Little GIant Pump Opinion

[Anchor]

I am starting to collect (in my typical cheap manner) things to put together a reef system. I picked up a Little Giant 3E-12N pump. Oil Filled Mag drive 540 gph @ 1ft. Can be run external or submerged. It was free.. it is amazing the things you find in the dumpsters at work on lab cleanup days.

Any opinions?

I have also procured several (3) regulators with gages. Max capacity of 3200 pisg? and several smaller gages. I am still not sure how I intend to dose the tank with Ca but may keep one .. if anyone is interested let me know. they are Fisher Scientific gages and were used primarily for Helium, O2 and I think I have a hefty one that was used with Nitrogen. The ones I have seen the chem lab use with N2 were somewhat different so I am unsure if that was its use.

I have also gotten a 24 inch section of 6 inch diamter lexan tube. Would 24 inches at this diameter be a reasonable replacement for the 36 intotal length I have been reading for the other DIY kalk dosers? I also had an idea involving using a vortex mixer (stir bar and stir plate) instead of a powerhead. I have not read anything yet to deter me from using this .. anyone have an opinion on that? I will try to draw up a picture and explain it more later. I am sure this was thought of before but again I have found no info on this method/idea.

Anchor

[WildPraire]

Hello!
I don't have any valuable input on any of the questions that you ask.... however I did want to welcome you, sounds like you live very close to us!

Sue

[David Grigor]

Stir bar style Kalk reactors are pretty common. If you don't put anything on the bottom though the bar friction does wear down the acrylic.

Gauges as long as the psi shows pretty low graduations so you can dial in below 8psi pretty easily should work. It may or may not have a needle valve on it which you will need. Typically Gauges for CA reactors use 1/4" tubing.

[Anchor]

Had not thought much about bottom wear. Anyone know where I can get ceramic disks? About a 2 inch Diameter 1/4 thick should do it.

Anchor

[geshields]

Use UHMW, that is what I use on mine....

Greg

[spazz]

if you got some pumps from a lab, they might be contaminated with chemicals. these chemicals can leach out of the plastic pores and kill your fish and corals. no mater how well you clean them up, they can still have residue in them. i wouldnt want to see you put together a nice system just to see it crash. just my opinion though.






scott L

[Anchor]

Well, the pump was used for mixing a slurry of Phosphoric acid and a few other etchants. I have it on authority that the plastics on th pump should not leach anything as they should be inert to what it was pumping. In eihter case I was going to run it with DI water for some time and test for Phosphates.

Geshields, What are you calling UHMW?

Anchor

[geshields]

UHMW is Ultra High Magnetic Weight plastic. You can get it at any of the local plastic suppliers. It is pretty much frictionless.

Greg