DIY Biopellet Reactor

[bobf216]

This past Christmas break I was trying to come up with a way to build a Cheap inexpensive and reliable bio pellet reactor for my 29gallon nano.

This whole reactor cost me about 10 dollars. Below is a list of the materials that i used:

1- 1/2" CPVC Street 90 elbow
1- 1/2" CPVC coupling
1- 5' Length of 1/2" CPVC pipe
silicone sealant
PVC primer and glue
1 Liter bottle of VOSS water from grocery store
1 3"PVC coupling

1 Liter bottle of Voss Water found at Giant Eagle grocery store.


This bottle was perfect. it is the same diameter all the way down, the bottom of the bottle has a small dimple used as a diffuser to push the water flowing in to the outside edges of the bottle.

I also chose this bottle because i could keep it upright and be able to remove the lid to add more pellets at any time.

I also bout a 1/2" cpvc 90 for the lid of the bottle, a 1/2" coupling for the inside of the lid, and a 5' length of CPVC piping all for around 3 dollars.

Step one:

first i took the bottle and emptied the contents and peeled all stickers off and removed the glue from the stickers which surprisingly there isn't much.

next step i used the 5' piece of CPVC to push the bottom of the bottle out to make it a cone shape so the pellets flow to the center of the bottle. I achieved this by heating up the bottom of the bottle and sticking the piece of pipe into the bottle and pushing on the bottom of the bottle and this worked quite well. i don't have any pictures of this process.

Step two.

Carefully i drilled out a 1/2" hole in the top of the lid and that is where the 1/2" street 90 and 1/2" coupling go.


next a hole needs to be drilled in the side of the bottle about a half of an inch from the top of the bottle. I used 1/2 pipe for the outlet but i am going to make it 3/4" fittings to allow more flow through the bottle so more pellets can be added. the 1/2 is a little restricting but i will show a video with 200ml of pellets with the 1/2" outlet.

Next glue the 90 degree elbow in the outlet opening and seal it with the silicone sealant. and attach your piece of 1/2 pipe to drop down toward the inlet of your skimmer. see the picture of watch the video at the end of this post.

Next cut your pipe that will connect to the elbow in the lid. i cut mine to be about 7 inches. but the shorter it is, the more aggressive the flow will be so start long and trim it until you get the flow you like.

after this all you need to do is insert the bottle into the 3" PVC coupling. This will give the bottle a flat bottom and hold the bottle upright. See picture below. Attachment 0


I used a penguin 300gph pump for my reactor. here is a picture of it in my sump with the outlet right at the inlet of my skimmer.

 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10101247695480284&set=vb.23327086&type=3amp;theater

 

 

[disaster999]

pictures dont work

[bobf216]

[Bubba30]

I'd like to see pictures of the bottom of the bottle. Does it tumble well?

[bobf216]

yes it tumbles really well. I will try and get some pics of the bottom of the bottle tonight.

 

http://vimeo.com/56646534

[bobf216]

Skimmer is really starting to churn out some nasty stuff. ill post some pics later today

[bobf216]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO4s1vyqS5s

[disaster999]

is your skimmer producing that many micro bubbles ?

[rafastank727]

Looks good.

[bobf216]

is your skimmer producing that many micro bubbles ?

yes and its been running for 2 months. But having the return pump up at an angle like that makes sure that none get in the intake and i dont have any microbubble in the display

[Da Hui]

Hey there, great build. Sorry to dig up an old thread, but how has this been going for you?

[bobf216]

not a problem at all. its still kicking quite well. all corals are doing good softies included and nitrates and phosphates are non existant.

[JR!]

haha i just grabbed a few bottles the other day. i might have to give this a try

[reeferman81]

As did I lol.

[fizzy]

Hi All, here is my bio pearl reactor, it is a hang on nano reactor and is working well, been on my nano tank for about 3 weeks.

 

[th64]

Nice write-up and it seems to work really well in that video! Do you think this would also work well with GFO?

