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Balloon Fish · 08-19-2005, 11:35 AM

Hey everyone,
Lately my co2 ladder has been the home to many snails and they would always get in the way of the bubbles and sometimes the dummer/bigger snails would get stuck in the holes and they would stop the co2 lader for hours at a time so I've decided on making a powerhead reactor. I didnt wanna go with the usual powerhead reactor where the water shoots downwards into the siphon tube because that was way too tall to stick in my 10" tall 20g long tank soo i decided to go with the tornado version

. Heres a link to what it was supposed to look like http://www.floridadriftwood.com/prod...17&1=253&3=404 the price for it is $50 which is one of the main reasons i didnt buy it and also it looked sort of easy to make.
Here is to give you an idea of the reactor and the sizes of everything you need-

Here is what you need-
1)Powerhead (i bought the Marineland Maxi-jet 400 with 110gph flow)
2)2in thick siphon tube
3)silicone sealant or hot glue
4)bottom piece of a UGF filter or a 1in. thick clear tube about 1.5in tall
5)at least 2in of airline tubing but it depends on what length you need to connect to your co2 system
6)piece of clear plastic that is big enough to cut out a 2in in diameter hole (you can find this on packages that are made of plastic and just cut off a piece)
7)scissors (not much use for it but just to cut the tubing

8)knife or saw
9)drill or a long lighter (the ones for barbeques)

First you want to get the piece of plastic and cut out a hole that is big enough to cover the end of the siphon tube nicely.

Then you want to cut a nice hole in the center of the 2in. circular piece of plastic and stick the airline tubing 1in into the plastic then hot glue or silicone it.

After its dry get the smaller plastic tube or the bottom piece of the UGF filter tube and glue it to the 2in circular piece with the open slits touching the 2in circular piece and make sure you are gluing it to the side with the 1in. of airline tubing and not the side where it is going to be the top of the chamber. If you are using the UGF piece then you will have to cut off the little teeth that sticks out (see pic below for teeth). If you are using another tube you need to get the knife or saw and cut 3 to 4 slits about 1/4cm to 1/2cm thick and 3/4cm tall into the end of the tube so the bubbles can go through it. If you notice in the picture there is some blue and that is where you want to glue the 1in tube to the 2in circular piece and try not to cover up the slits so the co2 bubbles can come out

Next you want to cut the siphon tube. You can use the saw or one of those really sharp steak knives. You want to cut on the bottom half of the siphon and not the top part where it connects to the smaller tube that you suck on to do water changes and leave enough to make another one just in case you mess the first one up. The tube should be around 4in long.

Once you have cut the 4in siphon tube you want to get a lighter or the drill and drill a whole about 1.5in down from the top of the siphon tube but make sure the hole isn't past the 1in. tube because the hole you are drilling is for the outlet of the powerhead to go through and you want the water to be revolving around the 1in tube in the middle of the chamber. When i made mine i used the lighter because i didn't have a big enough drill bit. If you decide to melt a whole the hole won't just appear so you would need to get a tooth pick or something and poke the melted material and twiddle it out then remove the melted plastic after it dries so. Dont be afraid to make a bigger hole because you will eventually hot glue it or silicone it anyways.

Next you want to make a burp hole because if you are turning this off at night and you are using a diy co2 mix then the co2 will just keep coming so drilling a burp hole to let out the co2 is a good idea and also this will help the powerhead start up in the morning or else there will be a big bubble inside the powerhead propeller and water can't be shot into the chamber. If you dont know what i mean i'll explain it later when you mount it onto the glass. For now melt a nice small hole about the size of the airline tubing hole 2.5in down from the top of the siphon tube. You can look at the layout at the very top for reference if you don't know where to place anything.

Now that you are done with the burp hole you want to connect the top of the chamber (2in. circular piece and the 1in. tube) to the top of the siphon tube. Make sure you glue the top of the chamber on nicely because if its weak then the whole top chamber could burst open at night when the co2 collects because the reactor is off. Also make sure there are no holes because lots of co2 can escape and the reactor won't be effective.

Next you want to stick the outlet of the powerhead into the hole you created earlier in the siphon tube and try to stick it at an angle where the outlet shoots towards one side of the chamber that way the water will be going in one direction making the reactor much more effective. (see picture below)

Now you want to glue the powerhead and the chamber together and you might need to hold onto it for a while until the hot glue or the silicone is sturdy enough to hold onto both pieces.

Now if you used silicone you might want to wait around 48hours and if you use hot glue you can go ahead and stick the powerhead in after a few more minutes.

