Official: Masterflex Calcium Reactor Setup Thread

[kewadiak]

Originally Posted by tgbaby1

Got mine today, shipped same day.

Bummer you bought the last one nice find!

[tkeracer619]

You guys scored on those! Enjoy them

[tkeracer619]

Originally Posted by africangrey

Any feedback on Cole-Parmer Masterflex 77521-50 Console Drive w/ Easy Load II 77201-60, I am able to get this one for cheap ~$150, do any of you know if the head is brushless and able to handle L/S 17 tubing for 60-120 ml/min, thanks.

The drive is not brushless. The head is adjustable occlusion (pinch) which is an excellent pump head for water changers as well as reactors. 150 is not bad but know that drive is not brushless. It is still a good setup though, just won't be as quiet as the brushless rigs.

[ssdawood]

Yes I plugged mine in yesterday and it ran flawless. Didn't make no sound.

For 200 shipped it was an amazing deal. Great seller.

[africangrey]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

The drive is not brushless. The head is adjustable occlusion (pinch) which is an excellent pump head for water changers as well as reactors. 150 is not bad but know that drive is not brushless. It is still a good setup though, just won't be as quiet as the brushless rigs.

Thank you very much for your feedback, I might not pursuit this setup if its not brushless, to have a constant grinding noise right next to me 24/7 isn't very pleasant. So brush part is on the driver not the pump, I've always thought it is another way around.

[slief]

Originally Posted by africangrey

Thank you very much for your feedback, I might not pursuit this setup if its not brushless, to have a constant grinding noise right next to me 24/7 isn't very pleasant. So brush part is on the driver not the pump, I've always thought it is another way around.

The brushed part is on the pump motor, not the pump head which screws onto the motor. If you look at the back end of the motor along the side, there are two little black caps (one on either side) and the brushes reside below those caps. Comparatively, if you look at the pump shown above, there are no black caps on either side towards the rear of the motor because that unit is brushless.

[ssdawood]

Was also able to buy 50 feet of masterflex l/s 17 tubing for an amazing price.

Good week, pit together the whole list for a calcium reactor at a fraction of price.

Masterflex pump
Dual stage regulator
And geo 612 reactor.

All under 700 dollars

[tkeracer619]

Sweet! You're going to be smooth sailing.

[tgbaby1]

I setup the pump to feed my reactor (geo model type) and let it run without CO2 to purge the air. I let it run for a couple hours and when I come back it has more air than when I left it. I put the feed line in a cup of water and notice that its pushing small amounts of air along with the water.

Is there a special trick with the tubing setup to avoid pushing air into the reactor?

[zachts]

my guess your pulling air in from your sump, check where its pulling water from. Also check the suction side fittings (black tubing side) they could be sucking air.

[tgbaby1]

Line in the sump is completely submerged. I put some thread paste on the JG fittings and re-tightened them, seems to have fix the problem so far. I'll let it run for another couple hours, hopefully that will take care of it

[zachts]

I was thinking you may be pulling in micro bubbles from the sump potentially if it wasn't the fittings.

[tgbaby1]

Originally Posted by tgbaby1

Line in the sump is completely submerged. I put some thread paste on the JG fittings and re-tightened them, seems to have fix the problem so far. I'll let it run for another couple hours, hopefully that will take care of it

I found that I had a small leak in the seam of the flange so I bought a new Geo 618. Now I can't seem to purge all the air from the reactor using the MF. After the unit is running for a couple minutes it generates enough of a vacuum to pull in air through the check valve (no CO2 hooked up yet). Ive tried both pushing and pulling from the reactor with the same result. I put a maxi jet back on the feed and it solves the issue. Any ideas?

[swk]

Go ahead and use the maxijet to purge the air, then connect your cp pump for operation.

I crank up the cp pump as high as it'll go and the physically tilt the reactor to move the air bubbles to the pipe in the center of the lid. MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that the Eheim recirc pump is not running when purging the air.

