Bagged Chemipure reactor for a nano reef tank with limited space!

I have a jbj nano 28 and I built a filter basket for it with a larger center chamber for Chaeto and I run Purigen in the bottom chamber and floss in the top chamber so I wanted a good way to run Chemipure Elite so I built this reactor. This thing works great forcing most of the water through the chemipure and not around it. Here is what I did.

I got a 2" clear mailer tube and cut it 10" long and cut a piece of 1/8" plexiglass for the bottom I cut it 2-1/4" x 2-1/4" square. I purchsaed a Via Aqua 80 submersible pump from ebay for $9.99 shipped. I originally built this as a media reactor with a nylon bolt that went the length of the tube. I glued two nylon nuts stacked on top of each other on the bottom and I could screw the nylon all thread bolt into these nuts. I found two plastic bottle caps, I think they were medicine bottle caps and drilled several holes in each and then I cut two pieces of foam to go with these for the top and bottom of the media chamber. Anyway when I decided to use this with the Chemipure in the bags, I removed the center nylon bolt and dividers, it all just unscrews from the nuts on bottom.

I then took another piece of nylon bolt ( I got this nylon all thread and nuts from ebay too) and cut it about four inches long and glued a plastic water bottle cap on bottom and I found an old 250ml jar that held Purigen and cut the neck that had the threads for the screw on top off and superglued these threads to the top of the mailer tube, this gave me the screw on top and the nylon rod keeps the Chemipure from rising up.

For the water to get out of the tube, I cut a rectangular hole just below where the water line of the rear chamber stays in my tank so when the pump is on the water runs out this hole in the mailer.

It really works well, I just unscrew the cap and work the chemipure down into the tube, replace the cap, insert the whole thing into chamber three on the tank and plug it up. Now my water is actually getting forced through the Chemipure.


Reactor2
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Reactor in place in my nano!
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Nice Work! Thanks for sharing...


What is a mailer tube and where did you find it.

BigBlue wrote:Nice Work! Thanks for sharing...


What is a mailer tube and where did you find it.

A mailer tube is a clear piece of plastic tube kinda thin used to mail items through the mail. Kinda funny how I came acros it, I found a place on the web for ordering all kinds of stuff for mailing like boxes and such, well they had a link to order a sample of thier products so I ordered a sample mailer tube. They sent it to me free of charge, it was 2" x 12", so hey can't argue with that. You could use clear 2" pvc but that stuff is expensive even on ebay.

DonnieP wrote:

BigBlue wrote:Nice Work! Thanks for sharing...


What is a mailer tube and where did you find it.

A mailer tube is a clear piece of plastic tube kinda thin used to mail items through the mail. Kinda funny how I came acros it, I found a place on the web for ordering all kinds of stuff for mailing like boxes and such, well they had a link to order a sample of thier products so I ordered a sample mailer tube. They sent it to me free of charge, it was 2" x 12", so hey can't argue with that. You could use clear 2" pvc but that stuff is expensive even on ebay.

Do you have a link to the website for the free mailer tube?

Sorry
I didn't keep a link but you can search "clear plastic mailer tube sample" on Google and find several there. It can also be built from one of the 2" gravel cleaners as another member has done.

Thats awesome! I learn something new everyday!

Donnie - how often do you change your chemipure on your nano? What brand are you using?

First change was at six months, I plan on changing it every six months, this stuff lasts a long time. I use the chemipure elite. I have used regular chemipure for decades, this stuff is kinda magical, it is really some good stuff.

does it tumble in the bag, i was always told it should tumble a bit to be the mose effective.

No, Chemipure does not tumble in the bag, its really not made to be in a reactor, it is more for passive filtration or placed in a canister filter. I did build an extra part for my reactor to use carbon and such without being in a bag. I have been planning on trying the chemipure in that without the bag, it would tumble in there. I did notice the other day that water had been channeling in the reactor after I changed to new chemipure, I didn't notice this on the first bag I used, it may have been because of a crease in the bag when I put it in there. I rearranged the bag and it is working fine now.

donnie im having trouble keepin my nano tank under 80 degrees i keep the heater at 72 but it still didnt work so i just turned it off and my water was great and it was 75 degrees before i put the gulf rock in the tank also everything on the rocks died the rocks smell horrible too any suggestions ? it spent four days out the water i guess it was too long

I'd do several large water changes until your test results read 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite. If you can see things that are dead go ahead and pull them out.

As for temp... What kind of lighting do you have on the tank? If you can, raise the lights some. Try pointing a powerhead on the surface to get more surface agitation. Blow a fan in between the lights and the waters surface. If it's enclosed in a canopy open it to get some fresh air in there.

ive done a few water changes and i scrubbed the dead stuff off the rocks im goin to do another i did one yesterday and now my nitrite levels are at 5.0

Nitrates are 5? Or nitrites? If nitrites are at 5 I'd keep doing them. Even up to 60% a day.

yeah that little glass tube turned deep purple

Oh man. That stinks! ... literally. It's a ruthless cycle... literally.

The more things that die... the more ammonia and nitrites you get... causing more to die... and more ammonia... and more to die. Keep doing the big water changes to try to keep the cycle from continuing.

can i just let it run its course just wait it out and then at the end of the week do a big water change and then just scrape the dead off this is getting to be a pain ... the water never heated up before like this and the water stinks i did a water change and two hours later the water was stinking again im about to just pull the rock out and let it sit in a bucket with a powerhead for a week or two

southernlost
Water changes will help but you gotta let it do its cycle. If all you have in there is the liverock, I would let it do its thing, if you keep changing to much water you will kill the cycle, its gotta have ammonia to break down to nitrite and then nitrate. Like Matt said, if you see dead stuff just siphon it out with a turkey baster or something. What I did on mine was run a hot magnum filter on it, this will pick up dead stuff and clean up the water. If you don't have one, you can gladly borrow mine, this will do you more good than anything else.