Back in late January, we came across an interesting new inverted cone biopellet reactor from CAD Lights. Its unique and outside of the box design proved to be a pellet tumbling powerhouse, mixing and churning those polymer pellets and preventing clumping, a real problem with the media’s use. Fast forward a month or so, and we’ve come to find out that CAD Lights wasn’t quite done with the original design of these reactors. To add more control of the flow rates, a 3-way recirculating valve was installed. Looking at this design, the biopellet reactor is starting to look more like a calcium reactor, which isn’t a bad thing.
The new 3-way valve basically allows the end user to set a slow flow rate through the reactor, while at the same time allowing the recirculating pump to keep the pellets suspended and clump-free. This should also allow hobbyists to forgoe the precautionary “use this many pellets per gallon, and slowly add to them over time” methodology that traditional reactors must follow in order to prevent a total system crash. Instead, the conic reactor can be stuffed full of pellets (up to 750ml according to CAD Lights) and the slow flow through rate will keep the aquarium from becoming depleted of oxygen.
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