[orly20]

Hi All, here is my bio pearl reactor, it is a hang on nano reactor and is working well, been on my nano tank for about 3 weeks.

 

 

 

Can you do a write up on how you made your reactor?

 

Both of them are very awesome! I know what I will be doing this weekend

[fizzy]

Hi,well i have been making reactors for the past 20+ yrs now so over those yrs reactors have changed, the reactor that i have made started of as a PO4 reactor with a base plate and a top plate with sponges in so all i have done is to change them abit and i have made the nano reactor to run with bio pellets and purigen, the main body is a 60mm dia tube and the height of the unit from base to top of the fittings is only 10". I will also be working on a nano hangon zeo reactor soon.

[kingsofke]

Hi,well i have been making reactors for the past 20+ yrs now so over those yrs reactors have changed, the reactor that i have made started of as a PO4 reactor with a base plate and a top plate with sponges in so all i have done is to change them abit and i have made the nano reactor to run with bio pellets and purigen, the main body is a 60mm dia tube and the height of the unit from base to top of the fittings is only 10". I will also be working on a nano hangon zeo reactor soon.

 

 

Where do you buy the tube for reactor and other parts. How expensive are the parts to build one.

[farkwar]

First build its a water bottle.

 

Second build is acrylic.

You can buy the tube and sheet acrylic from Tap Plastic.

Nylon nuts and bolts at Home Depot.

 

There are several videos on the Tap Plastics site on how to build stuff with acrylic.

 

Iirc, the small TLF reactor cost about parts cost for DIY. So is the BRS reactors, if not less.

[fizzy]

Where do you buy the tube for reactor and other parts. How expensive are the parts to build one.

 

i build acrylic aquariums and filtration here in the UK so i have an account with a acrylic supplier, this is how i get my material, as for the fittings, same again having accounts with various suppliers that i use, i am now working on a new design aquarium, something a bit different.

[Exquitas]

Hi,

 

I just have 2 quick questions about Reactors:

 

- Is it possible to oversize them? What could possibly happen if I use a too big Reactor on my Tank?

- Is it possible to have 2 materials in one Reactor? (Separated of course) Water would flow through the Biopellets and then through Carbon for example.

 

The reason I'm asking is because I've found a quite nice cheap glas vase that I would want to make a reactor of it.

[MonkeySeaMonkeyDoo]

I made an 18oz Bio pellet reactor with these instructions and also a gfo reactor. Both work great on a 30g nano.

Awesome build thread

[Chris!]

Hi,

 

I just have 2 quick questions about Reactors:

 

- Is it possible to oversize them? What could possibly happen if I use a too big Reactor on my Tank?

- Is it possible to have 2 materials in one Reactor? (Separated of course) Water would flow through the Biopellets and then through Carbon for example.

 

The reason I'm asking is because I've found a quite nice cheap glas vase that I would want to make a reactor of it.

 

I don't think the reactor size matters to much, as long as you run the appropriate amount of media/pellets for your tank. You might have flow issues (want an adjustable pump/valve) though to get the desired tumble from a smaller amount of media/pellets in the reactor then is normally ran....

 

You wouldn't want to run carbon and biopellets in the same reactor. Carbon needs to be regularly changed, biopellets do not.

 

I know its been a while since you asked these questions but hopefully it still helped or will help someone else down the road.

 

Is anyone still running this reactor w/ biopellets? I have been kicking the idea around and would like to know how well it has worked for others

[Tamberav]

Hi,

 

I just have 2 quick questions about Reactors:

 

- Is it possible to oversize them? What could possibly happen if I use a too big Reactor on my Tank?

- Is it possible to have 2 materials in one Reactor? (Separated of course) Water would flow through the Biopellets and then through Carbon for example.

 

The reason I'm asking is because I've found a quite nice cheap glas vase that I would want to make a reactor of it.

 

1. Yes, you can starve and kill your corals by dosing too much carbon or dosing too quickly. (assuming by oversized you mean running a lot of biopellets).

 

2. No, the biopellets create a slimy film which will clog in the 2nd media.