Looking for an Engineer

[CoralCrib]

Hello!

I don't want to over explain this and go into every detail but to sum it up, I run a coral aquaculture farm in Illinois and had a major problem with my Reef Octopus Kalk Reactor on my 3000 gallon system which ended up causing kalkwasser to overdose heavily into my system and cause a major die off. We're talking enough coral to shut down my business entirely and leave me with nothing.

I have filed an insurance claim, but my insurance needs a "reactor professional/technician" to evaluate that my reactor did indeed break, and write up a report just confirming that it had an issue. Similar to what a mechanic would do for insurance if your car broke down. Reef Octopus being a Chinese company, is not able to do so, thus I am reaching out here. I need someone, whether it be a company or person who I could send my reactor to so they can evaluate how it broke. I am willing to pay whatever is needed for time and services on this matter, because my future heavily relies on this.

If anyone has any info on who I could contact that would be willing to help in this, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thank you!

 

[KrisReef]

Hello!

I don't want to over explain this and go into every detail but to sum it up, I run a coral aquaculture farm in Illinois and had a major problem with my Reef Octopus Kalk Reactor on my 3000 gallon system which ended up causing kalkwasser to overdose heavily into my system and cause a major die off. We're talking enough coral to shut down my business entirely and leave me with nothing.

I have filed an insurance claim, but my insurance needs a "reactor professional/technician" to evaluate that my reactor did indeed break, and write up a report just confirming that it had an issue. Similar to what a mechanic would do for insurance if your car broke down. Reef Octopus being a Chinese company, is not able to do so, thus I am reaching out here. I need someone, whether it be a company or person who I could send my reactor to so they can evaluate how it broke. I am willing to pay whatever is needed for time and services on this matter, because my future heavily relies on this.

If anyone has any info on who I could contact that would be willing to help in this, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thank you!

I had a similar issue when I had a claim for water damage with my homeowner insurance company. I told them I fixed the plumbing (broken drain in slab) and that I would not write a report about a broken pipe or the repair work I did.

Pretty sure your insurance company is giving you similar “run-around” to delay payment for the loss.

Recommend hiring someone to be the expert, have them bill you for the evaluation/ report ($1.000.00 seems fair) and then submit the report and invoice for the opinion to get them back to work on your settlement.

The engineers report is a stalling technique, but they will stop the nonsense if you bill them for the engineers work.

 

[Readywriter]

Hello!

I don't want to over explain this and go into every detail but to sum it up, I run a coral aquaculture farm in Illinois and had a major problem with my Reef Octopus Kalk Reactor on my 3000 gallon system which ended up causing kalkwasser to overdose heavily into my system and cause a major die off. We're talking enough coral to shut down my business entirely and leave me with nothing.

I have filed an insurance claim, but my insurance needs a "reactor professional/technician" to evaluate that my reactor did indeed break, and write up a report just confirming that it had an issue. Similar to what a mechanic would do for insurance if your car broke down. Reef Octopus being a Chinese company, is not able to do so, thus I am reaching out here. I need someone, whether it be a company or person who I could send my reactor to so they can evaluate how it broke. I am willing to pay whatever is needed for time and services on this matter, because my future heavily relies on this.

If anyone has any info on who I could contact that would be willing to help in this, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thank you!

"Reactor professional/technician" sounds like legal gobbledygook speak for aquarium service company to me. Id clarify that with them because that would be a lot easier to find than someone with credentials as a "reactor engineer".

 

[Reefer1978]

Can you share details of what happened?

 

[KrisReef]

"Reactor professional/technician" sounds like legal gobbledygook speak for aquarium service company to me. Id clarify that with them because that would be a lot easier to find than someone with credentials as a "reactor engineer".

I think Homer Simpson worked as one

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Hello!

I don't want to over explain this and go into every detail but to sum it up, I run a coral aquaculture farm in Illinois and had a major problem with my Reef Octopus Kalk Reactor on my 3000 gallon system which ended up causing kalkwasser to overdose heavily into my system and cause a major die off. We're talking enough coral to shut down my business entirely and leave me with nothing.

I have filed an insurance claim, but my insurance needs a "reactor professional/technician" to evaluate that my reactor did indeed break, and write up a report just confirming that it had an issue. Similar to what a mechanic would do for insurance if your car broke down. Reef Octopus being a Chinese company, is not able to do so, thus I am reaching out here. I need someone, whether it be a company or person who I could send my reactor to so they can evaluate how it broke. I am willing to pay whatever is needed for time and services on this matter, because my future heavily relies on this.

