Manifold for FX5 based on ETK's

[VAtanks]

DIY manifold with inline CO2 Reactor and the other spot will be my hydor inline heater. ETK posted his last night. So thanks for the ideas and help ETK. I will take lots of pics during the assembly and post the final product with a parts list.

[denske]

Looks great, how did this work out for you?

[accordztech]

You should incorporate a bleed valve to get rid of trapped air. Mine is some what like yours and on a straight section before the reactor, I put a TEE to a ball valve. That way I can bleed the air out of the system. BEST THING I EVER DONE! lol.

[VAtanks]

I should post the pictures I have of it up and running It works great inproved the flow on my FX5 because instead of all the water going through the heater it now splits between reactor and the heater and with the ball valves I can really dial in the amount of water through each. The bottom is where the water comes leave the manifold is by my feline at the top of the pic and the water enters down at the bottome of the pic. Its actually upside down, forgot to orient myself correctly when taking the photo. Feeding water at the top and out the bottom, one made the reactor work correctly and it kept air out of the heater, but yes a air bleed would have been a nice addition.

[marcnc]

Nice, this just might be the way to go with my FX5 and won't have to buy another filter either.

That looks like 1/2 PVC, is that correct? Were you able to use the hose that came with the FX5?

Thanks

[VAtanks]

1" PVC the one trunk has reducers down to 5/8" to a barb for the Hydor inline 300w heater the other side with the CO2 reactor is what ever you want it to be mine was 5/8" since then i replaced the CO2 reactor with a uv filter but principle is stil lthe same. It gave you flexability to reduce it down to what ever size you need and the ball valves let you control how much water through each device and the rest bipasses around the other two arms. A note of Caution put an air purge valve on the output side.....makes filling the whole thing easier. ETK's version of this has a insta mix master inline instead of a DIY CO2 reactor and appears to be more compact. I used 1" hose the FX5 came with originally then I swapped it out for the reinforced 1" black water line.

[xmas_one]

Wondering if it may be a good idea to run the intake to the manifold at the bottom and the output at the top. You'll need to put 180's on the the ends of your reactor to get it to work this way.

[jarvitron]

Just my opinion, but if you can get some PVC hose barbs instead of those brass ones you'd have a zero-copper loop there.

[VAtanks]

I used the brass ones because that is what they had in stock, but the pvc hose barbs just as good.

[marcnc]

I think I have decided to go with manifold, and skip the second filter and hope it works. I had to get custom light for my canopy and really took big bite out of my budget for 2nd filter.

I will share pictures after I build it. I think for mine I will go with 1 inch for the other primary line, but each port I will go with 1/2. 3/4 would be ideal, but I don't have the room in my stand.

[ETK]

Just found this thread, ha! Subscribed...I like the purge valve idea.

[Psycofc1]

Researching stuff for future Fx5 on a 75g, subscribing

[marcnc]

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[marcnc]

So I guess that the general idea. I got all my parts, have brass fittings as well for heater, not shown. The only thing that will really be in the middle of the manifold is the heater. The UV (middle picture) and reactor will be mounted on the back of the stand, and I will just run black tubing from each connect on the manifold to the equipment. Do you guys think that will work? I was also wondering if I should not put the reactor on the manifold, and just put it right after the canister, then to the manifold? Would that be any better?

Will this setup work?

On the far right I will also have 1 inch PVC going up with gate valve, not shown, as it not here yet.

[ETK]

Looks good! Just remember to use tephlon tape on any threaded connections.

I think you will want the reactor on the manifold. Otherwise the flow might be too strong and may push lots of bubbles through without letting them dissolve. I would rather have control over the flow through the reactor.

Since you will be running tubing from the manifold out to the reactor and the UV filter, just make sure you plan it out first and test fit it. Tubing is never as flexible as I expect it to be. For example, in my manifold, i added a pvc elbow so that my flex tubing running to the Ista reacor wouldn't have to turn a corner. That's because when I test fit it without the elbow it didn't really want to bend enough. (see pic showing the added pvc elbow)

Lastly, expect a few very slow leaks at first. I found a couple, but all it took was a little tightening of the hose clamps to fix them. Now everything under the cab is completely dry. Better to wait and see what needs to be tightened rather than crank on all of them beforehand and risk crushing something.