New Avast Marine Calcium Reactor

[Dondante]

BTW R2R has the best community on the internet.

 

[Brew12]

avast reached out to me. I purchased it because I've heard nothing but good things. Maybe they missed my email when I had a long period of not hearing from them and had to send another email. I'm sure they will make it right. I'm the type who feels like I'm bothering folks when dealing with problems. It's just been a long few months. Thanks @AVAST Marine hopefully we can figure it out.

I may post my setup to see if you all can help with the reactor filling up.

I'm glad they are making it right. Put me in the camp that has found their customer service to be top notch.

 

[dbq5anlxj]

Any update on this reactor? How you guys like it? I'm considering Cove CR150 and this. Thanks

 

[ibondy]

Very happy with mine. I am using it with Kamoer pump and Carbon Dosser controller. Took some time to getting calibrated, but now running smooth.

 

[Wolfman238]

Finally have it mounted in the stand had to replace the impeller on the recirculation pump. Thanks Avast for having the replacements. Added the hi and low stickers for reference to make it easy for my wife since I'm out of town alot for work. Working awesome

 

[Cook]

I just got my Seabones reactor online last night. I'm looking for a little help from those that are using this reactor as well. My reactor fills completely with water over time because of a small leak. The issue I am having is with the top o-ring seal, will this seal itself over time, like a day or so? It's just a small drip with a few drops every hour or so. I have removed the top three times so far, cleaned the o-ring and groove, and replaced after coating with a small amount of silicone grease. I have used a very minimal amount of grease this time and inspected the o-ring and there is nothing obviously wrong with it and no debris that I can find. I have also tried to snug the screws down in a star pattern to try to ensure even pressure.

How tight should the lid screws be? I assume just snug enough to make a good seal? I have tried various levels of tightness and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Thanks.

 

[Crashjack]

Dry the lid and the o-ring and then apply silicone grease to the entire o-ring. Put o-ring back in the groove and replace lid. Tighten the screws tight (hand tight is not tight enough).

 

[AVAST Marine]

I just got my Seabones reactor online last night. I'm looking for a little help from those that are using this reactor as well. My reactor fills completely with water over time because of a small leak. The issue I am having is with the top o-ring seal, will this seal itself over time, like a day or so? It's just a small drip with a few drops every hour or so. I have removed the top three times so far, cleaned the o-ring and groove, and replaced after coating with a small amount of silicone grease. I have used a very minimal amount of grease this time and inspected the o-ring and there is nothing obviously wrong with it and no debris that I can find. I have also tried to snug the screws down in a star pattern to try to ensure even pressure.

How tight should the lid screws be? I assume just snug enough to make a good seal? I have tried various levels of tightness and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Thanks.

You may want to check to make sure your PH probe holder fitting is fully tight too. Depending on how much co2 you are dosing, the water level may rise towards the top as well. Most people find this happens during the initial testing before they start injecting co2 and see it as a problem when it is actually the expected result, the co2 will eventually start to displace the water in the reactor. This may or may not be the issue here, I just thought I would mention it.

 

[pirate2876]

Very happy with mine. I am using it with Kamoer pump and Carbon Dosser controller. Took some time to getting calibrated, but now running smooth.

Are you pushing water or pulling with the Kamoer?

 

[Cook]

I wanted to come back to this thread and say thank you to @Crashjack and @AVAST Marine. I got my lid leak to stop by going tighter on the lid screws, still hand tight, but as tight as I could turn them. I was already applying silicone grease to the o-ring and the groove felt smooth with no debris present that I could feel or see. I got the reactor dialed in over the last two weeks and it is working well. The water level within the reactor is full with just a couple of bubbles at the top and that's been consistent for the last week or so.

 

[Kfactor]

Was going to get a geo but the guy was very rude when I emailed him and this looks awsome and will be my first cr

 

[Abhishek]

@AVAST Marine - May be I have missed Dan but could you share a pic or a small video of the drip nozzle ? Also what media is suggested now that TLF doesn’t make the reborn as large as they used to

 

[amps]

What water level should I be seeing the main chamber? I'm feeding it at 25ml/min and right now the water is barely 1/2" off the bottom. It's definitely not higher than the small outlet fitting.

 

[Crashjack]

What water level should I be seeing the main chamber? I'm feeding it at 25ml/min and right now the water is barely 1/2" off the bottom. It's definitely not higher than the small outlet fitting.

First try letting it fill with the recirculating pump off to where the water level gets midway or so into the reactor. Then turn on the recirculating pump and see if the water will hold at a higher level. If not, try cleaning the drip piece to where it drips faster. Oddly, a clogged drip piece will cause the water level to go down to almost nothing. It is possible that your drip piece is partially clogged and causing this problem. I clean my drip pieces in CLR once a month and that seems to keep them flowing well.

 

[Crashjack]

Interested to see if anyone has found a fix for the reactor filling with water. Even though mine always starts where it supposed to, water slowly fills to the top. One would assume there are leaks at the top allowing air to get through, but if there are, water doesn’t get through. It isn't really a big deal as the reactor seems to work just as well, but what I found is, pH registers lower the more media that is used-up. In other words, as the level of the media goes down so does the measured pH. I suspect this is due to the probe’s location at the top and the full reactor has water well above the media, which creates a lower pH at the top. I have my Carbondoser set to run all the time, and I only use CO2 settings in my controller as a failsafe, but it makes me nervous to see pH get so low, and I have to stay on top of lowering my controller CO2 failsafe settings as my pH readings get lower.

