Reactor....

[RayAllen]

Guys ive been running a bag of carbon in my Reactor for a while. My last water change I figured I could actually just place the carbon in a section of my sump where the water is forced to the next chamber which has worked out great.

With that said I have a 20" Ace built Reactor cleaned and sitting empty. Id like to run some other media. Besides Carbon, Bio Pellets, phosban what do you run in your reactors?

I was thinking a bag of Chemi Pure Elite and purigen, but the reator is 20" tall. It would be left with a lot of empty space. There is a lot of media on the market just wanted to get some thoughts...:lightbulb:

[txg8gxp]

I use purigen in my biocube, but on my 57g I only run biopellets and nothing else.

[RayAllen]

Right now my system has a skimmer, carbon and a fuge with rubble and macro algae.

Running Biopellets would take the fuge off line, but I can not see running my 180g skimmerless. I say this just because of my medium bioload of fish and lack of clean up crew.

Does running the biopellets have any effect on a skimmer or visa-versa

[Gseclipse02]

I was thinking a bag of Chemi Pure Elite and purigen, but the reator is 20" tall. It would be left with a lot of empty space. There is a lot of media on the market just wanted to get some thoughts...:lightbulb:

one bag isnt enough for the chemi pure you need 3 or 4 for the 180

i have 3 in my nextreef mr1 reactor

[RayAllen]

yea im aware it takes several. Read up on the specs last night.

I ran it on my last bicube and loved how well it worked.

[txg8gxp]

You need to run a skimmer w/ biopellets. It would be bad not too.

[Big_Pun]

u can keep your fuge I still have a lil bit of cheato, as long as you don't see die off it's cool

[txg8gxp]

I think it comes down to how many biopellets your using. I have some codium in my display that is doing just fine. You could keep a fuge for pod reproduction, but for filtering I don't think it's needed.

u can keep your fuge I still have a lil bit of cheato, as long as you don't see die off it's cool

[kkiel02]

I run GFO in my reactor and do the bag of carbon every so often like you mentioned(in the sump). I would do the biopellets, especially after the presentation we just had but I dont test often enough. Actually I dont really test at all anymore unless something isnt growing or isnt looking healthy. Im what you would call a lazy reefer. lol

[txg8gxp]

I personally think biopellets are a easy system, alittle touchy at first if adding to a old system...but once there going its simple. I don't do hardly anything to my tank, but it's doing great.

[ballardjr2000]

I would go bio pellets, I am in the process of setting up two reactors one is gonna run GFO the other carbon, i am thinking about getting a third just for biopellets or skip the carbon in the one chamber for bio pellets.

[ErikH]

Ray you need to come by, I can show you what mods you would need to do for a biopellet reactor. I tried to type it to Jack, and he said "I'll just come and look, lol"

[RayAllen]

Ray you need to come by, I can show you what mods you would need to do for a biopellet reactor. I tried to type it to Jack, and he said "I'll just come and look, lol"

Erik I will take you up on that offer. To busy this week, but next week is fairly open. I will shoot you a pm. I will bring Nikki and give Tab someone to talk to. I swear my wife could talk forever.

Im all for anything thats going to make my reef tank and its inhabitants healthier and happier, which inturn makes me happy :)

[RayAllen]

I do not have much of a fuge really. Well I do not have a lot of macro so that wont be an issue.

[CoryDude]

I ran chemipure and didn't really see anything from it, but I didn't see any negative effects either. Personally saw a more tangible change when I added rowaphos, but I was also having an algae issue at the time.

[Gseclipse02]

I . Personally saw a more tangible change when I added rowaphos, but I was also having an algae issue at the time.

what was the change you saw??

[CoryDude]

The algae went bye bye! The front glass also took longer to develop an algae dusting.

[txg8gxp]

Mods, what mods? I'm guessing your talking about running a non-pellet designed reactor.

Ray you need to come by, I can show you what mods you would need to do for a biopellet reactor. I tried to type it to Jack, and he said "I'll just come and look, lol"

[ErikH]

well, it was a pellet designed reactor, but when you add water and pressure, strange things happen. Just a few pointers and mods of what I had to do to make my reactor work wicked awesome.

[txg8gxp]

I would like some details please, mine is working fine...but I'm always willing to learn something new.

[ErikH]

Oh, well, the flow in a DIY reactor will be different because the acrylic pieces are not machined to be perfect. If water can flow through one area easier, it will. That, and I figured out how to mod my diy to make the pellet switching easier. Also if you soak the pellets, a top mesh piece isn't needed.

[txg8gxp]

Good point on presoaking the pellets, that would help.

[clone]

sooo can you run bio pellets in a Ace made reactor? If not whats the difference between that an a Nextreef? Cost?
Also on my reactor im having a bit of a leak how can i fix that without compleatly sealing it? Im begging to become intrested in these bio pellets.I want to try it but as every other san antonian I dont want to spend money.