BRS dual reactor: worth it?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

crister13

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Aug 2, 2011
Messages
3,473
Location
Princeton, NJ
IS this a good reactor? I am having water quality issues and thought this would help. Is it ok with the MJ 1200 that they recommend? I'm thinking about running carbon in one and gfo in the other. Or should I run denitrate in one and gfo in the other??
 
I have that reactor and love it. I bought it with the mj1200 and works like a charm. It keeps my trates and phosphates at 0 consistantly. I was advised to rinse the gfo and carbon well before running.
 
I have the dual reactor and havent set it up yet though. I can say that their single bio pellet reactor got clogged alot and i was using a mag3 pump for it. :-( Not too sure how the MJ will hold up after a week or two, the strainers on the inner tube tend to be really small and get clogged fast. I would though try the mj and see what happens, just try to get it as close to the water as possible to avoid any undue head pressure so it's easier for the pump to do it's thing.
 
I think if you rinse the carbon and gfo well before setting up, you wont have the problems with clogging. The mj is good enough to keep the gfo tumbling, that is what keeps it from packing down also.
 
...I've been running their Dual reactor for a few months now,..seems to run flawlessly ...( As long as you hook everything up correctly :-/ ..) .. The only suggestion I'd have is to upgrade the " recommended pump by a notch ,..seems alittle borderline to me.,..otherwise a Very good investment IMO
 
Hey dary, how much gfo do you have in there? I have the canister about half full and that works great. I actually throttle back the MJ to just have it tumble slightly. You dont want it wearing out against itself when it tumbles too fast.
 
spoonman said:
Hey dary, how much gfo do you have in there? I have the canister about half full and that works great. I actually throttle back the MJ to just have it tumble slightly. You dont want it wearing out against itself when it tumbles too fast.

Re. Tumbling,..I understand that,..I just bought the reactor with their pump kit as a unit,... After running the pump from my sump to the reactor ( mounted a little above the sump on the cabinet ) it just seemed to be kinda on the weak side,..I have my ball valve wide open,... Someday I'll get a little bigger/ better pump and throttle it back a little myself,..I too have it about 1/2 full.... Nice little unit though
 
The reactor itself is great. I have a similar setup on the waterline coming into my house that I wish was as easy to work with as the BRS dual reactor. I run GFO and active carbon in mine. As per how much, you want to start wish small amounts and work your way up with GFO. The pump I have feeding it, I don't recall the name...it is a Rio something or other. It was the old return pump in my old sump that I tuned down so I have a steady flow through the reactor, not too fast not too slow.
 
Would carbon help with nitrates at all? I want a huge filtration system but my problem now is trates. Would it dent them a little? In seriously considering this reactor. Sounds great.
 
Back
Top Bottom