Equipment Review: Aquarium Engineering ACR (Automatic Calcium Reactor)

[ca1ore]

I think he got tired of bleeding money into the company, and not getting the support of the community.

Is that a joke?

I will keep my personal thoughts about Bill to myself, but I agree with Dennis that disgruntled customers are normally the exception rather than the rule.

At one point I had considered the ACR, glad I decided to look elsewhere.

 

[Shooter6]

I heard that he shut his tank down and liquidated all his shop equipment.

Personally, I think the community gave him way more support than he deserved. A disgruntled customer is normally the exception rather than the rule for most vendors. For Bill, the opposite appeared to be the case.

For the ACR owners, all the factory controllers will require replacement as they have known longevity issues. If you are an ACR owner and just reading this thread from this point, see the thread below for a community supported controller that you can assemble yourself to get your ACR back working, better than it ever has.

Automatic Calcium Reactor Controller (ACR)

This thread is provide a walk through for building an automatic calcium reactor controller for the Aquarium Engineering ACR line of CaRx's, though it will work with other CaRx's, like my DIY (Schuran) Jetstream stlye automatic Calcium Reactor History The AE ACR is a line of CaRx that use a...

www.reef2reef.com

I know he shut his shop down for reef equipment. Remember he is into way more engineering then just the hobby. That was literally a hobby for him. I dont think he shut his reef down, seeing its the center of his house lol.

I understand you are angry at him due to the issues you had, and you are carrying a grudge. The reef equipment company no longer exist though. Your grudge is directed at him personally because you know he owned the company. Think of all the companies you have had issues with in your life that you did not know the owner by name.

Those companies you held a grudge against, if they closed down, you moved on right? I suggest you do the same in this case, as holding a grudge against him forever will serve you no purpose and is a waste of energy....

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I know he shut his shop down for reef equipment. Remember he is into way more engineering then just the hobby. That was literally a hobby for him. I dont think he shut his reef down, seeing its the center of his house lol.

I understand you are angry at him due to the issues you had, and you are carrying a grudge. The reef equipment company no longer exist though. Your grudge is directed at him personally because you know he owned the company. Think of all the companies you have had issues with in your life that you did not know the owner by name.

Those companies you held a grudge against, if they closed down, you moved on right? I suggest you do the same in this case, as holding a grudge against him forever will serve you no purpose and is a waste of energy....

No, you are mistaken. I neither hold a grudge against Bill nor am I personally angry with him. In fact, I was saddened to hear that he shutdown as I was always impressed with the machining involved in its manufacture.

As far as my dealings with Bill, I paid for and (eventually) received my ACR, and was reimbursed by PayPal for another project that he failed to complete.

Others, who were not made whole may have a different experience and opinion than me.

 

[Cali9dub]

It is common in the 3d printing world to put the finished part in a chamber with acetone to allow the fumes to seal and smooth the layers. My guess is that he printed in ABS.

It wouldn't be hard to recreate this in CAD. From the picture I rendered this in just a few minutes. Measurements would make it extremely easy to replicate.

Here is a rough reference pic for the length. Not sure if there is more than 1 version of this ?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Are you saying you're willing to print and test? The pics are helpful, but also need confirmation of the size of the plumbing, it looks like 1". And the john guest fittings that are used. Are they 1/4", 3/8" or even 1/2" NPT? Are all 3 the same?

 

[Cali9dub]

Are you saying you're willing to print and test? The pics are helpful, but also need confirmation of the size of the plumbing, it looks like 1". And the john guest fittings that are used. Are they 1/4", 3/8" or even 1/2" NPT? Are all 3 the same?

No. I don’t have a 3D printer or I’d give it a shot. The 3 fittings are 1/4” John guest. It appears they screw in so I assume that side is npt? The unions and elbows are stamped as 3/4” spears

 

[mdblosser]

Are you saying you're willing to print and test? The pics are helpful, but also need confirmation of the size of the plumbing, it looks like 1". And the john guest fittings that are used. Are they 1/4", 3/8" or even 1/2" NPT? Are all 3 the same?

I have the same Venturi. It’s 1/2” NPT JG fittings. 3/4 plumbing on the Venturi to the union and elbow. The bottom of my Venturi is leaking at the top of the union.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Hmm, these 3D printed venturis are starting to become a point of failure.

For anyone who attempts to disassemble their ACR, if you unscrew the fitting threaded into the volute of the pump, be extremely careful when you screw it back in as the volute will crack very easily if you over tighten it. I have a 3D printed collar to fix this issue that I am working on, but don't have a printer, so I am dependent on a favour from a friend, and he is taking awhile to get around to it. I just may have to get my own printer.

