I have an old Berlin Classic skimmer, and I was trying to decide what to do with it. It occurred to me that it might work well as the chamber for a calcium reactor.
The benefits:
It's already got 3/4" female threads at the bottom, and in the side of the top. These would adapt well for a recurculation system, and would not interfere with adding media.
The intake for the venturi could be re-adapted for CO2 input. (I plan to remove the venturi itself.
The top where the collection cup goes could be capped off with a permanent cap, and tapped for effluent output. The top section can still be removed by turning it to add argonite media.
There will be a couple of useful pieces of extruded acrylic pipe left over (one 1 3/4"ID or so, and one 2 3/4" ID or so) that could be useful on other projects.
Potential disadvantages:
Not a whole lot of volume for media- I _think_ there will be enough though. It's got at least as much as many of the other homemade systems I've seen.
I'd have to cap off the second output at the top, as well as the small "air vents" on these outputs.
Hopefully removing the venturi funnel will prevent any problems with the system pulling in too much CO2. If it does, adding an inline airline valve should clear it up.
I'll have to break apart and remove the internal clear plastic "skirt" inside the main chamber.
Any other potential problems or obvious things I'm missing? It seems like overall this will work well as a base. I plan to add a second, single-pass chamber after the main (recirculating) chamber.
--TMIB
The benefits:
It's already got 3/4" female threads at the bottom, and in the side of the top. These would adapt well for a recurculation system, and would not interfere with adding media.
The intake for the venturi could be re-adapted for CO2 input. (I plan to remove the venturi itself.
The top where the collection cup goes could be capped off with a permanent cap, and tapped for effluent output. The top section can still be removed by turning it to add argonite media.
There will be a couple of useful pieces of extruded acrylic pipe left over (one 1 3/4"ID or so, and one 2 3/4" ID or so) that could be useful on other projects.
Potential disadvantages:
Not a whole lot of volume for media- I _think_ there will be enough though. It's got at least as much as many of the other homemade systems I've seen.
I'd have to cap off the second output at the top, as well as the small "air vents" on these outputs.
Hopefully removing the venturi funnel will prevent any problems with the system pulling in too much CO2. If it does, adding an inline airline valve should clear it up.
I'll have to break apart and remove the internal clear plastic "skirt" inside the main chamber.
Any other potential problems or obvious things I'm missing? It seems like overall this will work well as a base. I plan to add a second, single-pass chamber after the main (recirculating) chamber.
--TMIB
