gerards_reef
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The title pretty much says it all. How affective is running carbon in a bag in the sump vs a reactor?
Carbon in bag vs Reactor?
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Surfside74
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I've been running mine in a bag in the sump. I just purchased a reactor and am going that route with gfo also.
mcarroll
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It's almost impossible to gauge the job that carbon is doing in our tanks under any circumstances.
The obvious ways to see it work are removal of the "slick" that rides the surface of most of our tanks at one time or another and by removal of any yellowish color from the water that usually accompanies a significant bio-load.
Carbon does both of these from the 'confines' of a bag without issue and with good speed in most tanks.
I don't think you will see better results using a reactor.
What you may see is a slight improvement in the time it takes to do the same job. Sounds like the Hanna HI 727 "Color Of Water" tester might be a good tool to quantify bag vs reactor performance if you're really serious about your carbon. (I haven't heard of any reefers doing this...or anything like it, really. Any volunteers? I'd let Hanna sponsor me to test it!)
The truth of the matter is that given enough time in the tank (including maybe a flip or two of the bag), X grams of carbon will adsorb Y grams of pollutants, no matter which way you're using it.
I think if I were inclined to run carbon and I felt the bag lying in my sump in the path of water flow wasn't efficient enough, I'd be very tempted to pull out my old AquaClear power filter and put the bag of carbon in that...quite efficient, very cheap, virtually leakproof and very low overhead for cleaning/refilling.
In most situations, reactors are better suited to other uses IMO...GFO, bio-pellets, etc.
Hope this helps!
-Matt
The obvious ways to see it work are removal of the "slick" that rides the surface of most of our tanks at one time or another and by removal of any yellowish color from the water that usually accompanies a significant bio-load.
Carbon does both of these from the 'confines' of a bag without issue and with good speed in most tanks.
I don't think you will see better results using a reactor.
What you may see is a slight improvement in the time it takes to do the same job. Sounds like the Hanna HI 727 "Color Of Water" tester might be a good tool to quantify bag vs reactor performance if you're really serious about your carbon. (I haven't heard of any reefers doing this...or anything like it, really. Any volunteers? I'd let Hanna sponsor me to test it!
)The truth of the matter is that given enough time in the tank (including maybe a flip or two of the bag), X grams of carbon will adsorb Y grams of pollutants, no matter which way you're using it.
I think if I were inclined to run carbon and I felt the bag lying in my sump in the path of water flow wasn't efficient enough, I'd be very tempted to pull out my old AquaClear power filter and put the bag of carbon in that...quite efficient, very cheap, virtually leakproof and very low overhead for cleaning/refilling.
In most situations, reactors are better suited to other uses IMO...GFO, bio-pellets, etc.
Hope this helps!
-Matt
johnanddawn
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Agreed
A while back I did quite a bit of reading on this topic and I ended up going with a reactor. I change it out about once a month
A bag of carbon lying in the sump removes stuff so slowly that it avoids any large changes in clarity that may in effect shock some corals. Supporters of this method agree that the basic plus for the bag in the sump is its inefficiency.
Reactors on the other hand remove stuff very quickly, so a little care may be in order if you are just starting to use carbon and your water isn't very clear.
OP
OP
gerards_reef
Active Member
It's almost impossible to gauge the job that carbon is doing in our tanks under any circumstances.
The obvious ways to see it work are removal of the "slick" that rides the surface of most of our tanks at one time or another and by removal of any yellowish color from the water that usually accompanies a significant bio-load.
Carbon does both of these from the 'confines' of a bag without issue and with good speed in most tanks.
I don't think you will see better results using a reactor.
What you may see is a slight improvement in the time it takes to do the same job. Sounds like the Hanna HI 727 "Color Of Water" tester might be a good tool to quantify bag vs reactor performance if you're really serious about your carbon. (I haven't heard of any reefers doing this...or anything like it, really. Any volunteers? I'd let Hanna sponsor me to test it!
The truth of the matter is that given enough time in the tank (including maybe a flip or two of the bag), X grams of carbon will adsorb Y grams of pollutants, no matter which way you're using it.
I think if I were inclined to run carbon and I felt the bag lying in my sump in the path of water flow wasn't efficient enough, I'd be very tempted to pull out my old AquaClear power filter and put the bag of carbon in that...quite efficient, very cheap, virtually leakproof and very low overhead for cleaning/refilling.
In most situations, reactors are better suited to other uses IMO...GFO, bio-pellets, etc.
Hope this helps!
-Matt
This was a great help! I never really thought about using an aquaclear. I currently run carbon in a reactor but wanted to give bio-pellets a try. Hence my question on running it in a bag vs reactor but I really like the idea of the aquaclear I have at least tree lying around in the aquarium pile.
Thanks again all for the great info!!!
