Can I mix things in a phosphateReactor??

[tprize]

I am looking at buying a new phosphate reactors and I had a question.

Instead of buying 3 small TLF PhosBan REactor to run my Seachem Carbon, Phosguard, Purigen

Can I buy one large reactor and run all three in one??? Or should I buy two one for Purigen, and one for Carbon/Phosguard?

Let me know

[lil gramps]

tagging along on this one, i am wondering the same thing.

[rkizer06140]

i use rawphos and carbon at the same time and have been for years. I say its perfectly fine. but i cant speak about the Purigen.

[Ratpack]

Originally posted by rkizer06140
i use rawphos and carbon at the same time and have been for years. I say its perfectly fine. but i cant speak about the Purigen.

Do you seperate them in any way or just mix them and let them tumble together?

[seapug]

I run two daisy chained together -- one with carbon the other with phosban. I wouldn't mix the different media, especially carbon and phosban. PhosBan lasts much longer so you'd be throwing it away unnecessarily.

You can run purigen in them but you need to keep it in a bag or it'll end up all over the place. I tried it and personally was not happy with the results. It was really a waste of money, IMO. A good brand of carbon works much better for me than purigen.

[rkizer06140]

true one does last longer than the other. but yes i do let them mix together. the reason i feel it doesnt matter is because its such a small tank and i only need a very small amount, so im not really worried about whos expired first.
what i do for my 60 gallon is mix 4tbs of carbon and 2tbs of rowa and let the juices flow. works great for me . keeps my water clear for weeks and i also clean the glass less often then without it. but yea, for larger applications it may be wise to buy two different chambers because of the phoseban lasting longer

[Myrddraal]

I run two, GFO needs a different flow rate than carbon. It's also fragile, it can crumble if it's bouncing off of carbon all the time.

[tprize]

One main reason I wonder about this is because sea-chem actually sells a mix called seagel. I will only have a 75 gallon so I don't think It will take a lot of phosguard and carbon. How often do you guys generally change out your carbon and phosguard. Also if I do use purigen in a bag, can I just put the bag into the top of the tube when I fill it?

[tankdvr]

Couldn't you just bag you're rowaphos and carbon separately then put both bags in your reactor? Then you could change out the carbon whenever you needed to.

[chucksta1]

If you put it in a bag in the reactor, it would seem to kind of defeat the purpose of having the reactor in the first place. The point that the media will crumble is absolutly true. First it starts to tumble, then as it grinds itself to dust, there's less of it, so it grinds more rapidly. That being said, the reactor, when properly set, guarantees that the water will flow around every bit of the media and that the media will not "pack" and "tunnel" . So to speak, the very point of the reactor inb the first place. If you are going to put the media in a bag in the reactor, giving the bags a skake every day or two migh be a good idea.

[tankdvr]

I'm sort of confused by the whole reactor thing right now. I was looking to hook them up for the 50 gallon that I'm putting together right now. But from what you're saying, I should use two and fill each with media? That would be total overkill for the size of my tank. Or is it ok to just run two separate reactors with the proper amount of media for 50 gallons in each one?

[tprize]

Well I wrote Seachem and asked them if I could use seagel in a reactor and here is what they said.

"Hello,
We do not recommend using SeaGel in a reactor. Carbon, by nature, is soft and will break down when ground against itself. PhosGuard also has the potential to break down when used in a reactor. Let us know if we can be of any further assistance."

The sound of it makes it seem like even carbon will break down in a reactor. So I guess the only thing to do it use a bag and just put it in a HOB filter like I have been.

The main reason I was going to use a reactor is because my HOB filter doesn't restart half the time if there is a power blip, sometimes it just stops for no reason and I don't notice it.

[seapug]

I've been using Seachem matrix carbon in a reactor on reverse flow (top to bottom) for months and it works great. The flow packs it down and the spherical carbon granules allow water pass through it without grinding.

[tprize]

What hob filter uses reverse flow?