I think the reason this happens might be due to head pressure at the outflow, which keeps the reactor from draining into the outflow pipe located at the base of the reactor. What is odd to me is that if the drip piece becomes fully clogged, the water level goes way down in the reactor. I assume what is happening is that the pressure created is so great, the fill pump can't overcome, and water runs back through the fill pump. Though it might happen in some circumstances, I don't think CO2 pressure will help create a pocket unless you're talking a good bit of pressure. I run my Carbondoser to where the solenoid opens every 3+ seconds, and I have my low side pressure set to between 9 and 10 PSI. If I made the solenoid turn on more often or significantly increased the low side pressure, my pH would be way too low. I'm certainly not saying that is a bad thing in that my last 5 lb CO2 bottle lasted me almost 9 months, though that is a little misleading as I also dose kalk at night. Anyway, it would be nice if I could figure out a way to keep the water level in the reactor at the proper level.

 

[AVAST Marine]

There is no "proper" level. It will self adjust based on the ph you set. The air pocket is mostly undissolved co2 so if you have a smaller amount of undissolved co2 it is not really an issue, it just means demand is low. Generally anything above 1" from the bottom to 1" from the top is normal. Now some of this is thrown out the window when making the choice to use a different feed pump or eliminate the flow restrictor. The entire flow through dynamic relies on all parts of the system (which is why we include them all). Not saying this is the issue here, but it is helpful for us when troubleshooting a issue to understand if all of the parts are being used as intended or not.

That said, are you experiencing inconsistent or irregular performance with the alk/calcium addition from the reactor?

 

[Crashjack]

There is no "proper" level. It will self adjust based on the ph you set. The air pocket is mostly undissolved co2 so if you have a smaller amount of undissolved co2 it is not really an issue, it just means demand is low. Generally anything above 1" from the bottom to 1" from the top is normal. Now some of this is thrown out the window when making the choice to use a different feed pump or eliminate the flow restrictor. The entire flow through dynamic relies on all parts of the system (which is why we include them all). Not saying this is the issue here, but it is helpful for us when troubleshooting a issue to understand if all of the parts are being used as intended or not.

That said, are you experiencing inconsistent or irregular performance with the alk/calcium addition from the reactor?

My water level always ends up at the very top, and I use the flow restrictor and pump that came with the unit.
As far as the performance is concerned, I can't complain. I use a small amount of CO2 and have to refill the media (e.g. top-off the media) about every three months. I do run in tandem with your stirrer, dosing kalk evening thru morning so that obviously helps replenish Ca/alk.

Though I had some other issues, the biggest being cracks near the top, I really like the unit. It has a small footprint, has a simple and inexpensive feed pump and flow restrictor, and does the job. The biggest issues with the high water level are: 1) You really have to screw the lid on tight and add silicon grease to the o-ring to keep it from leaking, which I guess wouldn’t be an issue if the water level never got that high, and 2) The reactor pH drifts downward the lower the level of the media gets. This would be a bigger issue if I used CO2 set points to manage the reactor. Since I only use CO2 set points as a fail-safe, keeping my Carbondoser ‘on’ all the time, I just have to keep going into my controller’s settings and lowering those set points to keep my Carbondoser from shutting-off inadvertently.

 

[AVAST Marine]

My water level always ends up at the very top, and I use the flow restrictor and pump that came with the unit.
As far as the performance is concerned, I can't complain. I use a small amount of CO2 and have to refill the media (e.g. top-off the media) about every three months. I do run in tandem with your stirrer, dosing kalk evening thru morning so that obviously helps replenish Ca/alk.

Though I had some other issues, the biggest being cracks near the top, I really like the unit. It has a small footprint, has a simple and inexpensive feed pump and flow restrictor, and does the job. The biggest issues with the high water level are: 1) You really have to screw the lid on tight and add silicon grease to the o-ring to keep it from leaking, which I guess wouldn’t be an issue if the water level never got that high, and 2) The reactor pH drifts downward the lower the level of the media gets. This would be a bigger issue if I used CO2 set points to manage the reactor. Since I only use CO2 set points as a fail-safe, keeping my Carbondoser ‘on’ all the time, I just have to keep going into my controller’s settings and lowering those set points to keep my Carbondoser from shutting-off inadvertently.

What ph is the reactor at during your normal use?

 

[Crashjack]

What ph is the reactor at during your normal use?

After re-filling, I run around 6.8. I say "around" because pH drifts up during daylight hours and drifts down at night. This last time, before re-filling, my reactor pH was running 6.45 - 6.5. Now, near the end (e.g. soon before re-filling) some pH decrease was due to increasing low-side PSI, which becomes necessary with less media. However, the drift downward starts long before getting to the re-fill point. In fact when the pH decrease first happened, I reduced my low-side pressure trying to hold the pH, which resulted in an alkalinity drop.

 

[AVAST Marine]

Is there a reason you choose not to use the ph controller to maintain your desired ph? I wouldn't change pressure on regulator, it will definitely change the operation and make things more complex. With this design we fix all the variables, input water flow, input water pressure, outlet water pressure and flow and assume co2 pressure is fixed, this leaves only ph to worry about. The benefit to this is you only have to change 1 variable toi increase/decrease output alkalinity.