Gfo and carbon or just gfo reactor

blackz151 · Oct 15, 2014

I have a newer reef tank. 80 gal db rimless. There is nothing in the tank but live rock and sand I have a problem with green hair everywhere. It doesn't seem to be getting worse but its not going away. I was told to start running a GFO reactor to help with the phosphates. My question is. Should I run both carbon and GFO or just GFO? Are there any advantages to running both or should I just stick to the gfo.

riche · Oct 15, 2014

Im going to follow this, as I was wondering the same thing, but just for maintenance purposes. I have been running phosgard for a few weeks and it has done wonders. I took down the reactor to move some stuff and notice that the algae started coming back.

KSReefing · Oct 17, 2014

very curious about this as well. I just bought a dual reactor from BRS with GFO and carbon for my 40 gallon breeder build

cginter · Oct 17, 2014

I have the BRS duel reactor and I ran both. Keeps my water clear and phos low.

Being that you have nothing in the tank you can run both chambers with GFO or if using one chamber use a lil more than calculated is fine. But the main thing you want to do is find the source of phos and fix that.

AZDesertRat · Oct 17, 2014

I use both in separate reactors as they require different flow rates and have different useful lives. I would stick with the TLF recommended dosage or 10 grams per 10 gallons of system water even though you only have live rock and sand as too much affects the pH and alkalinity of the water and could kill of good bacteria. Slow and steady is always better than quick. Only bad things happen quicly in this hobby, all good things take time. GFO like carbon, depends of multiple slow passes through the media to work effectively so stick with smaller doses, lower flows through the media and change them out more often in the beginning and you will end up with a happier, more stable system.