Carbon/gfo reactor recommendations?

CK00020

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 11, 2020
Messages
1,066
Reaction score
784
Location
Northern Wisconsin
What state or country do you live in
Wisconsin
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have a 120 with a basement fish room, don’t want to go too small or too cheap that I will be buying a different one right away.
Space isn’t a problem any thoughts?
 
Aquamaxx is good and will lasts for a long time. Easy to service. If you can find one, vertex had great built reactors
 
I'd go Aquamax FR-M (the m is for medium). It is a great reactor for the price, just make sure you buy some sort of bag for the carbon or pack it carefully. It comes with two pieces of sponge that are supposed to hold the carbon in place, but it can leak on occasion. And on occasion is too much for me. Nothing uglier than pieces of carbon in your sand bed.

 
I’ve got a GEO and an aquamaxx both 10” reactors with external Sicce 1.0 pumps (for my 190) and the quality is comparable between the two, the caveat being the Aquamaxx I got right away and the GEO I had to wait for at least 6 weeks before it was made and shipped too me. The GEO is very nice and didn’t require any plumbing on my part, but the aquamaxx is getting used because it came quicker.

If it was me, I would choose one that the pump isn’t inside the reactor, as it will be easier to service the pump and the reactor.
 
With which pump? The sicce 1.5 that comes with it doesn't have enough power to push flow through my reactors after 4 days it's a trickle.
I use the sicce 1.5 that it comes with and never have a problem. I also use a valve to restrict the flow because the pump at full flow is to much for the media. Not sure why you would experience a trickle......
 
I use the sicce 1.5 that it comes with and never have a problem. I also use a valve to restrict the flow because the pump at full flow is to much for the media. Not sure why you would experience a trickle......
Gets clogged with build up. Running NOPOX in my sump and it creates a bacteria sludge
 
Gets clogged with build up. Running NOPOX in my sump and it creates a bacteria sludge
So the pump isnt the problem, guess i would recommend not using nopox. Can only imagine if this "sludge" hinders that pump in only a few days, it is hindering other more vital equipment.
 
I'd go Aquamax FR-M (the m is for medium). It is a great reactor for the price, just make sure you buy some sort of bag for the carbon or pack it carefully. It comes with two pieces of sponge that are supposed to hold the carbon in place, but it can leak on occasion. And on occasion is too much for me. Nothing uglier than pieces of carbon in your sand bed.

I know this is old, but the problem I have with using mesh inside of a reactor is that it doesn't seem to actually flow through the material very well

I noticed this particularly with GFO where it wasn't flowing through the material much at all, and thus wasn't effective

When I went back to no mesh it was effective immediately
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%

New Posts

Back
Top