my ray tank started producing very low levels of nitrites why??

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
You have a photo of your reactors and or how to build.i have everything minus the media
 
I have the pump run through the ultima which is the same thing as a bio reactor but designed for higher flow rates.after that it tees into the tank and pushes estimated 3500 gph through the main eductor and the other about 1000gph which is hooked up to a series of UVs and very simply turned off for a day to splice something into it.i am already upgrading the UVs aswel i can just remove the old UVs splice the sump I'n and after the sump put the series of UVs .with a flow rate of 1000gallons my sump has 5.chambers first one will be filter socks and after that could i not just fill the rest as if it were a bio reactor?



That should be more than enough than.aqua ultima 2000 a fluvial fx5 and a sump with mechanical I'n one chamber and the rest a simple bio reactor style.
 
I have the pump run through the ultima which is the same thing as a bio reactor but designed for higher flow rates.after that it tees into the tank and pushes estimated 3500 gph through the main eductor and the other about 1000gph which is hooked up to a series of UVs and very simply turned off for a day to splice something into it.i am already upgrading the UVs aswel i can just remove the old UVs splice the sump I'n and after the sump put the series of UVs .with a flow rate of 1000gallons my sump has 5.chambers first one will be filter socks and after that could i not just fill the rest as if it were a bio reactor?



That should be more than enough than.aqua ultima 2000 a fluvial fx5 and a sump with mechanical I'n one chamber and the rest a simple bio reactor style.
A Reactor should be designed with very slow flow mine is a hundred gallon tub flow entering the bottom .Mine has bricks holding up egg crate water pushes up through the eggcrate leaving organics on the bottom also having an 1 1/2 bulkhead drilled on the bottom to evacuate Organics...AS water goes up through the eggcrate it is met by air manifolds bubbling laying on the eggrate forcing the water up and tumbling the Kaldness or k1 type media finally leaving at the surface with a basket type drain at the surface so no kaldness gets caught up in in the drain ...I have not hooked my reactor up yet just have the 70 gal pre tub with two 16 inch socks actually running yet and two 75 gal drip sumps Been lazey LOL!! because that alone is doing the job Right now but the Reactor will be needed as myP's get even larger for sure ....
 
I think the concept of a reactor is different to different people.

My definition of a reactor is more then piling a bunch of Kaldness into a baffled sump. This provides little contact time. I'm sure it would work but efficiency is what we're all after. I didn't spend a buttload of money on fancy media to not use it to it's maximum potential.

I'll post pics when I get home to my hard drive.

I am running BOTH my reactors with 1000 GPH pump BEFORE any headlosses. This is split between the 2 reactors. This means 500 gph each. IF I'm 450 after loss, then at that flow rate it's going to take over 7 minutes to fill that reactor, which means the water entering the bottom of the reactor should be in there for 7+ minutes. Now I'm sure this isn't super acurate but we need means to compare things so I'm just breaking down with simple math.

I have my water entering the bottom of the 55 gallon drums in PVC cut at an angle to allow the water to follow the wall of the drum, similar to a vortex chamber. After several days of testing how to get best results with the "boil" I sent most of the air out to the edges of the barrel.

You need a VERY large airpump to make things work right. I bought the biggest pondmaster air pump and planned on using it for the reactors and everything else air wise in my system. Needless to say I think I could actually use more.

I built my reactors using Aquatic eco system.com's specs on the one's they sell turn key. This is VERY important for figuring how much media to use, flowrates, CFM required, etc.

Based on thier specs I think I can feed up to 6-7lbs a day with my 2 reactors. I don't see myself ever needing to feed that much even if all my rays were in the same tank and fullgrown. I will be adding thier "bio chips" to the reactors later on down the road when I have more then 3 rays in my 750. lol

I'll get some pics up tonight then hopefully this will all make more sense. Might even just start a new thread if I didn't think it would just result in a pi$$ing match.
 
Here ya go let's see if this works i coppied the design i used ...
24bioreactor.JPG
 
Here's a few pics of the pair of reactors made with plastic 55 gallon drums.

100_3232.JPG

100_3241.JPG

100_3236.JPG

100_3230.JPG
 
so i dont get what the second photo is man.that pipe with the slits?? and are these pressurized.are those drums sealed and water is forced through them??

and the last photo dont understand ,the inlet is the pipe with the five pipes connected like a fan and whats the other pipe ,how does it work.

i have three of these drums at work i can take home.the lids are sealed on them how did you get yours off?? once you open them the lid doesnt go on sealed anymore??
 
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