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In Line Reactor - Aquamas

Mine works well - 100% dissolved - but is annoyingly noisy - I'm running at 2 (large) bubbles per second and each one goes "pop" as exits the tube and enters the reactor body. I can count bubbles by listening without having to open the cabinet!

Is it the same for other people using this? Is there a trick with pressure settings or tube orientation or something?
 
Ray,

the only thing that i can think may need doing is to bleed the reactor at the vent point.

Mine was extremely noisy at initial setup, but after i removed all traces of air from the unit, she then become very quiet.

Not trying to teach you to suck eggs, but you don't have any kinks on your hoses do you?

Mine also has the bypass, so i had this opened when setting up, but turned it off for normal operation.

DSC00381-1.jpg
 
TDI-line said:
Ray,

the only thing that i can think may need doing is to bleed the reactor at the vent point.

Mine was extremely noisy at initial setup, but after i removed all traces of air from the unit, she then become very quiet.

Not trying to teach you to suck eggs, but you don't have any kinks on your hoses do you?

Mine also has the bypass, so i had this opened when setting up, but turned it off for normal operation.
All seems in order hose wise - no kinks, no bypass, I can bleed any air out but the noise happens when the bubble exits into the cylinder so having air at the top is not the issue. How many BPS are you running your at? I'm running at 2 per second at the moment but it does go quieter if I throttle back slightly.

I wonder if Clarke and James are OK with thiers?
 
The Aqua Medic is a large reactor that is perfect for the larger tank. We use them on our "big boys" in store and find them highly efficient. By replacing the plastic balls with Sera's Siporax a HIGHLY efficient secondary biological filter is created and both flow and CO2 dispersion rates seem greatly improved.Its also quite nice to free up space in the tank by mounting inline inside the cabinet.
 
TDI-line said:
Hmmmm.

Mine is running around 2 per second also.

Is your flow in at the top, and out at the bottom?
Yes, now - must admit I did plumb it in wrong to start with :oops: Cue another half hours swearing inside my cabinet. How long are you getting out of 2kg on 2bps with this reactor? Its got noisier, I wonder if a clean would sort it. Or wack the CO2 right up to clear any blockage!

My other complaint is that if my filter vents a load of gas (it does from time to time - the bacteria are working hard on all that ammonia from the AS) it collects at the top of the reactor. I actually wonder if it would not be better plumbed into the filter input rather than output!

The Aqua Medic is a large reactor that is perfect for the larger tank. We use them on our "big boys" in store and find them highly efficient. By replacing the plastic balls with Sera's Siporax a HIGHLY efficient secondary biological filter is created and both flow and CO2 dispersion rates seem greatly improved.Its also quite nice to free up space in the tank by mounting inline inside the cabinet.
I looked at this one and would have gone for it with matching Solenoid and Regulator except they only take 12/16mm tubing. Can you get them yet with 16/22? The filter idea is neat, but I guess it impacts flow somewhat?

The Aquamedic one also flows top to bottom against CO2 coming up from the bottom? How do you stop it trapping air?
 
there is a "bleed" valve in the top of the Aqua-Medic reactor making the process very simple.
 
The-Green-Machine said:
there is a "bleed" valve in the top of the Aqua-Medic reactor making the process very simple.
OK, just like the Aquamas so you have the same problem. Inherant issue with the reactor concept except perhaps the Cal Aqua one. I wonder if a valve exists that bleeds air but not water?
 
As long as you've got decent flow going through the reactor you shouldn't have any problems with gas build up. I run mine on the outlet of an Eheim 2028 and it runs almost silently with no gas build-up at the top. The only faint noise is of the CO2 gas bubbling in from the inlet tube. If this is a concern you could attach an airstone to a small length of airline and attach it to the inlet tube inside the reactor. May need a bit of thought to how it can be done, but should be possible. I have replaced the small length of tubing from the bleed valve and put a length of airline that runs in the top of the tank with the valve attached there. When doing a water change or maintenance and air gets in the system it's easy to vent off and not worry about any water that comes out.

IMHO the Aquamas reactor wins hands down over the Aqua Medic because of the size of the tube connectors. Most filters that people run with these reactors use 16mm tubing. Reactors are designed for large tanks which also require large filters so why on earth Aqua Medic decided to go with 12mm connectors that small filters use is beyond me. Aquamas will also if you email them first change the connectors for a different tube size if required.

James
 
I used my Aquamas with replacement 12mm fittings and an Eheim 2213. I had a large gas build up and a constant trickling noise.

I have since refitted the 16mm fittings, moved it on to a bigger tank and use a Tetratec 1200. It now runs like a dream without any noise or gas build up. They certainly need sufficient flow through them to work properly, but I find mine now to be very efficient.

Dave.
 
JamesC said:
As long as you've got decent flow going through the reactor you shouldn't have any problems with gas build up. I run mine on the outlet of an Eheim 2028 and it runs almost silently with no gas build-up at the top. The only faint noise is of the CO2 gas bubbling in from the inlet tube. If this is a concern you could attach an airstone to a small length of airline and attach it to the inlet tube inside the reactor. May need a bit of thought to how it can be done, but should be possible. I have replaced the small length of tubing from the bleed valve and put a length of airline that runs in the top of the tank with the valve attached there. When doing a water change or maintenance and air gets in the system it's easy to vent off and not worry about any water that comes out.
Thank you James, that is extremely helpful. Flow is certainly good through the Aquamas - mine is also on a 2028 and after 10 days operation with full media load, Aquamas reactor and Hydor inline heater this 1050lph filter can fill a 2l jug in 9 seconds which is 800lph real flow. It is a bottom drilled tank, which might help.

GreenMachine - do you have the ear of Aquamedic? Perhaps you could feed this back to them? As I understand the top and bottom connectors unscrew from the Aqaua Medic Reactor so it would be child's play for them to offer both sizes or an extra kit with the other size fitting?

Thank you,

Ray
 
We are running our Aqua Medic inline reactors on large eheims with 17mm pipework so we are a little confused about them coming fitted for 12mm.our complaint is that they dont come fitted for the smaller pipework.
A good idea of James's though to fit a bleed pipe which runs into the tank directly.
 
James, this is a bit of a mystery to us although we do intend to ask Aqua Medic if they have manufactured in different sizes.We will let you know.
 
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