When you place the powerhead onto the wall you want it to be tilted counterclockwise around 45 degrees. The reason for this is so when the timer turns off the powerhead at night and if you are using a diy co2 mix the co2 keeps coming into the chamber so a big bubble will collect and eventually the bubble will fill into the powerhead propeller chamber and in the morning the propellar chamber will be filled with co2 and it can't start up shooting water into the co2 chamber which makes it worthless after day 1. (see picture below)
Not Tilted, the co2 (the white part) fills into the propellar chamber and doesn't allow the propellar to touch any water so it can't start (blue = water).

Tilted, it allows the water to get into the propellar chamber allowing the propellars to reach the water and shoot it into the co2 chamber.

If think about the placement of the burp hole your first conclusion would probably be to stick the burp hole up higher so the co2 doesn't fill into the propellar chamber even if the reactor was placed on the wall upright but if you do that then too much co2 will be flying out of the hole and escaping the chamber leaving a little at the top which makes the reactor much less effective so sticking it lower in the chamber is what i came up to fix the problem with the propellars not being able to start up.

I think it depends on the type of powerhead but if you use the marineland that i got then the tilting is needed but maybe some other powerheads might work differntly and wont need the tilting so you might have to modify the design a little yourself.

Another optional piece to the tornado reactor is the sponge that goes at the end of the co2 chamber. The sponge will act as a guard so none of your fish get into the chamber at night while it is off and in the morning enjoy a nice spin in it when the lights go on. Also the sponge keeps in more co2 bubbles to be diffused but i have found that if you have the burp hole then the sponge isn't needed cuase some of the co2 can leave that way anyways but i rarely see any bigger bubbles leave, only tiny ones.

This whole reactor cost me around $21 because I had everything i need already but just needed the powerhead reactor. If you didnt have any of the material it would be around $30 to make it because the powerhead is around $20 depending on what kind you buy and where and silicone is like $2 and the tube is around $6 at walmart if i'm not mistaken and some other parts you might need.

This design that i made is just to give you an idea and most likely if you wanted to make this you will have to modify it a little because yours and my tank aren't the same and the place you are planning on puting it might not have room to tilt it so you'll have to figure a way around it

also the length of the co2 tube sticking out of the chamber will have to be decided by you because i dont know where your co2 system is set up and the distance between the reactor and the system.

I'll try to get a picture of my reactor later tonight so you guys can see the final product in action but not now cause i hid it behind a piece of driftwood and i dont plan on starting the water change right now in the morning.

Hope i didnt miss anything and i hope you get how i explained it :/ if not tell me and i can always edit it

