Questions about GFO/Carbon

Dummyforclownfi · 11/05/2013, 09:03 PM

Hi guys. Please excuse my noobness in this matter. I have recently set up a new SW aquarium. I have been keeping fish my whole life but they were always freshwater. So after much research, I set up my aquarium and cycled it. I got 30 lbs of live rock, 40 lbs of live sand, and my tank is 29 gallons. The tank is fully cycled now. Has been for about 2 weeks. I have a pair of clownfish in my aquarium. I went out of town for 4 days and came back and my wife had surprised me with 3 candy cane coral frags (she looked at my browser history). Although this was very nice of her, it was to my understanding that I should have waited about 3 months before introducing my first hardy coral. Is this correct? I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I decided not to tell her that she made a mistake and I figured I would try and make it work with the coral. I do have a nice clean up crew. I have med-high T-5 HO lighting. I keep moderate flow in my tank. I have the Reef Octopus BH100 protein skimmer set up. I use 2 thermometers. I have 2 heaters, one is a back up. I DO NOT have a refugium yet. When I started looking into saltwater aquariums, I didn't have enough info on overflow boxes or refugiums or else I would have bought one with an overflow box already installed. So I plan on buying a hang on the back refugium. So my questions now are what do I buy next? I see that media reactors are pretty important. Are carbon and GFO just as important as one another or is one more important than the other? Money is not really too much of an issue with me at the moment but I don't want to buy all the more advanced equipment all at once. That might make the wifey mad but if I purchase one item (regardless of price) every paycheck (1st and 15th of the month) then I should be able to keep her out of my hair

I am looking at the BRS dual media reactor. Is this better than the single reactor? Or should I get 2 individuals? If I get 2 individuals, which one should I get first? Would these even be the next "upgrade" or should I worry more about calcium and alkilinity right now because of the frags? I didn't plan on purchasing corals for about 6 months but now I kind of am scrambling around trying to care for these my wife purchased. I do weekly water changes and plan on doing so for about 3 months and then maybe move to about twice a month. I guess I want help on keeping my frags nice and healthy. If I lack a lot of the equipment then I will just have to make a large purchase and actually blame it on the wife :/ Sorry if these questions or situation seem ignorant. I really want the best for my fish and now coral. I am completely in love with my aquarium and want to keep it the healthiest possible. Thanks in advance guys/gals.

Reef Frog · 11/05/2013, 10:23 PM

Personally I'd go with a Single reactor & run GFO in a bag.

You should have a decent change with the candy canes although it is a little early. Medium light, start near the bottom & work up. Don't allow algae to grow on the exposed skeleton stalks. Good luck. You have a thoughtful wife.

Dummyforclownfi · 11/06/2013, 06:55 AM

I'm not sure if I want to run a sock for the GFO. I would rather have the reactor. Let's also remember that I do not have a sump yet. Should that be my next investment? And what do you mean I should have a decent change with the candy cane coral? And how do I clean them off when they grow algae? I currently have all 3 on my sand bed.
Can anyone give me a detailed description of what all I need next in order and what their uses are? I know I am asking a lot of you guys but trust me, I will put this information to good use.

thegrun · 11/06/2013, 08:13 AM

First off welcome to Reef Central! You are fine with easy to care for corals right from the start. I have often added the hardy corals even before fish. When you start to move into more demanding corals like anemones and SPS corals you need to wait for the tank to mature and your reef keeping skills to also improve. For small tanks the duel GFO/carbon reactor is fine mainly due to the space savings. There are certainly advantages to individual reactors as they allow you to adjust flow separately. If I was only going to run one reactor it would definitely be for the GFO as it performs MUCH better in a reactor than just sitting in a media bag. Check out the videos on Bulk Reef Supply, they have a couple of good ones on GFO and Carbon. I switched from GFO to a phosphate removing resin (Blue Life PHOS Fx)a few months ago and like it a lot better than GFO. The resin doesn't seem to cause nearly as much calcium precipitation as GFO does and since it can be regenerated several times it is less expensive also. As to what to buy next, if you haven't done so already I would invest in good test kits. Go with either Salifert or Red Sea for Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity. Get a Hana checker for Phosphates and perhaps Alkalinity instead of a test kit. I would also start thinking about getting a good controller, it will make life a lot easier for you.

Dummyforclownfi · 11/06/2013, 08:43 AM

OK so I will buy all the tests you mentioned. With that being said, should I but the stuff to start raising my calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium levels to desired levels?

klwheat · 11/06/2013, 08:56 AM

What are your current levels? Keeping calcium, alk, and mag correct will be more important than any reactor IMO.

Dummyforclownfi · 11/06/2013, 09:51 AM

That's a good question. I will order the test kits today so I can keep track of them.

Dummyforclownfi · 11/07/2013, 08:08 AM

So after the test kits, what next? Kalkwasser maybe? Dosing pump? Sump/refugium?

Quick_Ben · 11/07/2013, 08:44 AM

... GFO is a great idea in a reactor. Lasts about a month and needs slow flow and contact time. BRS is a good source. Get good testing supplies Elos, Salifert, Red Sea. A nice refractometer + calibration solution. Go nuts and get electronic Hanna checkers for ALK PO4 Ca. All of these will make life easier down the road.
As for adding things. The old standby "Water Change" will put back most of what's consumed until the tank demands more. You'll know from your testing. Keep a log book with the levels when you test so you don't forget from one week to the next. A couple of gallons of new salt water/week will keep everything pretty happy.

Dummyforclownfi · 11/07/2013, 09:12 AM

So how much coral can I keep in my tank before having to buy all this equipment?

Reef Frog · 11/07/2013, 10:10 AM

I made a typo above. I was suggesting running GFO in the reactor. GAC (carbon) in a bag. Sorry, gotta stop posting on the iPhone. My reasoning is that from sever posts on RC it seems many struggle with tuning the dual reactors. But that's just me & I'm lazy sometimes.

As for your question on how much coral you can keep without a reactor, that varies. Some never add one. They may do an algae scrubber, have a macro algae refugium, have no fish, feed sparingly etc. But IMO its great to have one before algae over runs your aquarium. You can put together a single reactor, a pump & a can of GFO for under $100. You DON'T want algae growing on frag plugs, coral skeletons or having it shading the corals or touching the living tissue.

11/05/2013, 09:03 PM	#1
Dummyforclownfi Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Bryan Texas Posts: 234	Questions about GFO/Carbon Hi guys. Please excuse my noobness in this matter. I have recently set up a new SW aquarium. I have been keeping fish my whole life but they were always freshwater. So after much research, I set up my aquarium and cycled it. I got 30 lbs of live rock, 40 lbs of live sand, and my tank is 29 gallons. The tank is fully cycled now. Has been for about 2 weeks. I have a pair of clownfish in my aquarium. I went out of town for 4 days and came back and my wife had surprised me with 3 candy cane coral frags (she looked at my browser history). Although this was very nice of her, it was to my understanding that I should have waited about 3 months before introducing my first hardy coral. Is this correct? I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I decided not to tell her that she made a mistake and I figured I would try and make it work with the coral. I do have a nice clean up crew. I have med-high T-5 HO lighting. I keep moderate flow in my tank. I have the Reef Octopus BH100 protein skimmer set up. I use 2 thermometers. I have 2 heaters, one is a back up. I DO NOT have a refugium yet. When I started looking into saltwater aquariums, I didn't have enough info on overflow boxes or refugiums or else I would have bought one with an overflow box already installed. So I plan on buying a hang on the back refugium. So my questions now are what do I buy next? I see that media reactors are pretty important. Are carbon and GFO just as important as one another or is one more important than the other? Money is not really too much of an issue with me at the moment but I don't want to buy all the more advanced equipment all at once. That might make the wifey mad but if I purchase one item (regardless of price) every paycheck (1st and 15th of the month) then I should be able to keep her out of my hair I am looking at the BRS dual media reactor. Is this better than the single reactor? Or should I get 2 individuals? If I get 2 individuals, which one should I get first? Would these even be the next "upgrade" or should I worry more about calcium and alkilinity right now because of the frags? I didn't plan on purchasing corals for about 6 months but now I kind of am scrambling around trying to care for these my wife purchased. I do weekly water changes and plan on doing so for about 3 months and then maybe move to about twice a month. I guess I want help on keeping my frags nice and healthy. If I lack a lot of the equipment then I will just have to make a large purchase and actually blame it on the wife :/ Sorry if these questions or situation seem ignorant. I really want the best for my fish and now coral. I am completely in love with my aquarium and want to keep it the healthiest possible. Thanks in advance guys/gals. Last edited by Dummyforclownfi; 11/05/2013 at 09:09 PM.

11/06/2013, 08:56 AM	#6
klwheat Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 676	What are your current levels? Keeping calcium, alk, and mag correct will be more important than any reactor IMO. __________________ 180 Gallon Mixed reef President/Co-founder Running4Trisomy A Butterfly's Touch

11/05/2013, 10:23 PM	#2
Reef Frog Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Maryland Posts: 3,121	Personally I'd go with a Single reactor & run GFO in a bag. You should have a decent change with the candy canes although it is a little early. Medium light, start near the bottom & work up. Don't allow algae to grow on the exposed skeleton stalks. Good luck. You have a thoughtful wife.

11/06/2013, 06:55 AM	#3
Dummyforclownfi Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Bryan Texas Posts: 234	I'm not sure if I want to run a sock for the GFO. I would rather have the reactor. Let's also remember that I do not have a sump yet. Should that be my next investment? And what do you mean I should have a decent change with the candy cane coral? And how do I clean them off when they grow algae? I currently have all 3 on my sand bed. Can anyone give me a detailed description of what all I need next in order and what their uses are? I know I am asking a lot of you guys but trust me, I will put this information to good use.

11/06/2013, 08:13 AM	#4
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	First off welcome to Reef Central! You are fine with easy to care for corals right from the start. I have often added the hardy corals even before fish. When you start to move into more demanding corals like anemones and SPS corals you need to wait for the tank to mature and your reef keeping skills to also improve. For small tanks the duel GFO/carbon reactor is fine mainly due to the space savings. There are certainly advantages to individual reactors as they allow you to adjust flow separately. If I was only going to run one reactor it would definitely be for the GFO as it performs MUCH better in a reactor than just sitting in a media bag. Check out the videos on Bulk Reef Supply, they have a couple of good ones on GFO and Carbon. I switched from GFO to a phosphate removing resin (Blue Life PHOS Fx)a few months ago and like it a lot better than GFO. The resin doesn't seem to cause nearly as much calcium precipitation as GFO does and since it can be regenerated several times it is less expensive also. As to what to buy next, if you haven't done so already I would invest in good test kits. Go with either Salifert or Red Sea for Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity. Get a Hana checker for Phosphates and perhaps Alkalinity instead of a test kit. I would also start thinking about getting a good controller, it will make life a lot easier for you.

11/06/2013, 08:43 AM	#5
Dummyforclownfi Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Bryan Texas Posts: 234	OK so I will buy all the tests you mentioned. With that being said, should I but the stuff to start raising my calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium levels to desired levels?

11/06/2013, 09:51 AM	#7
Dummyforclownfi Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Bryan Texas Posts: 234	That's a good question. I will order the test kits today so I can keep track of them.

11/07/2013, 08:08 AM	#8
Dummyforclownfi Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Bryan Texas Posts: 234	So after the test kits, what next? Kalkwasser maybe? Dosing pump? Sump/refugium?

11/07/2013, 08:44 AM	#9
Quick_Ben Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 80	... GFO is a great idea in a reactor. Lasts about a month and needs slow flow and contact time. BRS is a good source. Get good testing supplies Elos, Salifert, Red Sea. A nice refractometer + calibration solution. Go nuts and get electronic Hanna checkers for ALK PO4 Ca. All of these will make life easier down the road. As for adding things. The old standby "Water Change" will put back most of what's consumed until the tank demands more. You'll know from your testing. Keep a log book with the levels when you test so you don't forget from one week to the next. A couple of gallons of new salt water/week will keep everything pretty happy.

11/07/2013, 09:12 AM	#10
Dummyforclownfi Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Bryan Texas Posts: 234	So how much coral can I keep in my tank before having to buy all this equipment?

11/07/2013, 10:10 AM	#11
Reef Frog Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Maryland Posts: 3,121	I made a typo above. I was suggesting running GFO in the reactor. GAC (carbon) in a bag. Sorry, gotta stop posting on the iPhone. My reasoning is that from sever posts on RC it seems many struggle with tuning the dual reactors. But that's just me & I'm lazy sometimes. As for your question on how much coral you can keep without a reactor, that varies. Some never add one. They may do an algae scrubber, have a macro algae refugium, have no fish, feed sparingly etc. But IMO its great to have one before algae over runs your aquarium. You can put together a single reactor, a pump & a can of GFO for under $100. You DON'T want algae growing on frag plugs, coral skeletons or having it shading the corals or touching the living tissue.