Pods Love My GFO Reactor

Forsaken77 · Feb 16, 2017

No matter what I do, I always end up with 100's of dead Tisbe pods in my gfo reactor every month. I moved the pump all around the sump, took off and squeezed out the foam pre-filter to get them out, even put the pump right against the discharge of my skimmer to blow them away from it. Everything short of putting the pump in a filter sock, and they'll probably find their way in that also.

I cannot keep these little buggers from going through the pre-filter and into the reactor. I use the BRS Deluxe reactor and for those that don't know, it's basically an rodi canister. So I can see them inside walking around the outer wall before getting into the main gfo chamber, then they must work their way through the gfo and just walk around in circles in the canister above the gfo. I even increased the water flow to push the gfo right to the very top to help them get out, but they just get lost in the gfo.

They go through all the trouble to get in there, but can't figure out that if they keep going up with the water they'll be out? It's driving me nuts because my pod population is thinning big time. I'm guessing they're eating any detritus caught on the pre-filter and just keep going in.

Anyone else have this problem or suggestions on how to keep them out?

I used to keep Chaeto months ago but stopped because I don't have a dedicated fuge and it was just to messy with pieces flying and decaying all over. I put the pods in the sump to help keep it clean and for a nice snack for my Wrasses when they make they way to the tank.

They just seem to colonize in all the wrong places.... these white little fleas

JBradford · Feb 16, 2017

This is something I've been worried about. I've debated getting a pop population going for the future addition of a dragonet. But all 3 of my reactors run off a manifold from my return pump which would push some into the reactors.

Forsaken77 · Feb 17, 2017

The Tisbe pods can actually hold their ground with strong water flow. They'll still walk on the walls of the piping inside with a strong flow. They might just choose to walk into the reactors, which mine seem to love to do. But mine isn't off the return pump. I use a small dedicated MJ1200 pump for the gfo reactor. So maybe getting smacked around by a return pump will knock them silly long enough to bypass the reactors.

You're obviously going to lose some, but as long as you have a big enough area in the sump for them to thrive, it shouldn't be a problem. A return pump is a lot more powerful than the small pump I'm using. Plus they wouldn't have direct access to your reactors like they do mine.

I'm about to put my gfo pump in the return chamber so at least maybe they'll end up in the return pump. But I've seen them walking on the sump wall right in front of the return pump intake and not break a sweat. They stick like glue... ugly little things.

EmptyWallet · Apr 9, 2018

To the contrary, Pods are the best! I even run a culture bucket that I feed with phytoplankton daily and my pod numbers are out of control by design. I plan to get a Mandarin and Ruby Red soon and want to guarantee and endless food supply.

I'd say that if you have an abundance of pods in your GFO reactor, then you probably have an abundance in your whole tank. How I 'count' my population is I turn off all the flow in my tank for about 1 hour at night time. Then in total darkness, get a Torch and shine it from the top down the tank / sump / fuge glass. If you have a healthy population you should see thousands of them all over the glass and some even head towards the torch light. Turning off the flow is key. When I have my Vortechs running can only see white spots (may or may not be pods) all over the water column but not on the glass. Turn off the flow and they all 'come out' in the still water to eat the micro algae on the glass...