I purchased my new calrx direct from George and told him about my setup. He tapped the lid and put a valve in the lid to help with purging trapped air at startup

[slief]

Originally Posted by tgbaby1

I found that I had a small leak in the seam of the flange so I bought a new Geo 618. Now I can't seem to purge all the air from the reactor using the MF. After the unit is running for a couple minutes it generates enough of a vacuum to pull in air through the check valve (no CO2 hooked up yet). Ive tried both pushing and pulling from the reactor with the same result. I put a maxi jet back on the feed and it solves the issue. Any ideas?

Shut the circulation pump off on the Geo. Shake the reactor side to side to get the bubbles to the top and then hit and hold the prime button. That will vacuum all the bubbles out of the reactor. You can wobble the reactor a bit more to get any remaining air that may be trapped in the media out.. Also, helps to guide the bubbles to the top hole in the reactor in the event that the floor isn't perfectly level. With my Geo, I found it was best to push the water into the reactor via the Masterflex instead of pulling.

[gw11ucb]

I am looking for a Masterflex pump. Just in case anyone have one for sale at a good price. Thanks!

[hkgar]

I have a model 7524-00 if you are interested. I had been using it for ATO and it works very well. It is 10-600 RPM

[CoralReefBoffin]

7524-00 wow that's old school ! Old salt

Unless you bought it used ...

Either way, it's a classic

[CoralReefBoffin]

Tgbaby1. Are you using two Easy-Load II heads intentionally, or did you purchase one used which had two on there for their specific usage ? Curious as to what you've incorporated for the other one ...

[michael.lemke]

I just bid on this on eBay. Hoping it is ok? Will it move enough water for me. Should have looked at this thread before the bid. Lol

[africangrey]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cole-Parmer-...3D301714007704

Bidding on a 7523-60 model on ebay, the seller has three and ends at 12 midnight tonight. the only question is it has a head that uses only 15. 24 and 36 tubing, is that ok?

[slief]

Originally Posted by africangrey

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cole-Parmer-...3D301714007704

Bidding on a 7523-60 model on ebay, the seller has three and ends at 12 midnight tonight. the only question is it has a head that uses only 15. 24 and 36 tubing, is that ok?

Ideally you would want a head that supports LS17 tubing.

[africangrey]

Originally Posted by slief

Ideally you would want a head that supports LS17 tubing.

Hi Scott,
Looking at the flow chart of the 77200-52, with L/S24 high performance tubing it can achieve 17-1700 ml/min, and our aim is 60-120ml/min of flow rate, what else should I factor in as tubing of choice. below is the chart copied from Coleparmer website.

L/S Tubing mL per rev Flow rates in mL/min at various rpm
1 to 100 rpm 6 to 600 rpm

L/S 15 1.7 1.7 to 170 10 to 1000
L/S 24 2.8 2.8 to 280 17 to 1700
L/S 35 3.8 3.8 to 380 23 to 2300
L/S 36 4.8 4.8 to 480 29 to 2900
Close

[slief]

Originally Posted by africangrey

Hi Scott,
Looking at the flow chart of the 77200-52, with L/S24 high performance tubing it can achieve 17-1700 ml/min, and our aim is 60-120ml/min of flow rate, what else should I factor in as tubing of choice. below is the chart copied from Coleparmer website.

L/S Tubing mL per rev Flow rates in mL/min at various rpm
1 to 100 rpm 6 to 600 rpm

L/S 15 1.7 1.7 to 170 10 to 1000
L/S 24 2.8 2.8 to 280 17 to 1700
L/S 35 3.8 3.8 to 380 23 to 2300
L/S 36 4.8 4.8 to 480 29 to 2900
Close

The flow rates are decent. Assuming the pump can run at a low enough RPM, the flow rates of that tubing should be fine. I think that the LS24 is odd size tubing. I am not sure what the ID or OD is of that and what you would need to convert that to the typical 1/4 tubing that most of us use on our reactors. The LS17 matches up nicely to 1/4" semi flexible tubing like the stuff used on RODI filters.

Also, I'd say the air for flow rates would be lower than you are expecting. I'm running at 25 ml/min on my 650 gallon system. I'd say typical flow rates would be between 20ml/min and 50ml/min but that will depend largely on calcium uptake and reactor pH.

[swk]

I started at 15ml at a ph of 7 in my reactor and have worked to the current level of 35ml/min with a reactor ph of 6.8

This is in a 75 gal sps system with a 20 gal sump.