time during office hours to go to a hardware store to buy them...whenever i'm free (like today), they're closed

will the copper tube cause problems in future with shrimp?

I always face this issue when trying to get stuffs from hardware store.

BTW, I don't think that small piece of copper tube will create problems to shrimps. I'm having copper pipe for my tape water where I'm staying now .