Spyglass reactor

victorcan · Apr 5, 2017

Ive had my unit running now for over a year the 2 liter of biopellets tumble beautifully with no problems whatsoever, my only concern is effectiveness of the biopellets without an effluent channeling to the skimmer.. I have a reef octo 500 and a classic 202 down stream from this unit and I can't help but imagine how much effluent gets by? I shouldn't have to clean the glass of algae every day but I do if 2 days its got a good film ? Guess my question is could I use the new rinsing lid to eject the effluent directly into a skimmer ? have you guys tried testing at all with a larger pump ?

AVAST Marine · Apr 6, 2017

There is very, very little benefit to directly injecting the effluent from a biopellet reactor into a skimmer, we have done quite a bit of testing on this. The TL;DR on this is that fish don't poop directly into your skimmer and it still works great so the same goes for biopellet generated poop.

victorcan · Apr 15, 2017

well i guess I jinxed myself by stating how flawless things have been running for over a year, Im in Florida and of course while Im away my Spyglass pressure fitted top decided to partially pop off creating a spout of water that ran right out of my tank over 100 gallons in all was lost not once but twice. The first time it happened i thought for sure it must have been the tank sitters fault somehow but he faceted me as he put the top back on the 2nd time and the water pressure just pushed the lid right off? in all it may have been my fault as I cleaned the pumps out completely a couple days before leaving? I got all the dirt and debris off the pump housing cleaned the propeller and guess the pressure was higher than it had been for a while? none the less my spyglass is offline until i get home in 4 days

my biggest fear is there is no bio pellets running now and I have a massively stocked 220 gallon display with 10 5"+ tangs and over 4 dozen different colonies of sps... not sure what to do

victorcan · Apr 22, 2017

ok Got back from my trip and got everything back to normal parameters and figured Id give an update to this issue with the spyglass.. After conducting a few tests Ive come to determine the problem occurred from Bio pellets clogging at the top of the spyglass.. never head this problem in well over a year using both Avast purchased bio pellets and Vertex Bio Pellets, Not sure why but I switched recently and added about 500ml of Warner Marine EcoBak Pellets a couple weeks ago, weather or not that is the issue I can't say as I only tested the unit with the ecobak and did not repurchase either of the 2 previously used pellets. However it appears the ecoback pellets are not sinking as the other 2 brands did? and after they float and get trapped at the top the back pressure would slowly lift the pressure fitted cap. None the less I made a decision to nix the bio pellets and switch to NoPox for future carbon dosing, I did however decide to put my spyglass back to work with a different medias, a 50/50 mix of Rox and GFO, and over the past 3 days have experienced something I had not experienced in my tank before 0 NO3 and 0 PO4.. they've always been low as Ive always run these medias in a BRS Reactor but never have they completely been stripped from the water to 0. the fluid motion is truly unparalleled by any previous reactor Ive used. So thats my .02 Hope it is helpful to someone somewhere … And I ended up buying the cleaner cap anyhow just not in the way I was initially thinking LOL

AVAST Marine · Apr 22, 2017

Thank you for the update! If you decide to ever go back to biopellets again give us a shout and we will send you some of the ones we stock for free. We have been experimenting for a while with NO top cap and it is a great solution if your reactor is in a place where the occasional piece of media or two escaping is acceptable, we run as normal for about 2-3 days until the media is completely saturated with water and then just remove the cap. Works really well for all the medias we have tried it on and especially in tanks with higher amounts of detritus and algae that can clog screens up. This is not something I would recommend to a new Spyglass user, but after you have used one a while feel free to give it a go. Funny enough this was originally @revhtree idea when he did his initial review https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/avast-marine-spyglass-reactor-video-review.223375/#post-2795713

CORAL JUNKY · May 29, 2017

Any recommendations on size for a 93 gal. Cube ? 120 gal twv. I'll b running rowaphos and rox8 . I'm currently using a brs dual reactor but these look cool and definitely seem like they'd be more effective. Tia

AVAST Marine · May 30, 2017

CORAL JUNKY said:
Any recommendations on size for a 93 gal. Cube ? 120 gal twv. I'll b running rowaphos and rox8 . I'm currently using a brs dual reactor but these look cool and definitely seem like they'd be more effective. Tia

The Small with a Nano pump should be more than enough for your system. You can mix those medias in a Spyglass so it will work very well. The small has a max media volume of 1/2L so unless you are using more than that at a time there is no reason to go bigger for your setup.

CORAL JUNKY · May 30, 2017

AVAST Marine said:
The Small with a Nano pump should be more than enough for your system. You can mix those medias in a Spyglass so it will work very well. The small has a max media volume of 1/2L so unless you are using more than that at a time there is no reason to go bigger for your setup.

Would it be still be ok if I decided to run them separately? According to the brs calculator u need to run 227ml of gfo and only 177ml of the rox8

CORAL JUNKY · May 30, 2017

CORAL JUNKY said:
Would it be still be ok if I decided to run them separately? According to the brs calculator i need to run 227ml of gfo and only 177ml of the rox8

AVAST Marine · May 30, 2017

CORAL JUNKY said:
Would it be still be ok if I decided to run them separately? According to the brs calculator u need to run 227ml of gfo and only 177ml of the rox8

That wouldn't be a problem at all. What we have found for mixing these is that the proportions should be reversed. So we would suggest something along the lines of 250ml of carbon and 150ml of gfo. The reasoning is that the depletion rates are different so this blend can be changed out once a month more cost effectively.

CORAL JUNKY · May 30, 2017

AVAST Marine said:
That wouldn't be a problem at all. What we have found for mixing these is that the proportions should be reversed. So we would suggest something along the lines of 250ml of carbon and 150ml of gfo. The reasoning is that the depletion rates are different so this blend can be changed out once a month more cost effectively.

Ok cool . I intend on running them separate just didn't know if those amounts would be sufficient enough to meet the minimum requirements for the small reactor .

AVAST Marine · May 30, 2017

We include a set of bottom screens now that can be used instead of the ball, this allows less than the minimum listed volumes of media to be used

CORAL JUNKY · May 30, 2017

AVAST Marine said:
We include a set of bottom screens now that can be used instead of the ball, this allows less than the minimum listed volumes of media to be used

Awesome ! I'll b placing my order tonight then. Thanks for all your help and the fast response times. Can't wait to try em out.

fbodykiller · Jun 13, 2017

I have a question. I got a small spyglass reactor from a local reefer. The ball in the bottom of the cylinder does not seal. Looks like the reason is due to the seam being more squared off than rounded. Is this common with your reactors?