help me with my reactor before I throw it out the window

[fish_who?]

Okay, I got this reactor back in Sept of last year for my upgrade to the 125. A week after I moved into my place (in Oct.), I hooked it up. I have had nothing but problems. First the reactor would suck up the media into the pump. It had a screen on the inside like the ones on the bulkheads, but the ARM media would pass through it. I fixed it by adding 3" of SuperCalc Gold (looks like rock salt and hard to melt) to the bottom so the ARM would not pass through. Seemed to work fine for a week, played with the effluent to get 6.5 and keep the PH up. After about 2 weeks of low PH, 7.5 at night, and barely hitting 8.0 by lights out, I killed it, and went back to KALK.
I decided to go back to it the beginning of FEB, and again more problems. PH seemed fine, running 8.1-8.23 during the day and 7.9 at night. I thought all was great, melted about an inch of media and everything looked great. Then I came home and all the water in the reactor was gone, and the pump had shut off (because of heat, not operating). I thought it just happened and it was fine. Then it happened again. I did some research and thought I needed a feed pump. I am running the dolphin DP560 for the main pump on the reactor. I put a small Rio on the reactor and it seemed fine again. It ran great, then the feed pump stopped and it drained. I soaked the pump and ran it again. It ran great for a while, but the media will not melt. I have been running it for almost a month, and have not seen the media melt. My effluent has been 6.4-6.56 (tested with calibrated Pinpoint monitor). The ARM media is supposed to be the easiest to melt, but no luck here. I tested my Calcium 2 weeks ago and it was 550, and not it is 320. My ALK was off the chart 2 weeks ago, and not it is 14. I don't know what is up. I need help with this; tell me what I am doing wrong.
Sorry so long -
Here is a pic of my reactor when it was first set up with the quiet one.

 

[Carpentersreef]

Did you contact the manufacturer?

Mitch

 

[Mouse]

That looks like one hell of a pump to be running a reactor with.

In the case of my reactor i have blue filter floss like the ones you have in the Ehiem filters. Its probably about an inch thick and fairly porus. Ive never had a problem with reactor medea being sucked up into the impeller, may i suggest you replace the foam in the bottom of your reactor to whatever you may deem to be a more suitable gauge gauze/foam.

good luck, there good to have.

 

[fish_who?]

Carpenters reef: I have not contacted the manufacture yet. I purchased the reactor off a guy on Ebay that was taking his tank down. The day I received the reactor, I emailed the company, and they said they had discontinued the model because it did not sell. I asked if they had any reports of any problems and they said no (of course). Maybe I will try them again and see.

Mouse: I forgot to mention, the pic you see here is when it was first set up, I no longer run the quiet one on the reactor, it is now being ran by a dolphin dp560, and a Rio 600 cranked down a bit for the feed.

 

[pez]

I can't see the picture for some reason, but it sounds like a design flaw in the reactor. The media in my reactor is raised above the pump input and separated via a sponge. Most reactors I have seen have similar designs.

-Tom

[ March 27, 2002: Message edited by: pez ]</p>