mulita

That's also true. However, I think that installation is the Key for it. The fixture itself would be more than strong enough to hold the load, however if it is not installed properly this could be a mess.

ferris89

very interesting! keep the good work going!

sonaps

Here is a more recent project. This is a DIY CO2 reactor/ inline heater. I saw someone else put the two together and liked the idea. One upgrade I gave this model is I used a titanium heater. This has two benefits that I see. One, the whole heater is submersed in the water so no hot spots where the water doesn’t move quickly; and two, the temp control and on/off indicator are on the plug, so I see when it’s on and can adjust the temp real easy. I’ll mount the plug near the door for easy viewing/adjusting.



Here is the heater I used. It’s the Azoo 300 watt titanium heater. The heater is much shorter than a normal glass heater which was great for my application, since I needed to fit the pump on top of the unit.



I used a hacksaw blade to cut a slit in a 2” 90° elbow. I slid the heater cord through the slit before gluing.



I used marine 2 part epoxy putty to fill around the cord from the inside and out and to fill the gap from the cut. I found the putty at Ace Hardware, it’s safe for potable water and says right on the package that it bonds to PVC. You can kind of see that in the first pic.

I mounted the heater clip in the center of the PVC elbow using a nylon bolt and nylon spacer. I covered the nylon nut with the epoxy putty as well.



I attached a length of PVC just long enough to cover the heater and mounted the second clip to the top. This section of PVC can be unscrewed for cleaning when needed. I didn’t use the putty to cover the top nut since it will be easier unscrew the pipe if I take off the top clip first. I used a rubber gasket and lots of teflon tape to seal this one.



I attached a valve at the base of heater module using the epoxy putty. The valve has a quick release connection that fits airline. This will be used to lower the water level so that I can remove the whole unit for maintenance, without spilling water everywhere.



When I first tried to screw the arm on after attaching the drain valve I was very disappointed to find that the valve was too long and couldn’t clear the CO2 reactor. I had used a female slip on the heater 90 and a male slip on the CO2 90 to conserve space, leaving little room between the two modules. I was kicking myself for that one. Luckily I was able to clip off the end of the valve to make just enough clearance. Without the end of the valve the airline can be knocked out easily, but it’s not a big deal since I will only be attaching the tubing when I need to drain it.



In the above pic you can also see where the CO2 line will connect. I used a one barb fitting that is used in drip irrigation systems. As it turns out that this barb doesn’t make a watertight fit with my CO2 tubing. Luckily a zip tie took care of that problem easily. As you can see from the first pic, I have a check valve after the barb so I can still unhook the tubing easily when performing maintainance.

Here’s another shot of how the heater is attached.



And to finish this post here is another shot of the completed project. I’ll go into detail of how it’s attached to my plumbing in later posts.

mulita

Very Nice. This is something that I would like to do also to take out Eyesoring from the aquarium. It look really nice and kind of compact. What are its dimensions ? Did you add something inside the reactor are you using bio balls or similar?

Seattle_Aquarist

Hi sonaps,

I like your journal, nice workmanship on the cabinet and hood. I'm especially interested the plumbing...is your tank drilled or ?? Keep up the postings as you progress.

I had the opportunity to visit Eagle River about 6 years ago, nice country!

sonaps

The CO2 side is about 22 inches long (that's how much room I had in my cabinet). The width is about 7 inches (it's in the back of my cabinet now, so it’s kind of hard to get an exact measurement). I didn’t add anything inside the reactor, mainly because I don’t want to have to clean it very often.

sonaps

Thanks Roy, No the tank isn't drilled, I wish it were though. Here is a little about the plumbing:

I bent some 3/4" acrylic tube, as we've seen others do in this forum, for the intake tube. I stuck a screen made for PVC on the end (just slips on and off, got it at my LFS).



I connected that to 3/4” PVC using a compression fitting. Here’s a pic, from some time ago, of the intake side of the plumbing. I bent the long vertical pipe in the middle so most of it’s hidden behind the stand. From the side all you see is the grey compression fitting. You can ignore the pipe on the lower right of the stand. That’s not part of the plumbing. The short vertical pipe will connect to my drain for easy water changes. The pipe that connects bellow the water change valve is 1/2” and is used when I want to connect my gravel vac. The gravel vac. pipe has its own valve and quick connect.




Here’s a close up of the intake side.



Originally I was only going to have one compression fitting for the pH probe/primer, but I didn’t take into consideration how high the probe sticks up and the hood wouldn’t close with it up there. I had to lower the line a bit to get it to fit. The first fitting has a test tube in it to keep it closed. I take the tube out to prime the line.

Here is the line for the gravel vac.



I’ll post more about the rest of the plumbing system when I have more time.

rekles75

Very nice setup, I cant wait for more updates.

Tex Gal

What an amazing job you are doing. Love the cable idea. I would love to have the light evenly spread through out the tank. The clips idea seems like it would work if someone could come up with a type of clip. What you did is so cool, but for ordinary folk like me it's just out of the question...

My hubby just made me a new CO2 reactor. I wanted to separate it from my canister filter and run it and my UV on a separate pump. Trying to supply my CO2 more evenly thru the entire tank. I like your heater combo. That would have been cool to do.

hoppycalif

There are many very good ideas in this thread. It's like a DIY catalog of ideas! The heater installation alone is worth the price of admission.