Pax Bellum Arid Reactor Experience

reeftivo · Mar 25, 2019

try only harvesting 1/3 to half. you are taking away too much nutrient absorption capacity all at once.

reeftivo · Mar 25, 2019

the more chaeto the more nutrients that can be absorbed through the cell walls. you just want to clear enough to get more room so the mass can continue to grow.

iReefer12 · Mar 25, 2019

That makes sense. Will try that next time

roberthu526 · May 12, 2019

I found out that running this reactor while dosing NOPOX is a bad idea. The dead bacteria stays on the Cheato and block lights. I never had good growth until I stopped dosing NOPOX. Now it’s doing quite well. Growing from half full to almost totally full in one week.

Ted_C · Jun 18, 2019

@iReefer12
I am guessing your feeding the reactor from a manifold and another pump in your sump? Are there any issues with back-siphoning the reactor into the sump?

Ted_C · Jun 26, 2019

Another question: did any of you have issues with leaking? Both of the quick disconnects leak for me. I'm working on removing the quick disconnects in favor of unions and normal hose barb connections

The 3/4" fitting out of the lid leaked at the interface of the lid and the fitting. I unscrewed it and replaced the sealant in the threads (I actually didn't see any sealant whatsoever) with rectoseal. Still leaked. Used some weldon 16 at the interface of the lid and fitting and that seems to have sealed it up.

Anyone using the calcium reactor injection port? This was all 1" plumbing but the fittings on the reactor were all 3/4". I had to buy a butt-load of 3/4" to 1" bushings to make it all work.

As for my previous question: if you keep all of the pipes submerged for whatever your using to feed the reactor - no back-siphoning or drainage occurs with the reactor. I can keep water in the reactor to the top even though the top sits a good two feet above my sump water level.

Clownreef · Jun 26, 2019

I had one and I sold it. I could never get cheato to grow. It would grow long hair algae and it would choke the cheato. I tried so many times.

roberthu526 · Jun 28, 2019

Ted_C said:
Another question: did any of you have issues with leaking? Both of the quick disconnects leak for me. I'm working on removing the quick disconnects in favor of unions and normal hose barb connections

The 3/4" fitting out of the lid leaked at the interface of the lid and the fitting. I unscrewed it and replaced the sealant in the threads (I actually didn't see any sealant whatsoever) with rectoseal. Still leaked. Used some weldon 16 at the interface of the lid and fitting and that seems to have sealed it up.

Anyone using the calcium reactor injection port? This was all 1" plumbing but the fittings on the reactor were all 3/4". I had to buy a butt-load of 3/4" to 1" bushings to make it all work.

As for my previous question: if you keep all of the pipes submerged for whatever your using to feed the reactor - no back-siphoning or drainage occurs with the reactor. I can keep water in the reactor to the top even though the top sits a good two feet above my sump water level.

Mine leaks a bit every time after I do maintenance. But it stops after a day or so after salt creep forms. Not a big deal to me but sure annoying after spending over a grand on the unit.
I actually need to disconnect the unit and do a deep cleaning because there is hair algae growing on the inside wall and calcium build up is very noticeable.

roberthu526 · Jul 1, 2019

I just deep cleaned mine and my arms are not long enough to reach the bottom. Hopefully this yields better growth and nutrient exporting.

saltwaterpicaso · Jul 1, 2019

mine used to leak around the uniseal on the top then I figured out if I push the acrylic rod all the way down its seals for some reason but with it pushed all the way down the flow was hindered so with just the right the right placement I have the flow and no leak hope this helps

Ted_C · Jul 10, 2019

saltwaterpicaso said:
mine used to leak around the uniseal on the top then I figured out if I push the acrylic rod all the way down its seals for some reason but with it pushed all the way down the flow was hindered so with just the right the right placement I have the flow and no leak hope this helps

Where exactly? because the LED's should be completely dry within the tube. Did it leak at the interface of the Lid and dry tube?

roberthu526 · Jul 10, 2019

Mine is back up to speed after a deep clean. Chaeto growth has doubled in a week but the color is lighter. I am not sure if the hair algae that used to grow in the reactor soaked up too much nutrient or slowed down too much flow. But the growth has been pretty good so far.

