Fluidized CA reactor

[Anonymous]

While at MACNA I saw Deltec reactors in action in David Saxby's videos, and also saw them on display there. They direct the flow up through the bed of media, rather than down from the top. This seems so obviously superior, and its deployment looks quite simple; why don't all reactors do it that way?

 

[dgasmd]

The media is the key for this to work. Deltec reactors run exclusively on Rowa media, which is like a coarse sand and very light. The flow of the pump is able to fluidize it. This will not happen with the aragonite media like we all use. Rowa media is the only that is like that in the market, which pretty much creates a monopoly of supply for it. That is the main downside I see with it. I know of a couple of people that use these reactors and they seem pretty happy with it. They also stock pile the media when they find it since it takes a little sometimes for it to become available.

 

[Fatal Morgana]

Most of my DIY ca rxtors I build have the flow going up, but the ca media is not fluidized due to the density (crushed shell/coral, or mined aragonite) and low flow rate.

IMHO, there is relatively little advantage to fluidize the media. The amount of media surface area is over-optimized anyway, and unless you want to make a ca rxtor with reaction chamber about the size of a ball point pen, the amount of energy in getting the flow up (bigger pump, more electricty) or less dense media (specialized puffy ca. carb. that going to cost you more) is just not worth it.

It is kewl to watch BTW, but I will use 10 Bic pen barrels instead of fluidize the media.