large compacity ca reactor

[foma2000]

so i dont think ive said anything but i recently got a job working for an aquarium matnence buisness. its really small scale(sorta im the only emplye and ill soon be buying out the buisness) theres only 7 tanks. 5 are 5 gal nanos and one is a 300 gal surge aquarium(it has a laptop conected to a displacement tank that controles tides and wave surges) and the other tank is a 700 gal surge aquarium with a 200 gal displacement tank for surges. its in a restrant and its #!@#$^& awsom. so my boss calls me the other night and sais its about time that we (I) build a calcium reactor. so i know the basic design of the calcium reactor, and i sorta get how the reactions work. so im throwing around some ideas and need some help.

1) what are the advantages/disadvantages to 1 chamber as a opposed to 2 chambers. price isn't a factpr(the restrant will be paying for everything including the time i take to build it)
2) i just found out that you want the input and c02 to be at a low drip. im guessing that would be a bit diffrent for a 700 gal tank. is there some kind of equasion that i could use to find the flow rate of both water and c02 or do i just need to test and ajust?
3) inside of the reactor how fast should the flow rate be from the recurculating pump?
4) is it better to have the water flow up through the media or down through it?
5)any thing else you can tell me

i know that this is a long post and it sounds like im taking the easy way out by just having you answer everything but ive tried to do my research and all i can find are alot of diagrams with part lists that dont really tell how exactly to ajust.
thank you sooooo much for anything you can give me

 

[foma2000]

bump. nobody answers topics at 1 in the morning

 

[foma2000]

can nobody help me here?

 

[BillyZ]

Sorry, I don't know enough about them myself to offer any details. I would try and research, not how to build one, but how they work. Understand the chemistry that is taking place in side, then look at how a "normal" sized reactor is build and use what you learned about how they work to scale it up.

Perhaps in stead of scalling it up, simply duplicate it. 2 reactors instead of 1.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

 

[BillyZ]

you also might want to adjust your title for this thread. mention needign help with large capactiy CA reactor rather than just a big tank. You might get more specific help.

 

[foma2000]

thanks for the advice. i already reasearched and understand to an extent how they work, but i could never find some answers to a cupple questions. mainly
1) inside of the reactor how fast should the flow rate be from the recurculating pump?
2) is it better to have the water flow up through the media or down through it?

 

[redBernadino]

Hey foma2000... Saw this and figured it might be able to help you out. I made one of these for a friend, and didn't take too long. Like it says on the webpage, if you don't have the cutting tools, usually the company can make the cuts for you. HTH... Let me know how it turns out. I may build another one for my 60 gal reef

 

[foma2000]

do you happen to have a link or something that you ment to send redbernadino?

 

[skipm]

I'll see if I can help you out some.
First the basics. A CA reactor works by circulating water within its chambers that has ahd it pH lowered by the addition of co2, this helps to dissolve the calcium carbonate media that is used inside of the reactor thus releasing calcium and trace elements back into the tank.
You still run a reactor (rx) at the same slow drip whether it be used on a nano tank or a large reef, it still takes the same amount of time for the media to dissolve and release the trace elements and calcium. You don't need a very high flowrate inside of the rx either, I would use a pump somewhere between 150 and 300 gph for circulation inside the rx.
I prefer to have the flow within the rx going from the bottom up, this helps to keep all of the media from becoming packed down and it also keeps the flow even inside of the rx.
As far as a second chamber is concerned I am all for them as long as you have the available room. What the second chamber does is takes the water as it leaves the first chamber and gives it one more chance to use up some of the excess co2 by dissolving more media which in turn releases more calcium and trace elements. The second chamber does not recirculate the way the first chamber does, the water only gets a single pass through the media within the second chamber.
You will need some kind of valve (I have used a needle valve on mine) to regulate the flowrate coming out of the reactor, usually you want to run a steady drip but you will have to adjust the driprate according to the chemistry of the water exiting the rx (this water is called effluent). You will also need either a needle valve or a flowmeter to adjust the rate of co2 entering the rx, it is usually run somewhere around 30-45 bubbles of co2 per minute. Iti s best if you have a pH controller hooked up to a solenoid valve on your co2 regulator to make sure you don't add too much co2 to the rx. To test how it is working you have to test for calcium and hardness of the effluent water.
I know that I jumped around a bit but if you have any more specific questions or I wasn't clear feel free to PM me and I'll do what I can to help. Skip

PS Don't let this being my first post fool you, I have built reactors before and contribute on a regular basis to quite a few boards. I use the same screen name for all of the boards I post on. Somehow this board got lost for me and I just found it again. If you want to check out some of my posts check out ReefCentral, I have over 2000 posts there alone.