JayP
Valuable Member
I thought I would go ahead and get an early start on the journal for my next build. Still some prep work to complete but I was able to sneak some time in this evening to do some leak testing.
No need for a ton of media on this tank so I'll be using the "Temu" filters I recently talked about; one as just a full foam prefilter and the other as part foam, part matrix. I failed to mention, when I posted my initial unboxing of the temu filters, that they do come in 2 sizes for each configuration, a 200 series, and the slightly larger 240 series. I think using the smaller 200 as the prefilter will work well in this setup. I was really surprised to see how much the foam expanded once it got wet. I may actually remove the top portion of foam in the filter with the matrix. Also, I confirmed the Netlea valves do work on the Temu filters.
I'm going with the MDP-2500 pump which may seem overkill for a 22g tank, but since it's 90cm in length, I want to make sure I have good flow end-to-end, and the 1500 pump I tried wasn't giving me quite what I wanted. I still also have to go through an inline heater as well, with several elbow fittings mixed in. I'll be able to adjust this pump down to just what I want. I'm also using the 3D printed barbs I modeled with the pump. I initially had issues with my elbow fittings leaking just as @renesis did on their high tech build. After seeing renesis's fix of coating the elbow with epoxy, I was about to try the same but realized I had a small can of spray-on Flex Seal so thought I'd give that a try. So far, it seems to be working fine on the elbow fitting. I do have a small leak on the output straight fitting but I think that's a different issue.
Otherwise, no other leaks which surprised me as I was expecting some on my DIY CO2 reactor which is a bit different design than my previous builds. It's working great and I want to give a shoutout to @Yugang for the idea of simply using some teflon sealing tape to seal the PVC caps to the Acrylic tube. You don't even need many wraps. I made the mistake of using too much on one end and when I tried to take it back off, it was quite a struggle, almost as if I had glued it, so trust me, as long as your cap I.D. matches your pipe O.D., a few wraps should do the trick.
More to come.
No need for a ton of media on this tank so I'll be using the "Temu" filters I recently talked about; one as just a full foam prefilter and the other as part foam, part matrix. I failed to mention, when I posted my initial unboxing of the temu filters, that they do come in 2 sizes for each configuration, a 200 series, and the slightly larger 240 series. I think using the smaller 200 as the prefilter will work well in this setup. I was really surprised to see how much the foam expanded once it got wet. I may actually remove the top portion of foam in the filter with the matrix. Also, I confirmed the Netlea valves do work on the Temu filters.
I'm going with the MDP-2500 pump which may seem overkill for a 22g tank, but since it's 90cm in length, I want to make sure I have good flow end-to-end, and the 1500 pump I tried wasn't giving me quite what I wanted. I still also have to go through an inline heater as well, with several elbow fittings mixed in. I'll be able to adjust this pump down to just what I want. I'm also using the 3D printed barbs I modeled with the pump. I initially had issues with my elbow fittings leaking just as @renesis did on their high tech build. After seeing renesis's fix of coating the elbow with epoxy, I was about to try the same but realized I had a small can of spray-on Flex Seal so thought I'd give that a try. So far, it seems to be working fine on the elbow fitting. I do have a small leak on the output straight fitting but I think that's a different issue.
Otherwise, no other leaks which surprised me as I was expecting some on my DIY CO2 reactor which is a bit different design than my previous builds. It's working great and I want to give a shoutout to @Yugang for the idea of simply using some teflon sealing tape to seal the PVC caps to the Acrylic tube. You don't even need many wraps. I made the mistake of using too much on one end and when I tried to take it back off, it was quite a struggle, almost as if I had glued it, so trust me, as long as your cap I.D. matches your pipe O.D., a few wraps should do the trick.
More to come.
