Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

[machodik]

one questions here....is there any so called different between AC and DC peritaltic pump ? if so, then what we should chooese AC or DC? why? sorry if this come to you as a lousy questions.

[slief]

Originally Posted by machodik

one questions here....is there any so called different between AC and DC peritaltic pump ? if so, then what we should chooese AC or DC? why? sorry if this come to you as a lousy questions.

AC plugs directly into the wall. DC requires an AC Adapter and adds an additional point of failure. The higher end Masterflex pumps sold today are AC. AC pumps are more powerfull too. Stick with the pumps that have been mentioned if you are buying new.

[machodik]

Originally Posted by slief

Not really sure why you are asking. We keep directing you to your best options and alll are AC powered. AC plugs directly into the wall. DC requires an AC Adapter and adds an additional point of failure. All the higher end Masterflex pumps sold today are AC. AC pumps are more powerfull too. Stick with the pumps that have been mentioned if you are buying new.

Thanks and well noted

[BrettH]

Last night I finally set up my cole parmer dosing pump 7520-50 and pump head 7518-10. Wahoo!



So the setup was fairly easy, not much to do and fairly intuitive, except for this one little potential gotcha....The gotcha (in my case) is the little black lever (see pic below) located on both sides of the head unit. Not the lever that is silver with the black knob, the small little black lever below it...

This little black lever is what prevents the tubing from being pulled through the unit as the head turns. I was afraid to set it too tight in fear that it would tear the Tygon tubing. That was a mistake...



By about 10pm last night I had everything set up and running. I go upstairs, catch up on some Californiacation and fall asleep on the couch. At about 4:30am I wake up and decide to stumble upstairs and into bed. On may way upstairs I pass by the tank and with one eye open I notice that there is no flow and the main pump has shut down. Ok, so what happened? I detour to down stairs, now with one and half eyes open and then I see water on the floor. Thank god my Apex shut the system down due to a low sump alarm, but I lost about 20 gallons. Well it turns out I didn't push that little black lever down hard enough to hold the Tygon tubing in place and the cole parmer pump sucked the Tygon tubing through the head unit and tore a hole in the tubing.

I adjusted the clamp and put a little black mark on the tubing so I can confirm that the tubing is not slowly being sucked through the pump head over time.



Here is a shot of the clamp that holds the tubing in place. I really have it clamped down now. A lot more than I thought I should clamp it.



Good news is that I keep freshly mixed saltwater and RO water to handle problems like this one. The apex did its job and I had the tank back on line within about 15-20 minutes of finding the problem.

cheers
brett

[dcmartinpc]

Yeah, those are pretty important. Mine have marks on the side showing where to set it for each tubing size. Not sure if yours rubbed off or are in a different place, but they were very helpful for me.

Don

[BrettH]

Originally Posted by dcmartinpc

Yeah, those are pretty important. Mine have marks on the side showing where to set it for each tubing size. Not sure if yours rubbed off or are in a different place, but they were very helpful for me.

Don

I found that out the hard way! Lol.

I don't see any marks on either side.

[tkeracer619]

Interesting about the marks, never seen that before. Could you post a pic?

Those are probably still too tight. You want to only use a short section of tubing and connect it to regular john guest poly tube. The fitting should also prevent the tube from pulling through.

Nice setup!

[BrettH]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

Those are probably still too tight. You want to only use a short section of tubing and connect it to regular john guest poly tube. The fitting should also prevent the tube from pulling through.

Nice setup!

Thanks!

I am not taking any chances this time on the tightness. The fitting was basically pulled off the tubing, it didn't stop it. I am actually using a short section of the tygon, albeit I did make it a little longer than the prior piece I used so I would have more time to catch it slipping. The 3/8 tubing that I am using post the male adapter is regular 3/8 tubing, not tygon.

[Mike S]

Originally Posted by BrettH

Last night I finally set up my cole parmer dosing pump 7520-50 and pump head 7518-10. Wahoo!



So the setup was fairly easy, not much to do and fairly intuitive, except for this one little potential gotcha....The gotcha (in my case) is the little black lever (see pic below) located on both sides of the head unit. Not the lever that is silver with the black knob, the small little black lever below it...

This little black lever is what prevents the tubing from being pulled through the unit as the head turns. I was afraid to set it too tight in fear that it would tear the Tygon tubing. That was a mistake...



By about 10pm last night I had everything set up and running. I go upstairs, catch up on some Californiacation and fall asleep on the couch. At about 4:30am I wake up and decide to stumble upstairs and into bed. On may way upstairs I pass by the tank and with one eye open I notice that there is no flow and the main pump has shut down. Ok, so what happened? I detour to down stairs, now with one and half eyes open and then I see water on the floor. Thank god my Apex shut the system down due to a low sump alarm, but I lost about 20 gallons. Well it turns out I didn't push that little black lever down hard enough to hold the Tygon tubing in place and the cole parmer pump sucked the Tygon tubing through the head unit and tore a hole in the tubing.

I adjusted the clamp and put a little black mark on the tubing so I can confirm that the tubing is not slowly being sucked through the pump head over time.



Here is a shot of the clamp that holds the tubing in place. I really have it clamped down now. A lot more than I thought I should clamp it.