If anyone has any info on who I could contact that would be willing to help in this, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thank you!

I don't think there's anyone with that title, instead of spinning your wheels can you get clarification on what credentials are required to speak with authority on the matter.

I personally have built quite a few calcium reactors and stand alone controller for coral farms. I have great working knowledge of the detailed complexity but far from an expert.

However I'm curious how the reactor failed and what safeguardswere in place to prevent obvuous issues?

 

[klc]

Surely you were using something that monitored alk and pH, and had the ability to shut down dosing if there was something going on?

 

[CoralCrib]

Yes of course, I used an apex with 2 pH probes, 2 tridents, and a kH Carer to check everything, but what actually happened was something that was completely unpredictable. The stirring rod in the kalk stirrer became loose and instead of stirring the kalkwasser, it turned the lid of the reactor itself and created an airlock. Water kept being added to the reactor, then once the reactor was full it spilled over and released the airlock, dumping all of that extra water into the system at once. Not something I had ever thought was possible, but actually happened once again when I was actually there to witness it.

 

[CoralCrib]

My system alerted me my pH and alkalinity had spiked, and turned off all dosing, but it was an instant jump instead of a slow overdose. All of the monitors in the world couldn't have stopped it.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

In your words what was the component that broke?

2 things don't add up from your description. What you said about the rod coming loose doesn't fit. I can't picture how the decoupling of the drive motor to the paddle will allow for the lid to rotate. In that scenario, the motor would simply spin. Second is if the lid spun, how would that create an airlock? Unless there was a clog on the effluent side which would have nothing to do with a loose screw on the paddle drive.

My initial thought after your explanation is that the reactor was filled with too much calcium hydroxide and was left to settle thus encapsulated the stirrer and instead of the paddle rotating to mix the calcium hydroxide, it rotated the lid. But I still don't understand how that created an airlock and led to the cascading events.

Sounds like a series of unfortunate events that begun with adding too much calcium hydroxide to the reactor.

I'm gathering that you're wanting someone to recreate this issue and then connect it to negligence by the manufacturer.

If I'm being honest, those are some difficult dots to connect.

perhaps ones mind could be changed if they could examine the reactor in question. I guess there's still a lot of unanswered questions.

I think it all can be explained by a clogged effluent and unsaturated water flowing to the reactor (because of the encapsulated paddle) that allowed the effluent pump to continue to flow water until it overflowed from the lid.

 

[klc]

Well sorry to hear of your misfortune. I hope you and your insurance company can come to terms with the financial loss.

 

[CoralCrib]

In your words what was the component that broke?

2 things don't add up from your description. What you said about the rod coming loose doesn't fit. I can't picture how the decoupling of the drive motor to the paddle will allow for the lid to rotate. In that scenario, the motor would simply spin. Second is if the lid spun, how would that create an airlock? Unless there was a clog on the effluent side which would have nothing to do with a loose screw on the paddle drive.

My initial thought after your explanation is that the reactor was filled with too much calcium hydroxide and was left to settle thus encapsulated the stirrer and instead of the paddle rotating to mix the calcium hydroxide, it rotated the lid. But I still don't understand how that created an airlock and led to the cascading events.

Sounds like a series of unfortunate events that begun with adding too much calcium hydroxide to the reactor.

I'm gathering that you're wanting someone to recreate this issue and then connect it to negligence by the manufacturer.

If I'm being honest, those are some difficult dots to connect.

perhaps ones mind could be changed if they could examine the reactor in question. I guess there's still a lot of unanswered questions.

I think it all can be explained by a clogged effluent and unsaturated water flowing to the reactor (because of the encapsulated paddle) that allowed the effluent pump to continue to flow water until it overflowed from the lid.

Yes it's honestly still a confusing situation for me. Sadly things like this aren't always black and white. I do know that somehow an airlock was created that allowed the reactor to fill beyond the spillover. I had caught it the second time with water just about an inch over the drain, and it wasn't until I rotated the top off that the water all came flowing out, effluent unclogged. In fact the first thing I had done was used my pipe cleaner to see if that was the issue, and I was amazed that it didn't make the water in the reactor budge.

I'm not trying to go after the manufacturer, just trying to get an explanation for insurance.

There was also no more calcium hydroxide in the reactor than we normally run, and I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Reef Octopus KS250, but the motor on top is completely fixed to the lid. If the stirring rod can't stir the kalkwasser, it 100% turns the lid and tightens it down.

