Media Reactor Upgrade - Who Loves Theirs?

[wpeterson]

I've owned and been a proponent of the simple and inexpensive two little fishes 150 media reactors for the first 2-3 years of my reefing. We currently run one full of carbon and one full of GFO attached to our sump daisy-chained together. They work well, but the fittings have aged and one of the rubber elbows failed, causing liters of saltwater to leak out into our cabinet the other night. I can replace the fittings and re-plumb them, but it was a frustrating experience.

So, I'm considering upgrading to fancier media reactors for using carbon and GFO. Who loves theirs?

The Bulk Reef Suplly reactors look like they have better fittings but might be more of a pain to clean/disconnect. Reef Octopus, Vertex, and others make very nice looking gear but the costs seem outrageous. Please share your experiences.

I may end up just replacing all the fittings and o-rings on the TLF reactors, but looking for a better option that will perform better or be easier to maintain.

 

[steve&mari]

I run the brs dual reactor and love it. It's easy to maintain I think just unscrew the chamber n do what you need to n rescrew together. I also run the two little fishes 150. All off of return pump.

 

[Broadfield]

I really like the AquaMaxx reactors. They come with heavy duty barbed fittings that are o-ring sealed and nutted in place. I didn't end up using the included fittings in my particular setup, but they are nice.

IMG_4098 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4560 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

 

[tvu]

Avast is pretty good. I have avast, mr2 and 2 lil fishies.

 

[Jlobes]

the vertex reactors are awesome! great build quality, easy to use and change out the media, and equipped with quality fitting to dial in the right flow rate.

Id say I have a BNIB pair for sale, but with the black friday sales happening, most folks are shopping online.
If ya dont pick up anything before the sales end, ill probably still have them.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/vertex-rx-u-1-5-reactor.html

 

[David's Reef]

I used to run 2 TLF 150 and switch over to Life Reef reactors and couldn't be happier.Quality of the reactors pretty good and they're easy to change media when it needed.