Re: CO2 Reactor

[Erik Olson <erik at thekrib_com>]

On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, David Terrell wrote:

> Hey all, lurkin for a while, but I have a set of questions now =)  I was
> wondering if anyone had seen the CO2 reactor design on thekrib(
> http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/reactor.html) and had already tried
> it?

As the originator of the article, yes, I've tried it. :)

>  I understand the general idea of the design, but where does the
> water come from?

The water comes from either the tank or a sump, and must be pumped somehow
into the reactor.  I put it in my sump, and I just take a little bit of
the return water (most of which is destined for the tank) for the reactor.  
Sumpless designs, like Tom Barr's, use a small Rio pump in the main tank
to get the water to the reactor, which then flows back into the main tank.

>  It says in the directions to tap the sump return using
> a 'drip irrigation tap.'  WTF is that? =)

A drip irrigation tap is a little plastic do-dad with hose barbs on both
sides that you can find at any gardening store in the sprinkler area.  
It's used for drip irrigation (duh).  If you have a flexible main return
hose, you can poke a small hole in it and jam one of the barbs into the
side of the hose.  The other barb is shoved into a standard airline tubing
that runs to the reactor Then this will allow you to essentially "tap" a
small bit of the water off the side of the main hose.

Incidentally, I have long since refined my design, switched back to
injecting CO2 and water both from the top, and now have a nicer PVC
manifold to control which water goes to the tank & which goes to the
reactor.  See http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/People/Darn/darn4.html

  - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com