Phosphate reactor question
 

Does anyone know of a reason why a phosphate reactor could not be used
completely submerged? I'm thinking of hooking one up directly to a powerhead and
dropping it in the trash can I use to mix up water for water changes. That way
the phosphates will never get into my tank in the first place.

George Patterson
Those who do not study History are doomed to repeat it. Those who DO
study History are doomed to watch every one else repeat it.

Phosphate reactor question
 

Sorry I cant help with this---is the Phosphate Reactor an alternative to an
RO filter?

"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:jOR5h.1582$tb2.1163@trnddc08...
Does anyone know of a reason why a phosphate reactor could not be used
completely submerged? I'm thinking of hooking one up directly to a
powerhead and dropping it in the trash can I use to mix up water for water
changes. That way the phosphates will never get into my tank in the first
place.

George Patterson
Those who do not study History are doomed to repeat it. Those who DO
study History are doomed to watch every one else repeat it.

Phosphate reactor question
 

* StringerBell wrote, On 11/12/2006 10:41 PM:
Sorry I cant help with this---is the Phosphate Reactor an alternative to an
RO filter?

No. It just removes phosphate.

Phosphate reactor question
 

Didnt mean to digress from the original post:
"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:jOR5h.1582$tb2.1163@trnddc08...

Does anyone know of a reason why a phosphate reactor could not be used
completely submerged? I'm thinking of hooking one up directly to a powerhead
and
dropping it in the trash can I use to mix up water for water changes. That
way
the phosphates will never get into my tank in the first place.

Phosphate reactor question
 

"George Patterson" wrote in message news:jOR5h.1582$tb2.1163@trnddc08...
Does anyone know of a reason why a phosphate reactor could not be used
completely submerged? I'm thinking of hooking one up directly to a powerhead and
dropping it in the trash can I use to mix up water for water changes. That way
the phosphates will never get into my tank in the first place.

I cannot think of a reason why not submerge it, but also,
I cannot think of a reason why phosphates would get into the clean water.
Especially if you are using RO/DI filters to prepare your salt mix.

Let's not get paranoic - you add more phosphates to your tank
with one feeding than you would with the filtered tap water...

Phosphate reactor question
 

StringerBell wrote:
Sorry I cant help with this---is the Phosphate Reactor an alternative to an
RO filter?

Not really, but it is in my case. The layout of my house makes an RO filter not
an attractive option, but my tap water has about 0.5 mg/L PO4. That builds up in
the tank. I can avoid that by buying bottled water, but hauling 30 gallons of
water home is a pain.

From looking at photos of reactors like the Kent unit, I don't see any reason
why I can't hook up a powerhead to one and just toss it in the water. I'd like
to see if anyone else knows of one.

George Patterson
Those who do not study History are doomed to repeat it. Those who DO
study History are doomed to watch every one else repeat it.

Phosphate reactor question
 

Pszemol wrote:

I cannot think of a reason why phosphates would get into the clean water.

I understand that some water companies add them for some reason. In any case, my
tap water tests out at .5 mg/L. My bottled drinking water tests out at 0 with
the same test kit.

Especially if you are using RO/DI filters to prepare your salt mix.

Not an attractive option in my house. You and I went over this last year in this
forum.

George Patterson
Those who do not study History are doomed to repeat it. Those who DO
study History are doomed to watch every one else repeat it.

Phosphate reactor question
 

"George Patterson" wrote in message news:P916h.3973$l%2.920@trnddc05...
Especially if you are using RO/DI filters to prepare your salt mix.

Not an attractive option in my house. You and I went over this
last year in this forum.

Wel.. sorry for not remembering you - if you do not have RO/DI
filter than you will have phosphates as a chemical rust protection
added there to safe iron pipes...

Phosphate reactor question
 

George Patterson wrote on 11/13/2006 11:35 AM:
Pszemol wrote:

Especially if you are using RO/DI filters to prepare your salt mix.

