# my acrylic diy co2 reactor



## jamesbrokman10 (Nov 4, 2005)

Here are some pics of my diy acrylic co2 reactor built with 2" acrylic tubing and bio balls built in, i still have to drill and tap the holes and add the fittings and hook up the feed lines but too tired tonight too go to the hardware store to get parts, but in total the most expensive thing was the weld on #16 acrylic glue A whole $7.00, So in total i have about $18 in the whole thing, i was going to use pvc to make 3 of them but i would of had $60 in it.


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## Dewmazz (Sep 6, 2005)

WOW! Very nice! I really should get some more practice with fabrication and DIY projects. My projects usually come out looking like, um, yeah...


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

Add a tube inside each of the tubes for CO2 bubbling. Add the M-16 glue to seal it. Then go back after the glue is dried(often it shrinks dramatically later, you'll see) and add more as needed.

This must be a decent sized tank for 3 of them.
I'd run one hard and then tweak with the others.

The best reason to use more than one on a larger tank is setting the bubble rate.

Make sure to feed the effluent water from the reactors right into nthr suction side of the return pump.

Place the pumps that will send the water into these as far as possible from the return pump also to minimize cross over.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Hey, well done. What tools did you use?


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Interesting...

How are they going to be used? in line one after the other?


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

They will be used in parallel.
You can buy the routed tops or use simple square tops and glue with cap glue and then spot with the thickened glue. A chop saw will cut the tubes to length and then good sanding, namely a disc or a belt sander to smooth the edges down to get a good seal.

The edges need to be even for the cap glue to work well.

Most places will sand, drill and chop the parts for you for extra. 

You can use one large reactor if wanted to, say a 20" x 4" with about 600 gph going through it.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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