@mdblosser you may be able to seal that leak by taking the fitting off and applying a bead of ABS/PVC transition cement around the internal seam between the parts.

There appears to be a few designs of the 3D printed part. For the taller ACR units, he used a union on each end, which should make replacing the part easy. For the shorter, non-stacked, units, the 3D part is affixed to an elbow that threads directly into the pump output. Note, the output does not have the same cracking issues as the volute as it has plenty of material and is not paper thin (like the volute). So you will need to source the elbow as well to make everything line back up with the factory parts.

 

[Cali9dub]

Anyone have one of the controllers with the external peristaltic pump? I took it apart (the external pump) to clean it and 3 small black o-rings popped (3 that I saw) out and I didn’t see where they came from. Did anyone ever disassemble theirs and did you notice 3 small o-rings in there anywhere(it might be 4 but only found/saw 3). ?? Thanks !!

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I have no experience with that version of controller, but are they small enough to fit on the mounting bolts for the pump? The DC motor driving the pump is likely to be a bit loud, so I would not be surprised if there was an attempt to insulate it from the controller case to quiet it.

 

[Cali9dub]

I have no experience with that version of controller, but are they small enough to fit on the mounting bolts for the pump? The DC motor driving the pump is likely to be a bit loud, so I would not be surprised if there was an attempt to insulate it from the controller case to quiet it.

I have an older pic of it and don’t see them there :

 

[mdblosser]

Hmm, these 3D printed venturis are starting to become a point of failure.

For anyone who attempts to disassemble their ACR, if you unscrew the fitting threaded into the volute of the pump, be extremely careful when you screw it back in as the volute will crack very easily if you over tighten it. I have a 3D printed collar to fix this issue that I am working on, but don't have a printer, so I am dependent on a favour from a friend, and he is taking awhile to get around to it. I just may have to get my own printer.

@mdblosser you may be able to seal that leak by taking the fitting off and applying a bead of ABS/PVC transition cement around the internal seam between the parts.

There appears to be a few designs of the 3D printed part. For the taller ACR units, he used a union on each end, which should make replacing the part easy. For the shorter, non-stacked, units, the 3D part is affixed to an elbow that threads directly into the pump output. Note, the output does not have the same cracking issues as the volute as it has plenty of material and is not paper thin (like the volute). So you will need to source the elbow as well to make everything line back up with the factory parts.

Dennis Cartier yeah I ended up just plastic epoxying the fitting where it was leaking. Its been fine ever since. No issues.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I have had an odd experience with my ACR and thought I would see if anyone else has any thoughts.

The flow through my ACR is controlled by a Raspberry Pi system that monitors the alkalinity level using an Alkatronic. This has been very stable for me and allowed me to flat line the alk (for the most part). However I had a hose failure on my Alkatronic and had a heck of a time getting a replacement hose. So my Alkatronic was offline for about 4 months. During this time, I just let my alk 'float'. I had overridden the alk reading from the now offline Alkatronic to the control system and expected it to keep the same flow rate through the ACR.

When I finally got my Alkatronic repaired and back up, I discovered my alk was reading 11.00 dKH. I normally keep it locked to 8.6 dKH. My corals don't seem to mind the higher alk and I have for the moment adjusted my target to be 11.00 to stop the control system from trying to lower the alk.

What I noticed with the ACR is that the TLF media I use has turned to a powder over the last few months while I let the alk drift. The volume of media was dropping, reaching 50% full and now about 40% full. I use a powered secondary chamber, a Geo 618 with no CO2 hookup, and can see that the TLF media in it is covered in white powder as well. Looking in the media chamber of the ACR shows a the water filled with micobubbles, like a swirling fog.

I was planning on taking the ACR down and rinsing it out and replacing the media, but I am hesitant as the effluent strength has not dropped at all from what I can tell. The ACR is behind some equipment and is heavy so I am not super eager to have to work on it.

Anyone else have their media turn to powder and did you notice a weakening of your effluent strength?

 

[Reef-Engineer]

hmm interesting issue, I had a similar issue years ago (media meltdown) where it turned to mush. Not sure why it would have just started happening to yours, maybe a complication of being a saturation reactor and having already high dKh input water? not sure.

Seems best course like you said is nothing drastic, change media and slowly lower reactor output to slowly lower your alk.

I need to do some research on what could cause the media to melt down and turn to fines. A saturation reactor should be the lowest pH possible, and if it wasnt melting down then, why would it now?