Not an attractive option in my house. You and I went over this last year
in this forum.


What's was the name of the topic?

I'd like to see why you can't put an RO in your house.
Surely there is a way to get one in your house.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Phosphate reactor question
 

Wayne Sallee wrote in
k.net:

George Patterson wrote on 11/13/2006 11:35 AM:
Pszemol wrote:

Especially if you are using RO/DI filters to prepare your salt mix.

Not an attractive option in my house. You and I went over this last
year in this forum.


What's was the name of the topic?

I'd like to see why you can't put an RO in your house.
Surely there is a way to get one in your house.


I remember reading this one... Here ya go, Wayne;

http://tinyurl.com/y5dr8z


DaveZ
Atom Weaver

Phosphate reactor question
 

Wayne Sallee wrote:

I'd like to see why you can't put an RO in your house. Surely there is a
way to get one in your house.

Ok, we'll go over it again.

My house is a two story, but, because it's on a sloping lot, both floors are
ground floors. Living quarters are upstairs, which is also street level. The
aquarium is in the living room. Starting at one end of the top floor, we have
the living room at the front and the kitchen at the back. Next we have the front
hall(f) and dining room(b), next we have one bedroom(f) and two bathrooms(b),
and we have two additional bedrooms at the end. Water sources on this floor are
the two bathrooms and the kitchen. The kitchen and one bath "belong" to my wife
(really!) and the other bath is too small for installation of a filter, much
less the 32 gallon trash can in which I usually mix water.

Even assuming I could convince my wife to let me set up equipment in the
kitchen, there's no space left for the filter anywhere around the sink. That
leaves Elisabeth's bathroom.

This has two sinks, and there's enough room for the filter underneath one of
them, but there's no room for any sort of container for the water (the room is
very narrow). That pretty much does it for the upstairs.

The downstairs is complicated by the fact that it's below the level of the
sewage line, so any drain line must be pumped up to the street level. There's a
family room, half bath, furnace room, laundry closet, and garage down there. The
closest water supply to the tank would be the laundry. That backs onto the
furnace room, so the filter could be mounted in that area with a bit of trouble.
I would then need to find some place to set up the water container. The furnace
room is pretty full, what with the beer fridge, freezer, Elisabeth's yarn stash,
my quarantine tank and aquarium equipment, etc., but that's the best target for it.

Unfortunately, that leaves me with 25 gallons of freshly mixed salt water one
story below the tank and one room away from the stairs. Even assuming that I
take the trouble to set this apparatus up, I will still be faced with buying a
pump capable of pumping the water at least 15' up through at least 60' of
plumbing. All of the plumbing must be temporary, such that I can run a water
change in about 15 minutes and leave no trace (outside the furnace room) that it
has been done. Boring holes through the floors or walls is out of the question,
even if I were willing to do it. Having

So. If someone comes up with an RO filter that hooks up to the kitchen sink,
generates 25 gallons of water in 30 minutes, and doesn't cost the earth, I'm
interested. Until then, I'll keep doing work-arounds.

George Patterson
Those who do not study History are doomed to repeat it. Those who DO
study History are doomed to watch every one else repeat it.

Phosphate reactor question
 

George, I can't put it in my home either. No basements in Texas and a wife
that decorates. There isn't a plumbing area that I can hook up an RO/DI nor
handle the water output.

I'll move in 4 or 5 years and I'll be keeping the aquarium in mind.



"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:IYv6h.2028$Jd3.1589@trnddc07...
Wayne Sallee wrote:

I'd like to see why you can't put an RO in your house. Surely there is a
way to get one in your house.

Ok, we'll go over it again.

My house is a two story, but, because it's on a sloping lot, both floors
are ground floors. Living quarters are upstairs, which is also street
level. The aquarium is in the living room. Starting at one end of the top
floor, we have the living room at the front and the kitchen at the back.
Next we have the front hall(f) and dining room(b), next we have one
bedroom(f) and two bathrooms(b), and we have two additional bedrooms at
the end. Water sources on this floor are the two bathrooms and the
kitchen. The kitchen and one bath "belong" to my wife (really!) and the
other bath is too small for installation of a filter, much less the 32
gallon trash can in which I usually mix water.

