GFO or Carbon?

[bigfoot86]

My 90 gal has finished it cycle period after a 10 week wait. As I'm looking forward to introducing some fish and corals to it in months to come, I was questioning whether its better to run carbon in my media reactor or GFO? I did buy some gfo already and but have not used any type of media really. Would like to hear some opinions.

 

[CrazyEyes]

I think that's a tough decision, just two different reasons for each one. You can run them in the same reactor though.

 

[bigfoot86]

Well, do you use one or the other or both?

 

[bonomo53]

i run a bag of chemipure elite in my reactor which has both carbon and gfo in it.

 

[Neon Reef]

you can run both in the same reactor as carbon helps gfo from sticking to each other. 2 cups carbon for every 1 cup of gfo.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Just run Chemipure Elite, it has both carbon and GFO in it.

 

[bigfoot86]

I see so you can use both in the same reactor. And I will look into the Chemipure Elite. Thank you.

 

[feh]

I don't recommend running both in the same reactor. You want the GFO to tumble a little, but the carbon you don't.

 

[Flameback Pair]

The reason for the tumbling is to keep the GFO from clumping. You can run GAC and GFO together but with no tumbling. Mix the two until the GFO is dispersed in the carbon. Then wedge between sponges in a canister or just put in a media bag in a high flow area of your sump.

 

[bigfoot86]

I see, so the gfo does have a tendency of clumping up. I did not know that. Wonder how many people actually just use a media bag of carbon in the sump and just save their media reactor for their GFO.

 

[-Logzor]

Why do you run to run GFO/Carbon? Is there a particular issue you're having?

 

[bigfoot86]

Haven't started running either yet cuz I have no livestock but the tank is ready for its first fish now and I just wanted get an idea on what people ran in their system before I started running my media reactor in mine.

 

[CrazyEyes]

What reactor do you have, or planning on getting. Chemipure would work well just as suggested. Or if you get like a TLF 150 just put the Carbon in then the gfo. Or, many people might disagree with this but, I've run carbon and gfo passively in a bag in an area of flow and it worked well. I don't run carbon or gfo right now at all. I just carbon dose but I might add activated carbon again.

 

[Mark L.]

Carbon and GFO server two completely different purposes. With a new tank I would run carbon first to keep the water "polished" or clean. Keep an eye on your phosphates over the next few months. If you see them creeping up and can not manage them with water changes then you can think about adding GFO. GFO is used to remove phosphates from your aquarium. That said, if you are keeping softies and or LPS then some phosphates aren't a bad thing. If you start to get heavy into SPS then phosphates can become a problem.

 

[KoleTang]

This is like choosing between buying a bicycle or a hockey stick. They are nowhere near the same thing.

 

[Norcalreefer]

This is like choosing between buying a bicycle or a hockey stick. They are nowhere near the same thing.

\

+1 lol

Learn what each tool (or chemical in this case) is for and then you can make up your own mind about when to use them. Just asking what other people use will not really tell you much.

 

[bigfoot86]

I have a NextReef media reactor.

 

[thasby]

I run a NextReef MR1 reactor with GFO and carbon in a bag under my filter sponge in the sump right before the return pump. Works the best for me. Only put half(2/3c) of GFO in to start with and after 4-6 weeks add final 2/3c.

 

[bigfoot86]

Thats the same one I have. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Birddog]

I have the Nextreef MR1 reactor as well and have run Carbon and GFO together for a little more than a year. The GFO through the reactor really cleaned up my phosphates much more than placing GFO in a bag in a high flow area of my sump. I'm a pretty heavy feeder and the GFO in the reactor helped me eliminate nearly all algae in the tank. I stopped using the reactor about a month ago for approximately two weeks (just to see if I needed to run the reactor full time) and it only took two weeks for thing to get out of whack again. With the pump I'm using on the reactor the carbon does not tumble, but the GFO tumbles nicely.