Good news is that I keep freshly mixed saltwater and RO water to handle problems like this one. The apex did its job and I had the tank back on line within about 15-20 minutes of finding the problem.

cheers
brett

How do you like the 7520-50 so far? I've been looking for a pump and that model seems to be coming up frequently on eBay.

[d2mini]

So i noticed something was leaking in my garage last night.
Ends up it's my AWC pump that runs for about 45 mins every days.
The tubing split in the middle where the rollers contact it.
But unlike Brett, my clamps were down hard enough, the tubing didn't shift.

[machodik]

How long shall we need to change the tubing? I mean for periodical maintenance be it with or without sign of "wear and tear" to prevent issue of leakage?

[zachts]

Originally Posted by machodik

How long shall we need to change the tubing? I mean for periodical maintenance be it with or without sign of "wear and tear" to prevent issue of leakage?

Depends on what type of tubing you use, it can range from a few hundred hours to 4,000+ depending on the material and the RPM it runs at. PharMed or Norprene have the longest life and are preferable.

The tubing life charts have been posted a few times back in the thread for CP pumps.

[d2mini]

Mine was Pharmed and I had just set up the AWC like a month ago.
I wonder if the clamps were too tight or something.

[zachts]

Originally Posted by d2mini

Mine was Pharmed and I had just set up the AWC like a month ago.
I wonder if the clamps were too tight or something.

What rpm? If memory serves it's rated at 50 rpm so every time speed doubles it will cut the tube life by half or more.

Was it CP tubing or another brand? Supposedly the CP tubing has a proprietary outer diameter and wall thickness and the pump heads are designed for their brand tubing, which might make other tubing wear faster?

I've just stuck with the standard L/S heads and CP tubing for that reason, nothing to fuss with or wonder about proper setup, just a bit more of a PITA to load and change the tubes.

[d2mini]

It's Pharmed from US Plastics running at 200 rpm for 45 mins per day.

[zachts]

Originally Posted by d2mini

It's Pharmed from US Plastics running at 200 rpm for 45 mins per day.

Well, that does seem like something fishy caused it to fail. Even making the assumption that you'd only get 250hrs out of it that's still nearly one year..........

Something tells me it's not the tubing, lots are using that stuff without issues on the thread. Any debris or rust on the rollers?

Makes me wan't to go replace mine now as it's approaching the one year mark.

[tkeracer619]

At these speeds we are talking a year continuous duty. Something else is up.

[d2mini]

Ya, i figured it's not normal.
Maybe it wasn't seated right or something.
Rollers seemed clean with quick inspection.
It was a horizontal split along the length of the tubing about an inch long, right in the center.
I put in a new piece and this time made it just long enough so that the fittings would keep it from moving and I didn't make the clamps very tight.

[BrettH]

Originally Posted by Mike S

How do you like the 7520-50 so far? I've been looking for a pump and that model seems to be coming up frequently on eBay.

I like it. There is a slight hum to it, but not any louder than my Dolphin AMP Master pump. I wrapped a towel around it and that actually muted the noise quite a bit. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts. All in I paid $200 for the pump and $100 for the head; for $300, I think that's cheap for what it brings to the table in terms of consistency.

[BrettH]

Originally Posted by d2mini

Ya, i figured it's not normal.
Maybe it wasn't seated right or something.
Rollers seemed clean with quick inspection.
It was a horizontal split along the length of the tubing about an inch long, right in the center.
I put in a new piece and this time made it just long enough so that the fittings would keep it from moving and I didn't make the clamps very tight.

My first piece of tubing was real short, but the fittings did not stop it from being pulled through.

Mine did tear too, but I think that was from the tubing being pulled out of the fitting. I did notice when I first setup my unit that the head had a slight sway to it, but I think I just had to tighten the screws that hold the head unit on and that stopped it. Maybe check to make sure there is no play in the head unit.

Good news with the AWC, it can't drain the tank. when it's hooked up the CaRX, that can definitely pump more water out of the tank than anyone would like to loose, but that's why we have sump alarms and what not.

[tkeracer619]

I would be concerned that the occlusion is not correct. These heads are for ls17 and your using the ls17 equivalent tube correct?

[d2mini]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

I would be concerned that the occlusion is not correct. These heads are for ls17 and your using the ls17 equivalent tube correct?

Correct. The heads are 7518-00.

[dcmartinpc]

Originally Posted by d2mini

Correct. The heads are 7518-00.

That head is cold rolled steel. Does It have any corrosion or abrasiveness on the rollers?

Grasping at straws. Since it is a fixed occlusion head there isn't anything you can do to adjust it.

Don

[Sparky0028]

Hi
I just set up a CP pump with a 900-1021 head, l/s17 tubing on a GEO Carx. First i set up with pushing thru reactor, wasn't working so great so switch to pulling through, still not great. Also the tubing is really getting pulled through the head, any advise?

Thanks
Rich

[slief]

Originally Posted by Sparky0028

Hi
I just set up a CP pump with a 900-1021 head, l/s17 tubing on a GEO Carx. First i set up with pushing thru reactor, wasn't working so great so switch to pulling through, still not great. Also the tubing is really getting pulled through the head, any advise?

Thanks
Rich

If I am not mistaken, that pump head is not designed for LS17 tubing. It's designed to be used with LS13, 14, 16 & LS25 tubing. Incorrect tubing will not work properly.