DIY Reactors (Bucket and GammaSeal Lid). Do you think it will work?

[Andrew Schubert]

I love doing DIY work, and saving money. My latest and greatest idea I'm wondering is... are Gamma Seal lids water tight enough to convert a bucket into a large media reactor? I'm thinking of trying this to build a large and cheap container to be used as a calcium reactor. The pressure within a reactor might be too great and cause the lid to pop off; but that could easily be solved by epoxy around the rim of the seal. But as long as the gasket of the lid is sturdy enough to contain the water without leaking I see no reason why pretty much every reactor chamber made in the aquarium hobby couldn't be replaced some some sort of bucket and gamma lid design. Kalk Reactors, Calcium Reactors, BioPelets Reactors, ATO, carbo/gfo reactors, all could be replaced on the cheap. Shoot the cost for a new gamma lid isn't much more then the cost these hobby stores sell a new o-ring replacement to begin with.

So before I go out and waste my time and money on buying a lid and bucket, anyone see any reason why a gamma lid couldn't hold water under a little pressure?

 

[KrisReef]

Every now and again I have to open my calcium reactor to add new media to replace the aragonite that was dissolved in the process. If the lid you are using is glued on will there still be a way to replace the dissolved media down the road?’

 

[Andrew Schubert]

Every now and again I have to open my calcium reactor to add new media to replace the aragonite that was dissolved in the process. If the lid you are using is glued on will there still be a way to replace the dissolved media down the road?’

A GammaLid has 2 parts to it. An outer rim that snaps onto a bucket. This outer rim is threaded, so then the inner piece just threads right onto it. I wouldn't epoxy this part of the lid, just the outer rim to the bucket. In fact, it would be much easier to access the "reactor" to add/remove media then having to deal with a dozen little thumb screws.

 

[Fish Fan]

Well, I'm not an expert reef keeper or engineer, but off the top of my head....

Those Gamma seals are great, but I think they are largely meant for (dry) pet and bird food, in my humble experience.

I'm not sure they wouldn't leak, and I'm imagining them to be entirely - I mean like entirely - too large to be of use here. Unless you have a 1000 gallon tank, you don't need 5 gallons of media

What's wrong with a simple media reactor, like this:

BRS GFO & Carbon Mini Reactor - 5" Single

Why does BRS recommend this? All of the BRS reactors come with easy to use push connect tubing, flow control, and a refillable cartridge. We took easy to find components to keep things cheap while designing an efficient easy to refill reactor for aquarium use. We keep hearing our reactors are...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Andrew Schubert]

Well, I'm not an expert reef keeper or engineer, but off the top of my head....

Those Gamma seals are great, but I think they are largely meant for (dry) pet and bird food, in my humble experience.

I'm not sure they wouldn't leak, and I'm imagining them to be entirely - I mean like entirely - too large to be of use here. Unless you have a 1000 gallon tank, you don't need 5 gallons of media

What's wrong with a simple media reactor, like this:

BRS GFO & Carbon Mini Reactor - 5" Single

Why does BRS recommend this? All of the BRS reactors come with easy to use push connect tubing, flow control, and a refillable cartridge. We took easy to find components to keep things cheap while designing an efficient easy to refill reactor for aquarium use. We keep hearing our reactors are...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

They do claim to be "leakproof". Grant it, like you said they probably weren't design to be put under pressure either (but just because they weren't design for it doesn't mean it still couldn't work . I'm thinking I might have to still give it a test.

To your other point, even that small reactor you linked would cost double a bucket and gamma seal lid would cost. But, that isn't the type of reactor here I could see this possibly replacing. I have a 225g tank, connected to a 100g sump, and a 60g frag tank. There is definitely some reactors that do require that much media in the hobby world. The calcium reactor (which is what I'm most interested in at the moment) being the top of the list. Also you don't need to use a 5 gallon bucket, the lid can be used all the way down to a 3 gallon buckets.

Also, another idea you could do for smaller reactors is just use some 6" pvc and fittings. Also much cheaper and only downside with that is that you couldn't see the media on the inside.