Phosphate reactor or power filter?

[rodinwilmington]

I've just realized that my fluval canister is not necessary and it spits out microbubbles that drive me crazy, so I've turned it off and sold it on ebay. I have enought LR and LS to provide an effective biofilter and I use RO water to do pwc's and top off's so I'm not really worried about phosphates and I'm really just wanting something to run carbon in to keep my water clear. I'm looking at a aqua clear 50 or 70, I've looked as phosphate reactors but I don't really want another power head in my DT. I guess I've answered my own question here but I'd like some advice and maybe I'm not thinking of something. Thanks, oh yeah, I just put on an brand new Warner HX2 that rocks, cept it hums like crazy, I think it's the location on my tank and it reverberates or something, I'm thinking about putting it on the side of my tank.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Interesting to hear that about the WM HX2. Mine is going back to the place I bought it for a refund. Number one... it came in with a broken intake housing on the pump. Number two... I tried it out in a tub of fresh water and wasn't impressed with the noise level and the amount of futzing I had to do with it compared to my plug-n-play Remora, and a few other design issues. Guess that Remora wasn't as bad as I thought after all. Anyway... sorry to ramble...

Running a bag of GFO or GAC in a power filter is definitely an easier way to go versus a reactor. You probably aren't getting the full efficiency out of the media, but it's better than nothing. I run Purigen and GFO in a Marineland HOT 250. It's a HOB cannister of sorts. You might take a look at it - it has a small footprint inside the tank, yet has a fair amount of room for chemical media compared to the power filters.

 

[rodinwilmington]

Thanks, sorry bout the HX2 especially since you waited so long for it. I too was looking at that hot filter but wasn't sure about the size, thanks for clearing things up.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Size-wise, it's a little smaller than I'd like. The cannister is weird shaped, so it makes getting media in/out a little tough at times, assuming the media is in a bag. But I can get 2 of the bags of Purigen in on one side (but I normally just use 1), and a bag with about 10-12 tablespoons of GFO in the other side.