08-19-2005, 11:35 AM	#1 (permalink)
Balloon Fish Super Fish Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 3,025	DIY Internal Tornado Reactor Hey everyone, Lately my co2 ladder has been the home to many snails and they would always get in the way of the bubbles and sometimes the dummer/bigger snails would get stuck in the holes and they would stop the co2 lader for hours at a time so I've decided on making a powerhead reactor. I didnt wanna go with the usual powerhead reactor where the water shoots downwards into the siphon tube because that was way too tall to stick in my 10" tall 20g long tank soo i decided to go with the tornado version . Heres a link to what it was supposed to look like http://www.floridadriftwood.com/prod...17&1=253&3=404 the price for it is $50 which is one of the main reasons i didnt buy it and also it looked sort of easy to make. Here is to give you an idea of the reactor and the sizes of everything you need- Here is what you need- 1)Powerhead (i bought the Marineland Maxi-jet 400 with 110gph flow) 2)2in thick siphon tube 3)silicone sealant or hot glue 4)bottom piece of a UGF filter or a 1in. thick clear tube about 1.5in tall 5)at least 2in of airline tubing but it depends on what length you need to connect to your co2 system 6)piece of clear plastic that is big enough to cut out a 2in in diameter hole (you can find this on packages that are made of plastic and just cut off a piece) 7)scissors (not much use for it but just to cut the tubing 8)knife or saw 9)drill or a long lighter (the ones for barbeques) First you want to get the piece of plastic and cut out a hole that is big enough to cover the end of the siphon tube nicely. Then you want to cut a nice hole in the center of the 2in. circular piece of plastic and stick the airline tubing 1in into the plastic then hot glue or silicone it. After its dry get the smaller plastic tube or the bottom piece of the UGF filter tube and glue it to the 2in circular piece with the open slits touching the 2in circular piece and make sure you are gluing it to the side with the 1in. of airline tubing and not the side where it is going to be the top of the chamber. If you are using the UGF piece then you will have to cut off the little teeth that sticks out (see pic below for teeth). If you are using another tube you need to get the knife or saw and cut 3 to 4 slits about 1/4cm to 1/2cm thick and 3/4cm tall into the end of the tube so the bubbles can go through it. If you notice in the picture there is some blue and that is where you want to glue the 1in tube to the 2in circular piece and try not to cover up the slits so the co2 bubbles can come out Next you want to cut the siphon tube. You can use the saw or one of those really sharp steak knives. You want to cut on the bottom half of the siphon and not the top part where it connects to the smaller tube that you suck on to do water changes and leave enough to make another one just in case you mess the first one up. The tube should be around 4in long. Once you have cut the 4in siphon tube you want to get a lighter or the drill and drill a whole about 1.5in down from the top of the siphon tube but make sure the hole isn't past the 1in. tube because the hole you are drilling is for the outlet of the powerhead to go through and you want the water to be revolving around the 1in tube in the middle of the chamber. When i made mine i used the lighter because i didn't have a big enough drill bit. If you decide to melt a whole the hole won't just appear so you would need to get a tooth pick or something and poke the melted material and twiddle it out then remove the melted plastic after it dries so. Dont be afraid to make a bigger hole because you will eventually hot glue it or silicone it anyways. Next you want to make a burp hole because if you are turning this off at night and you are using a diy co2 mix then the co2 will just keep coming so drilling a burp hole to let out the co2 is a good idea and also this will help the powerhead start up in the morning or else there will be a big bubble inside the powerhead propeller and water can't be shot into the chamber. If you dont know what i mean i'll explain it later when you mount it onto the glass. For now melt a nice small hole about the size of the airline tubing hole 2.5in down from the top of the siphon tube. You can look at the layout at the very top for reference if you don't know where to place anything. Now that you are done with the burp hole you want to connect the top of the chamber (2in. circular piece and the 1in. tube) to the top of the siphon tube. Make sure you glue the top of the chamber on nicely because if its weak then the whole top chamber could burst open at night when the co2 collects because the reactor is off. Also make sure there are no holes because lots of co2 can escape and the reactor won't be effective. Next you want to stick the outlet of the powerhead into the hole you created earlier in the siphon tube and try to stick it at an angle where the outlet shoots towards one side of the chamber that way the water will be going in one direction making the reactor much more effective. (see picture below) Now you want to glue the powerhead and the chamber together and you might need to hold onto it for a while until the hot glue or the silicone is sturdy enough to hold onto both pieces. Now if you used silicone you might want to wait around 48hours and if you use hot glue you can go ahead and stick the powerhead in after a few more minutes. When you place the powerhead onto the wall you want it to be tilted counterclockwise around 45 degrees. The reason for this is so when the timer turns off the powerhead at night and if you are using a diy co2 mix the co2 keeps coming into the chamber so a big bubble will collect and eventually the bubble will fill into the powerhead propeller chamber and in the morning the propellar chamber will be filled with co2 and it can't start up shooting water into the co2 chamber which makes it worthless after day 1. (see picture below) Not Tilted, the co2 (the white part) fills into the propellar chamber and doesn't allow the propellar to touch any water so it can't start (blue = water). Tilted, it allows the water to get into the propellar chamber allowing the propellars to reach the water and shoot it into the co2 chamber. If think about the placement of the burp hole your first conclusion would probably be to stick the burp hole up higher so the co2 doesn't fill into the propellar chamber even if the reactor was placed on the wall upright but if you do that then too much co2 will be flying out of the hole and escaping the chamber leaving a little at the top which makes the reactor much less effective so sticking it lower in the chamber is what i came up to fix the problem with the propellars not being able to start up. I think it depends on the type of powerhead but if you use the marineland that i got then the tilting is needed but maybe some other powerheads might work differntly and wont need the tilting so you might have to modify the design a little yourself. Another optional piece to the tornado reactor is the sponge that goes at the end of the co2 chamber. The sponge will act as a guard so none of your fish get into the chamber at night while it is off and in the morning enjoy a nice spin in it when the lights go on. Also the sponge keeps in more co2 bubbles to be diffused but i have found that if you have the burp hole then the sponge isn't needed cuase some of the co2 can leave that way anyways but i rarely see any bigger bubbles leave, only tiny ones. This whole reactor cost me around $21 because I had everything i need already but just needed the powerhead reactor. If you didnt have any of the material it would be around $30 to make it because the powerhead is around $20 depending on what kind you buy and where and silicone is like $2 and the tube is around $6 at walmart if i'm not mistaken and some other parts you might need. This design that i made is just to give you an idea and most likely if you wanted to make this you will have to modify it a little because yours and my tank aren't the same and the place you are planning on puting it might not have room to tilt it so you'll have to figure a way around it also the length of the co2 tube sticking out of the chamber will have to be decided by you because i dont know where your co2 system is set up and the distance between the reactor and the system. I'll try to get a picture of my reactor later tonight so you guys can see the final product in action but not now cause i hid it behind a piece of driftwood and i dont plan on starting the water change right now in the morning. Hope i didnt miss anything and i hope you get how i explained it :/ if not tell me and i can always edit it __________________ 20g Planted Journal 40g Invert Breeding Tank Last edited by Balloon Fish; 08-19-2005 at 12:10 PM.