 

[arcangelreef]

I dont understand how you could have possibly dumped enough saturated kalk water through the reactor just overflowing to even marginally increase PH or alk of a 3000 gallon system. Thats like what? 500ml MAYBE a litre of water before it would have dropped under the output nozzle? Unless you're running some kind of crazy slurry? 1 litre of saturated kalk would move dkh by .01 in a 3000 gallon system.
Also, unless the pump feeding the reactor with RODI malfunctioned and started dumping in a ton more RO, your overall daily addition didnt change.


So many questions. Im just curious what actually happened here cause its not making sense in my head.

Regardless, good luck with your insurance claim.

 

[CoralCrib]

I dont understand how you could have possibly dumped enough saturated kalk water through the reactor just overflowing to even marginally increase PH or alk of a 3000 gallon system. Thats like what? 500ml MAYBE a litre of water before it would have dropped under the output nozzle? Unless you're running some kind of crazy slurry? 1 litre of saturated kalk would move dkh by .01 in a 3000 gallon system.
Also, unless the pump feeding the reactor with RODI malfunctioned and started dumping in a ton more RO, your overall daily addition didnt change.


So many questions. Im just curious what actually happened here cause its not making sense in my head.

Regardless, good luck with your insurance claim.

We do run a very heavy slurry, which of course is much more risky, but that's why I had so many failsafes in place and check it often. This was one of the very few things that could've gone wrong other than someone just running into and dumping my whole stirrer into the system. I think it would've been easy to catch and stop if it only happened in the day time

 

[Formulator]

Hello!

I don't want to over explain this and go into every detail but to sum it up, I run a coral aquaculture farm in Illinois and had a major problem with my Reef Octopus Kalk Reactor on my 3000 gallon system which ended up causing kalkwasser to overdose heavily into my system and cause a major die off. We're talking enough coral to shut down my business entirely and leave me with nothing.

I have filed an insurance claim, but my insurance needs a "reactor professional/technician" to evaluate that my reactor did indeed break, and write up a report just confirming that it had an issue. Similar to what a mechanic would do for insurance if your car broke down. Reef Octopus being a Chinese company, is not able to do so, thus I am reaching out here. I need someone, whether it be a company or person who I could send my reactor to so they can evaluate how it broke. I am willing to pay whatever is needed for time and services on this matter, because my future heavily relies on this.

If anyone has any info on who I could contact that would be willing to help in this, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thank you!

I am a former formulation and process development scientist at Pfizer. Worked there for 11 years but recently transitioned into regulatory affairs at another company. I design manufacturing processes utilizing reactors, formulation and mixing vessels, and precise liquid filling/dosing systems for biologic drug products. These process sometimes malfunction and we do root cause analysis to implement corrective and preventive actions. I wouldn’t mind taking a look and putting together a similar analysis if you think my experience makes me qualified enough for your insurance company. I am actually not starting the new job for another 2 weeks and no longer at Pfizer, so I have time.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

We do run a very heavy slurry, which of course is much more risky, but that's why I had so many failsafes in place and check it often. This was one of the very few things that could've gone wrong other than someone just running into and dumping my whole stirrer into the system. I think it would've been easy to catch and stop if it only happened in the day time

Ahh, this makes more sense. I assume you were using a peristaltic pump to push water into the reactor. If so, my guess is that the effluent clogged and once the water got to a certain height and/or pressure it dislodged the clog and emptied the entire contents of slurry into the tank and instantly driving up the calcium carbonate (specifically alkalinity) and pH.

That would indeed cause the issue you experienced.

Thanks for that bit of information.

It seems that @Formulator might be the best qualified, if concurred to right up a summary.

 

[Formulator]

Here is a current CV if you want to run me by the insurance company. I could probably refine it for your purposes, but not going to take the time until you decide. If you want to talk more in detail, feel free to PM me or send me an email at the address in my CV. I would ask for some compensation, but we can negotiate privately. Also, I am in St. Louis, MO, so depending where you are in Illinois, I might be able to come to you and examine the reactor in its place if you haven’t already disassembled everything.

 

[Formulator]

It seems that @Formulator might be the best qualified, if concurred to right up a summary.

I think the conclusion sounds reasonable and highly likely, but I would need to see the reactor and do a formal fishbone assessment to exhaust other potential causes and make a formal conclusion. I work in a highly regulated industry and although highly unlikely that FDA would catch wind, I could get myself into hot water professionally if I did anything less than a proper and thorough investigation to attach to the summary report.