Pump Broken?

[shanepike]

So I bought a new Korallin C1502 Calcium Reactor. Now that I have it hooked up, I think the pump may be broken -- either that, or I have it hooked up wrong (which could easily be the case). Either way, it's simply not pulling water through. If I prime it with siphon and let it pull water that way for awhile and then quickly switch it to pulling water out of the sump, it will pull water for several hours, though it gets slower and slower. Once it stops, it won't start back at all. By watching the water in the tubing, I can watch the pump trying</em> to suck water up, but it just sits there and lurches without moving the water anywhere.

Here's the setup:

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The pump is the box on top of the calcium reactor. It's an Eheim. Maybe I'm just wrong, but shouldn't it be able to easily</em> pull water up and out of the sump? (Ignore the tubing attached to the inlet right now; it's not the tubing I was using. I had a much shorter tube, just long enough. I tried a much longer tube (shown), but that didn't work either, so I took it out completely.)

Any ideas?

 

[shanepike]

HUGELY helpful! Thank you so much. Clearly I misread that part of the directions (which is easy to do).

On a related note, you control the effluent drip rate solely by the little valve you install inline with the tubing coming out of the outlet? Doesn't seem like it offers very fine control.

 

[elfloyd]

Barrettrhoades;841914 wrote: Korralin reactors are meant to have water fed to them. The pump on the reactor itself if solely for recirculation and pressurizing the reactor. You need to feed the reactor water from your system by either teeing off your return pump and having a ball valve, or using a small powerhead like a maxijet.

Have that feed water going to the inlet of the reactor. Once you have water feeding the reactor have the effluent valve open 100% then turn on the pump. If you are not using a controller it is a good idea to have bothe the effluent line, and the line on the top of the reactor going back into your sump in case CO2 builds up in the top of the reactor..

Agreed!

Side note regarding most pumps of this type (not pressure rated)... They work better below the water line because they do not suck well and rely on gravity fed water to keep them primed.

 

[shanepike]

Barrettrhoades;842191 wrote: Yea Shane. From what I remember those directions are really hard to understand. My reactor even says auslauf and einlauf for the influent and effluent.

Yes control the drip rate with the effluent valve. Ideally you would buy a 1/4" gate valve to dial ini the flow. The valves that come with the reactor are very cheap, and can even leak on you. I have been using the 1/4" push lock ball-valves from lowes, and they are much better than the stock ones, but not as good as a gate valve.

If you arent using a controller, then there should be some formula for the ratio of effluent drip rate to CO2 bubbles to achieve the proper pH in the chamber.

I recently drilled and tapped the top of my reactor to have a pH probe in the chamber for conrolling the CO2 based on the pH of the reactor.

Once again, HUGELY helpful. I can't thank you enough!

 

[eric b]

Barrettrhoades;842191 wrote: Yea Shane. From what I remember those directions are really hard to understand. My reactor even says auslauf and einlauf for the influent and effluent.

Yes control the drip rate with the effluent valve. Ideally you would buy a 1/4" gate valve to dial ini the flow. The valves that come with the reactor are very cheap, and can even leak on you. I have been using the 1/4" push lock ball-valves from lowes, and they are much better than the stock ones, but not as good as a gate valve.

If you arent using a controller, then there should be some formula for the ratio of effluent drip rate to CO2 bubbles to achieve the proper pH in the chamber.

I recently drilled and tapped the top of my reactor to have a pH probe in the chamber for conrolling the CO2 based on the pH of the reactor.

I believe the instructions say if no controller to start at 1 bubble of CO2 every 5 seconds and the effluent at 1 drip every 1.5 to 2 seconds.

I just set one up on a tank which is the only way I know that off the top of my head.

I also put on a john guest needle valve for the effluent out line to give a better control rate than the original valves. To the original poster make sure you bleed all the trapped air out the top valve and you will probably have to bleed once a week or so as for some reason even at that CO2 rate a very small amount will accumulate in the top. The instructions actually said to use that as effluent out as well as the main port but the top vent at a slower rate. I chose not to use it and just use it as a bleed off for the unit and seems to be working great.

 

[sewer urchin]

Hey Shane,

Check these valves out

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http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=32220&catid=956&clickid=searchresults">http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=32220&catid=956&clickid=searchresults</a>

They are great. I forgot who originally posted them ( I think it might have been Mysterybox or Acroholic) but whoever did it was a score. I was a little cautious about spending the quid, but once a got one I was happy with it. They are great for fine control and adjusting drip rates. I but it my system between the Manifold and the CaRX and they can really dial the effluent down ( like about 1 drop per 30 seconds).

Edit: Here is a good sticky that Acroholic put together for CaRx. It helped a lot when I tweaking mine.

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56499