HELP: Newbie trying to understand reactors!

[johnbr]

Hey Guys,

Well as the titles says I'm fairly new to this hobby and I need some help on what I need for my 120 Gallon. Currently my sump has no filter socks just my skimmer and a refugium chamber with chaeto and some media bricks. Unfortunately I can't keep my PO4 and NO3 low even feeding as less as I can. Also, these days I notice that I'm about to have a cyano outbreak in the sump due to high PO4 in combination with my light in the sump.

Question is. What can I do to lower these two guys? Any recommendations in media reactors? The fact that you're using a media reactor a refugium is no longer necessary and I could the space in the chamber to sit my reactors?

What kinda o media? GFO? GFO and CARBON? Pellets like Dr Tim's NP Active Pearls?

Please can anyone give me some Norths and Souths since I want to stop this before it gets out of hands?

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

A media reactor is just a device to hold chemical media, no more, no less. Any container that holds activate carbon, GFO or biopellets can be a reactor. The focus should not be on the reactor itself, but what media you put inside the reactor.

GFO will lower phosphates, although care must be taken to not drive the phosphates too low. Activated carbon will polish the water and remove some organics. Biopellets will potentially remove a lot of nitrate and a little bit of phosphate, provided you have a quality skimmer that can remove the bacteria that grow as a result.

In general, cyanobacteria means that you have excess phosphates. You said you have chaeto in your sump? What are your nitrates? It's possible the chaeto doesn't have enough nitrate to grow and use the available phosphate. If you want to use chaeto as your main nutrient export, adding nitrates might be beneficial. Otherwise, using a phosphate reducing media like GFO is also a good choice.

 

[johnbr]

A media reactor is just a device to hold chemical media, no more, no less. Any container that holds activate carbon, GFO or biopellets can be a reactor. The focus should not be on the reactor itself, but what media you put inside the reactor.

GFO will lower phosphates, although care must be taken to not drive the phosphates too low. Activated carbon will polish the water and remove some organics. Biopellets will potentially remove a lot of nitrate and a little bit of phosphate, provided you have a quality skimmer that can remove the bacteria that grow as a result.

In general, cyanobacteria means that you have excess phosphates. You said you have chaeto in your sump? What are your nitrates? It's possible the chaeto doesn't have enough nitrate to grow and use the available phosphate. If you want to use chaeto as your main nutrient export, adding nitrates might be beneficial. Otherwise, using a phosphate reducing media like GFO is also a good choice.

First of all,

Thanks a lot @chipmunkofdoom2 for taking time to answer my queries. Well based on my water test I have 15 Nitrates and 0.29 PO4. The tank has 4 months and the skimmer is rated for 350 gallon. I don't have a huge bioload and I don't feed more than twice a day making sure that the fish are consuming the food with 3-5 minutes. I still think that these number could be a little but lower. The tank as I said is new so I don't keep chasing numbers and testing the water like crazy. I wait tank to tell me there's something wrong. I know it might sound like gambling but since I work from home I have plenty of time with the tank and I act fast enough if I see any sign of bad behavior.

I also due water changes religiously every Friday 15%. So what you think about running the BRS Dual Reactor GFO - Carbon?

I understand that if ended striping down all the PO4 and NO3 my chaeto may die even though I saw people saying that there's no problem and it might only slow growth.

Thanks

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

First I would stay away from the cheap reactors, I got one that rubber elbow spilt on the initial setup, so I would look for reactors that have a dedicated elbows built in IE screwed in. I would stay away from expensive and to large of reactors. I would look at reactors that can be hung from the side of the tank or sump. I have not used a sump with a pump below it might be intriguing.

The one that I am looking for my small tank is a Aqua Maxx FE se GFO reactors they can be found at Marinedepot