Recommended media

[Masoniac]

I have searched high and low on the forum and am wanting to know what medias are. I thought about just going with gfo and carbon. Just want some input thanks

[MissGurnus]

Filter media is anything in your filter that has enough surface area to hold the amount of bacteria in your tank to hold your cycle. We use filter cartridges but don't change them unless they are disintergrating


Sini's my personal bucket lugger..er, I mean husband

[Masoniac]

Oops definitely worded this wrong. I was wanting to know what medias are best to use in media reactors

[Beej1254]

It depends. As far as I know reactors are different depending on which media you are using. Sometimes you can mix GFO and carbon in one reactor. You can have biopellet reactors or calcium reactors as well.

Running media reactors are much more efficient as opposed to media bags because it fluidizes the media forcing water to flow through rather then finding easiest paths around. So I'd say most media types are best for reactors that suit them.

I usually make my own reactors tho..I can't put bio pellets into the carbon reactor I made because the shape doesn't allow for good tumbling of the biopellets.


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[Reefing Madness]

GFO
Carbon
BioPellets
Argonite Calcium
Kalkwasser
Sulpher Denitrator

[Sniperhank]

I really like Purigen. I don't think I'll ever run a system without it.

[Laeris]

Purigen isn't a true filter media, in the sense of harboring beneficial bacteria. It's more of a water clarifier. It's meant to be used in conjunction with media that does carry bb. Otherwise when you remove it to regenerate, you'd lose a huge chunk of your bb and mini cycle every time. @_@


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[Sniperhank]

Originally Posted by Laeris

Purigen isn't a true filter media, in the sense of harboring beneficial bacteria. It's more of a water clarifier. It's meant to be used in conjunction with media that does carry bb. Otherwise when you remove it to regenerate, you'd lose a huge chunk of your bb and mini cycle every time. @_@


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Which isn't a problem since we were asked about what media to be run in a reactor, clarified in a later post, and that when one utilized the lbs per gallon rule with both rock and sand there is no chance to ever run into this issue of removing beneficial bacteria.

Back on the topic at hand, I have gone back and forth between GFO and Phosguard as phosphate removers and tend to prefer the Phosguard as the GFO always ends up clumping in my system. It can be difficult to get the 'slow boil' GFO needs if not in a single reactor, where mine is a dual. Some food for thought that cost me money to figure out.

[Masoniac]

Mine will be a dual reactor so should I ditch the gfo since it does need to tumble slightly?

[Beej1254]

I'm sure people have done it but it's probably not easy. If you want to run carbon and gfo together try mixing it in a single reactor. Doing this will help to separate the gfo granules from each other and you won't need it to tumble.


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[Maridia]

I watched a BRS video on media reactors and if you plan to mix GFO and Carbon in the same reactor, do 1/3 GFO and 2/3 Carbon, this mix will avoid the clump that people are talking about.

[Gregcoyote]

I fought the clumping issue for a long time. I prefer GFO for a number of reasons and finally solved the clumping issue by doing two things. First I switched to Rowaphos. It's costly but doesn't clump and is long lasting.

Second was I kept the outlet for my calcium dosing away from the intake to the GFO reactor.

I also run Purigen in a reactor as it binds to a lot of stuff the other systems don't get, like selenium.


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