saltwaterpicaso · Jul 11, 2019

mine leaked around the top of uniseal water was the top of the lid none went into the tube . I have to rinse the cheato weekly I get a weird redish slime growing on mine I might try a bigger pump I think I have a sicce 1.5 on there now

roberthu526 · Jul 11, 2019

saltwaterpicaso said:
mine leaked around the top of uniseal water was the top of the lid none went into the tube . I have to rinse the cheato weekly I get a weird redish slime growing on mine I might try a bigger pump I think I have a sicce 1.5 on there now

My flow is around 800GPH through the reactor

iReefer12 · Jul 11, 2019

That’s a high flow rate, I’m at 440gph, I have room to push more, but didn’t want to overdo it.

I haven’t updated my experience with the Arid Reactor in a while so been meaning to drop an update. Find graphs of my test results below.

In a nut shell I got to a point where it pulled No3 down to 0ppm, but Po4 wouldn’t get below 0.7ppm.

I started dosing Sodium Nitrate solution in order to raise No3, this helps me stay around 10-15ppm. At 0 or close to 0ppm No3, my corals and anemone started looking a bit rough.

My theory for Po4 not going below 0.7ppm was that I’ve ran my tank and therefore my live rock at levels over 1ppm for over 6 years, so I wondered whether it Po4 was just constantly leaching from the live rock. I started using GFO again and got phosphate down to 0.3ppm, I then turned off the GFO reactor and Po4 shot right back to 0.7ppm, so I think it is the rock. I’m now running GFO constantly along with the Arid to try and get Po4 under control. Right now it’s in the 0.3-0.5 ppm range. I’d like to get to a point where I no longer run GFO and just rely on the Arid, I think to do that, I need all the Po4 out of the rock.

roberthu526 · Jul 12, 2019

I have the same finding regarding phosphate. I dose Lanthanum chloride to control it.

iReefer12 · Jul 12, 2019

Do you run filter socks to remove the bound up phosphate?

saltwaterpicaso · Jul 12, 2019

what size reactor are you running I have the n18 the smaller one I went undersized on purpose

roberthu526 · Jul 12, 2019

iReefer12 said:
Do you run filter socks to remove the bound up phosphate?

No but I also dose relatively small amount at a time. 1ml every 12 hours in a 300G is neglect able and everything gets skimmed out over time. This way I don’t shock the corals because phosphate only drops 0.01 ppm every other day. Slow and safe approach.

Ted_C · Jun 24, 2020

Here's an update on my reactor.

Last month, I was pulling the reactor out of my setup to give it a good deep cleaning (2nd time since I've owned it - so about 10-11 months old). Got it drained and took it outside and the acrylic? bonding between the tube and the bottom let go.

Luckily - this happened when cleaning and not while running. This isn't why I can't recommend Pax Bellum though - it's their horrible support with this entire experience.

Maybe I've been spoiled by dealing with LFS only or by dealing with Ecotech marine.

As soon as it happened - I contacted Pax Bellum via their facebook page / facebook messenger to show the problem with these same pics. I never elaborated about when it occured (cleaning versus a running tank) Pax Bellum asked how old the reactor was because they haven't used 3/4" fittings for over a year. in other cases of support directly to the manufacturer - especially for something as catastrophic of an entire unit breaking like my pics show due to shoddy acrylic work - it's never a question on how old the product was.

Regardless, I found a few of my forum threads to show I received the reactor in June of last year. This wasn't good enough proof for Pax Bellum. I had to go back to Unique Corals to have them look up and send my original invoice. Not a huge deal - but still proof that they wont stand behind their product based on age.

So Pax Bellum agreed to send a new reactor body on their dime. The problem is - they've upgraded all of their fittings to 1". So they asked if I needed a new lid. My Lid's alway's leaked around the PVC Fitting no matter what I tried to fix the problem and I did tell them this. No matter, they charged me $150 for the new lid (so not entirely on their own dime).

Never once was I asked about the health of the tank (did this cause the tank to crash) or if this flooded my living room or anything like that.

So I can't recommend Pax Bellum products due to the above.