Gfo/carbon method.
- Thread starter Nmaran72
- Start date
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I'd like to see some other responses, but here's my take.
If you're going the media bag route, I don't think you can get the flow consistently dialed in like you can with a reactor. Is there really much water flowing through the bag? Or is it flowing around the bag? Probably a bit of both, but how much?
If you're going the media bag route, I don't think you can get the flow consistently dialed in like you can with a reactor. Is there really much water flowing through the bag? Or is it flowing around the bag? Probably a bit of both, but how much?
Rick.45cal
2500 Club Member
I personally think GFO needs to be run in a reactor so you can control it’s effect on the system. GFO also needs to tumble or simmer in the reactor where activated carbon shouldn’t be tumbled so mixing them together and running them is really not a good idea for either media involved. For flow rate for GFO it really depends on the design of the reactor, the type of GFO and how much it needs to tumble.
So basically you only want enough flow to make the GFO tumble, which means (IMO) that you need to choose the smallest reactor you can for your system, because the risk of running a large reactor is a higher flow rate to tumble the media inside, which means it’s going to strip the phosphate much quicker and subsequently is harder to control on a small system and harder on your corals. Just food for thought. Don’t think ”bigger is better” in this instance
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So basically you only want enough flow to make the GFO tumble, which means (IMO) that you need to choose the smallest reactor you can for your system, because the risk of running a large reactor is a higher flow rate to tumble the media inside, which means it’s going to strip the phosphate much quicker and subsequently is harder to control on a small system and harder on your corals. Just food for thought. Don’t think ”bigger is better” in this instance
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As mentioned ab ove - Both should be run in reactors for maximum effectiveness. GFO needs to be run on a upflow reactor so that the surface tumbles some. Exact gph will vary depending on reactor and amount of media.
Carbon, OTOH, should be used in a downflow reactor so that the water, rather than pushing it up to tumble like GFO, pushes it down to the bottom and flows through that way. Most reactors can be switched from one way to the other simply by changing the input/output lines around.
The second best way to run either would be in a canister filter so that water is forced through both with no media movement.
IMHO, the least effective method is to put either media in a bag and letting it sit someplace, even if it is a relatively high flow area because the lion's share of the water will go around rather than through the media.
Carbon, OTOH, should be used in a downflow reactor so that the water, rather than pushing it up to tumble like GFO, pushes it down to the bottom and flows through that way. Most reactors can be switched from one way to the other simply by changing the input/output lines around.
The second best way to run either would be in a canister filter so that water is forced through both with no media movement.
IMHO, the least effective method is to put either media in a bag and letting it sit someplace, even if it is a relatively high flow area because the lion's share of the water will go around rather than through the media.
