bobf216
Active Member
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.
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.
[video]http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10101247695480284&set=vb.23327086&type =3&theater[/video]
any questions just ask. I am going to upload a high quality video later tonight one i clean the sump glass.
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.
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.
[video]http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10101247695480284&set=vb.23327086&type =3&theater[/video]
any questions just ask. I am going to upload a high quality video later tonight one i clean the sump glass.
