what is the best media for a media reactor?

[wherearepeople]

hey guys im going to be purchasing a media reactor in the future and im curious what people are using in them and how effective they are?

[Fishguy2727]

What are you getting it for?

The media is specific to the function you are trying to achieve. Biological filtration, denitrification, carbon filtration, removing phosphate, adding calcium and alkalinity, special resin media filtration, etc all have different media.

On my reef I had a carbon reactor, GFO reactor, and purigen reactor all piggy backed together.

[wherearepeople]

i would like to use it for phosphate reduction and i also want to run carbon is a media reactor the best way?

[Fishguy2727]

I got two, the water went through the one with carbon and then through the one with GFO (granular ferric oxide). Later I added the one with Purigen to really get it clean, but you don't have to. I used Rowa Phos as my GFO. The important thing is flow rate. You need enough flow for the media to move a little. Too little and it sits stagnant and you risk some toxic bacteria, too fast and the media moving around breaks apart like rocks in a rock tumbler.

[cmor1701d]

I also have several reactors; GFO, GAC, and bio-pellets. I have teh pellets in a PhosBan reactor and use BulkReefSupply canister reactors for GFO and GAC.

[wherearepeople]

what size would you guys reccomend for carbon gfo and bio pellets i have a 50 a twenty and a 90 all tied in the same line. and i plan on having a moderate bio load

[Fishguy2727]

I use Phosban Reactors, great design and much more affordable than most reactors I have seen. They have the regular size and recently came out with a very large one for larger systems. The regular one is supposed to be 'up to 150 gallons', that is the one I used for my three stage reactor chain on my 45. If you go with the smaller one you will have to replace the media more often. With the larger one you will not be replacing it as ofte, but it will cost a lot more when you do.

[cmor1701d]

I have a Phosban 150, but prefer the bulk reef supply units for about the same money.

[wherearepeople]

So im thinking about using two of these (AVAST Marine Works - MR-16 Media Reactor - Product Details) one to for carbon and one for gfo and running it inline with a turbo twist 6x. what flow rate would you recommend. and the uv sterilizer is a secondary priority and may only end up running for a portion of each day. so the main focus is for the reactors