Retired Reactor / Too Cool to Throw Out

[Trouser Cough]

My LFS often has a bone pile of previously donated stuff that they either can't sell or otherwise don't want. They keep it by the front door in hopes that some poor goof like me will imagine hidden value that no one else can.

A year or so back there was an old AquaEuro Reactor laying in the pile and I was certain it would make a cool something or other. Maybe toss a few pool balls in it and just use it as an indicator of what the top layer in the FX6's might be looking like. The metric union fittings had me baffled for a bit and the unit went on the back shelf. I just bought some metric unions and a short section of 25mm PVC tubing and am going to get that little devil running inline with my filtration system reasonably soon. Maybe just after an FX6 and just before a UV Sterilizer.

What I'd really like is more of a gee gaw than anything else. Something that looks important to others but isn't necessarily... tumbling media, something like that. It's just the canister and some sort of plate that moves internally but it looks like it's probably incomplete so whatever it did before it can't do again.

Any ideas?

 

[Disturbed.)]

Post some pics of it. It might make a good carbon or bio reactor even missing parts. If you plan on putting it in front of a UV just putting 1 micron filter material in it could benefit the UV.
I used to build reactors from scratch until they became cheaper just to buy. I've got my own pile of old protein skimmers, reactors and diatomaceous filters that are simply too cool to throw out and have tried to give away lol.

 

[Trouser Cough]

This is what I've got and I've ordered a stub of 25mm OD clear tubing and two 25mm unions to get a head start on fabbing it somewhere into the filter circuit. The FX6 hose ends fit perfectly on 25mm OD hard pipe.

 

[Disturbed.)]

Looks like a calcium reactor. If it were mine I'd have to rig it into some kind of k1 tumbler. Since it has the 1/4 quick fits already on it.

 

[Trouser Cough]

Looks like a calcium reactor. If it were mine I'd have to rig it into some kind of k1 tumbler. Since it has the 1/4 quick fits already on it.

Can you expand on that a bit? I assume the 1/4 quick fits are the white fittings but have no idea what they're for. I also am a little surprised that you'd suggest k1 as I've not heard many positive remarks about that particular media. So the short version is that I'd love to build it into something I could incorporate into my tank plumbing that hopefully would be of benefit but I have no idea how this thing worked or what its application may have been. Marine I assume but beyond that; no clue.

Mind walking me through a step-by-step? I'll build it the way you suggest and I appreciate your input!

(edit: I haven't had a marine tank for 50 years. Freshwater's what I'm working with)

 

[duanes]

I built a DYI reactor to use as a calcium (alkalinity) buffer, and double as a fluidized bed bio-filter.
In the initial plans from FAMA magazine, it was pressurized, but I found that to be problematic during power outages, because (even with a check valve) it would back siphon, and be difficult to clear.
At about 4 ft tall, and 8" in diameter, full of water and aragonite, it was very heavy.
I removed the top, depressurizing it, and though it still occasionally back siphoned, I could easily just pull out the sand blocked tube, and shake the blockage out.

I used aragonite sand as an alkalinity buffer, which over time dissolved.
The open top also made it easy to replace, just dropping a handful in.
As you know, PVC threading gets a bit worn and difficult to work with over time, so unscrewing it for maintenance was a pain.

 

[Disturbed.)]

There are newer and better versions of "k1" now like micro kaldness and the stuff Bashsea has made for his reactors. In principle is the most effective bio media per volume and never needs to be cleaned. Sewage treatment plants use it for good reason. The idea is to pass a small amount of flow through the reactor but churn it heavy with an air pump. Warning they can be pretty loud lol.

Hey duanes, how much was that 4 foot piece of clear 8" pipe and where did you find it?

 

[Trouser Cough]

Interesting. I appreciate the comments.