DIY Media Reactors

ravi197699 · Jan 25, 2015

hey guys, I built my own media reactors, I thought I should share pictures of this built with you guys.. It is pretty simple design and I love they are working. I bought 6' acrylic tube from ebay and i wanted to buy 3.5" od size tube because I knew that i can use fittings from lowes for this size.Below is the list of the items I bought and approximate cost. You will need 1/2" tapping kit to thread the fittings, I had one already. It comes handy specially in this hobby.. three reactors, carbon, gfo, purigen as shown in the pictures
6' acrylic tube - 60 bucks shipped

3 bottom flanges - $3x3 - 9

3 threaded caps - $2.50x3 7.50

6 1/2" unions - $2.50x 6 15

1/2 pvc - 10' - 2.99

Weldon #16 - 7.50

Pvc threaded tape - 1.50

that is pretty much it and then i just cut this tube in three 18" sections and glued them together with pvc glue and then seems filled with weldon and let it dry. they stand 20" tall and hold pretty decent size media, water input in from top and drain is on the side.

Feltman · Jan 26, 2015

What media are you running and how big of a pain is that to change the media out?

ravi197699 · Jan 26, 2015

These are 24" tall and I am running GFO, purigen and carbon, These are very easy to service that this was the only reason i went with this design, When ready for service or media change, all I need to do is close the gate valve to show water feed, unscrew the cap remove media, wash filter pads that prevent media to go through drain, add new media, rinse with pump i have with matching union that sits in 5 gal bucket and once rinsed then install back on. i can service each of them in less then 10 min.. i hope i answered your question..

VicD81 · Jan 26, 2015

Nice. Looks like they are all upflow reactors, so do you have the carbon tumbling?

ravi197699 · Jan 26, 2015

Carbon, Purigen and GFO are all tumbeling and i can controll the flow via gate valve..

Feltman · Jan 26, 2015

I've always heard u don't want carbon to tumble or it will grind it self up and release dust into your display. Have you had this problem?

gtbarsi · Jan 26, 2015

They look perfectly serviceable if not a tiny bit twisty to service, and for just over a hundred bucks to get 3 reactors certainly is saving some money.

It Looks like the Carbon and Purogen could tumble of you are not careful with the flow, you really want to prevent that at all costs. Personally I would work on setting up a screen and foam pad setup to hold those medias tight, otherwise you are going to end up with a lot of fines in your system.

Funbags · Jan 26, 2015

http://www.amazon.com/Two-Little-Fi...id=1422299097&sr=8-1&keywords=phosban+reactor

3 reactors right there for 100 shipped........

trickedout900 · Jan 26, 2015

Great post and diy. Like the others have mentioned I would try to limit the tumbling. Thanks for sharing.

jmarcink91 · Jan 26, 2015

Funbags said:
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Little-Fi...id=1422299097&sr=8-1&keywords=phosban+reactor

3 reactors right there for 100 shipped........

Wouldnt you also need pumps to run those though? I have been looking at picking one of them up but I need to do more research on reactors first.

Feltman · Jan 26, 2015

jmarcink91 said:
Wouldnt you also need pumps to run those though? I have been looking at picking one of them up but I need to do more research on reactors first.

you will need a pump for the reactors this guy built as well most people will make a manifold like this guy and run a much larger then needed return pump so it can power everything.

Feltman · Jan 26, 2015

Funbags said:
Amazon.com : Two Little Fishies ATLPBR150 GFO PhosBan Reactor 150 : Aquarium Filters : Pet Supplies

3 reactors right there for 100 shipped........

yes however there only 14 in by 3 inch doesn't sound like much but might make a difference on larger tanks plus his fittings are much larger allowing more flow through on the reactors and his look much beefier. The phosban reactors are good cheap solutions but I feel like there cheaply built.

ravi197699 · Jan 26, 2015

Thanks for your response guys, I took off three TLF 550 reactors, nothing wrong with them but when time to service it PITA to open and change and clean. I love this design and amount of media they can hold. same size reactor that i have seen is Nextreef XL which sells for 100 + bucks and about carbon I don't have carbon tumbling. Only Purigen and GFO is tumbeling, I am using felt pad that i bought from Joann's Fabric cut out in circle then pad that came with my TLF reactors and then felt again, trust be nothing goes through these. Water comes out clean, which i have confirmed in by looking into the sump. I am running one pump which is Reeflo Hammerhead that I use to feed my DT, Frag, Manifolds to reactor, Calcium reactor and my DIY algae scrubber...

Kasasah · Oct 22, 2017

Where did you get the acrylic that cheap?

Kasasah · Oct 22, 2017

Double post...

Fin · Oct 22, 2017

Nice DIY project - which I think was the point. Part of the fun of the hobby is building useful things for your system. Good job on the reactors and thanks for sharing!