Even assuming I could convince my wife to let me set up equipment in the
kitchen, there's no space left for the filter anywhere around the sink.
That leaves Elisabeth's bathroom.

This has two sinks, and there's enough room for the filter underneath one
of them, but there's no room for any sort of container for the water (the
room is very narrow). That pretty much does it for the upstairs.

The downstairs is complicated by the fact that it's below the level of the
sewage line, so any drain line must be pumped up to the street level.
There's a family room, half bath, furnace room, laundry closet, and garage
down there. The closest water supply to the tank would be the laundry.
That backs onto the furnace room, so the filter could be mounted in that
area with a bit of trouble. I would then need to find some place to set up
the water container. The furnace room is pretty full, what with the beer
fridge, freezer, Elisabeth's yarn stash, my quarantine tank and aquarium
equipment, etc., but that's the best target for it.

Unfortunately, that leaves me with 25 gallons of freshly mixed salt water
one story below the tank and one room away from the stairs. Even assuming
that I take the trouble to set this apparatus up, I will still be faced
with buying a pump capable of pumping the water at least 15' up through at
least 60' of plumbing. All of the plumbing must be temporary, such that I
can run a water change in about 15 minutes and leave no trace (outside the
furnace room) that it has been done. Boring holes through the floors or
walls is out of the question, even if I were willing to do it. Having

So. If someone comes up with an RO filter that hooks up to the kitchen
sink, generates 25 gallons of water in 30 minutes, and doesn't cost the
earth, I'm interested. Until then, I'll keep doing work-arounds.

George Patterson
Those who do not study History are doomed to repeat it. Those who DO
study History are doomed to watch every one else repeat it.

Phosphate reactor question
 

Wayne Sallee wrote:
I'd like to see why you can't put an RO in your house. Surely there is a
way to get one in your house.

George Patterson wrote on Wed, 15 Nov 2006:
Ok, we'll go over it again.
[...]
Until then, I'll keep doing work-arounds.

Sounds like quite a puzzle. With that situation, how do you do water
changes in general? What is your work-around for making and dealing with
25g of salt water?

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't
recognize them. -- Ann Landers (1918-2002)

Phosphate reactor question
 

Don Geddis wrote:

Sounds like quite a puzzle. With that situation, how do you do water
changes in general? What is your work-around for making and dealing with
25g of salt water?

I have a python hose. I set up a 32 gallon trash can beside the aquarium, dump
in a box of Tropic-Marin, hook the python up to the kitchen sink, and fill up
the can. Takes maybe 15 minutes, and I can steal the kitchen for that long. When
it's full, I drop in a powerhead to circulate the water and let it season for
three days. Then I use the python to syphon 25 gallons of water out of the tank
(I use the drain in the laundry closet) and use the powerhead to pump the new
water in.

Obviously, it would be very easy to drop a phosphate reactor in the can while
the water's seasoning, but, as Pszemol points out, it'll be better to just run
one on the main tank every so often.

George Patterson
Those who do not study History are doomed to repeat it. Those who DO
study History are doomed to watch every one else repeat it.

Phosphate reactor question
 

Ok first let's assume you will skip the idea of pumping it
from the basement up to the tank. You can use 5 gallon gas
cans to hall it up stairs. That's no worse than buying
lots of gallons of ro from the store, and hauling it home.

For plumbing from the ro to the drain (could be just
sending it outside), and plumbing to the collection
container, you can use aquarium airline for this. It will
easily hook up to the ro tubing, and will hold up well,
and takes up so little space, and can be tucked neatly
like you do a phone line. Only disadvantage of airline
tubing is that you can't put a lot of pressure on it like
a float valve. You can put a small drain line with airline
hose should the collection container become over filled.


Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets