GFO and Carbon

[jtgrimes]

Currently I am running a single brs reactor in my 10 gallon sump. I mix gfo and carbon together and have been changing out every 2 weeks.

But have been thinking about putting carbon in a media bag between baffles or in sump somewhere and changing out every 2 weeks, and leave gfo to tumble in the reactor for a month. Will this work? or is keeping it all in the reactor better?

[KingTriton1]

Carbon in a bag between baffles with the GFO in a reactor would work out great. I have seen many successful reef tanks do this. I just hope you don't have tall baffles...

[jtgrimes]

I just have been thinking about doing this since carbon gets exhausted faster than GFO typically and I do not have enough room to put another or dual reactor.

Originally Posted by KingTriton1

Carbon in a bag between baffles with the GFO in a reactor would work out great. I have seen many successful reef tanks do this. I just hope you don't have tall baffles...

[Doogy]

I think you are throwing away good gfo if you are changing out every two weeks but that's just my opinion. Mixed reactor is a bit tricky because gfo needs to tumble while carbon shouldnt. I would try the carbon in a baffle.

[jtgrimes]

I changed it all last night. So now will change gfo once a month and carbon every 2 weeks or when needed.

[Bpb]

Many people on here will swear carbon needs to be in a reactor because it works so much better/faster. While they're right about faster I don't find that better. Bulkreefsupply recently did some video testing of the effectiveness of carbon passively run vs in a reactor. The results were about as expected. The reactor cleared the water of dye extremely quickly whereas the bag took hours. To me that is actual preferable. You can really irritate things if you strip the water too fast like that. I like the slow and steady approach of a media bag.

[jtgrimes]

Since I have had carbon in my system for quite awhile now and changing it out every 2 weeks, my tank seems to stay clear vs yellowish water. I was using bags in my AIO nano 12gal, so this is no different on my 20 except I can run more and have a reactor for GFO.

Originally Posted by Bpb

Many people on here will swear carbon needs to be in a reactor because it works so much better/faster. While they're right about faster I don't find that better. Bulkreefsupply recently did some video testing of the effectiveness of carbon passively run vs in a reactor. The results were about as expected. The reactor cleared the water of dye extremely quickly whereas the bag took hours. To me that is actual preferable. You can really irritate things if you strip the water too fast like that. I like the slow and steady approach of a media bag.

[scooter31707]

How about just purchasing another cheap(quality) reactor and fill one with GFO and the other with carbon.

[jtgrimes]

I would if I could, but I only have room for one reactor.

Originally Posted by scooter31707

How about just purchasing another cheap(quality) reactor and fill one with GFO and the other with carbon.

[scooter31707]

ok, do you have room for the Two Little Fishies model that you can hang on the outside of the sump?

[jtgrimes]

Not at all, one reason why I have the one brs reactor in the sump.

Originally Posted by scooter31707

ok, do you have room for the Two Little Fishies model that you can hang on the outside of the sump?