GFO reactor dual sponge flow poor

[330Bob]

I've never run GFO before but my phosphates are a little high 1.5 and wanted to bring it down some.
I spoke with a online vender they told me to use this Aquamax and since I have limited sump space a mighty max 324gph tiny pump to run it. Also to use high capactiy GFO.
I hooked it up without any media with just the bottom and top plates and bottom and top sponges in place like the photo below.
The flow was terrible only 27 gph and will only get worse with 2-3 cups of GFO. The reactor says up to 150 gph flow so I'm way off.

I took the bottom sponge out and ran it again. Much better flow 150ish.
I put 1 cup of HC GFO in and ran it.

Depending on pump speed I get 100-133 gph with the lower sponge out. Good movement of the GFO.

100 gph looks like a decent flow as just the top of the GFO is sort of bubbling. At 133 gph the colum of GFO that is like 1" or so with the pump off expands to around 4" thick and more spread out but not at the top sponge. Not sure if that is too much and will grind up the GFO.

Some GFO is under that bottom plate due to no sponge, does not seem to be hurting anything though.

The Aquamax instructions said nothing on GFO or running with or without sponges.

Is that how to run GFO without that lower sponge? Or should I return that pump and get one that can deal with the head pressure better. The guy was trying to say that pump was too strong and it could do two reactors. 27 gph with the sponges seems too slow esp for a large tank.

 

[areefer01]

A little GFO goes a long way. Also you don't need a lot of flow. It does a ever so slight bubble like lava. Maybe tumble is a better wording. I use two little fish reactor which looks similar. Sponge over plate media in between. I am using the Maxi-Jet 600 and still use the supplied ball valve to lower it. What helped me was to look on the web for a few videos to see the reactor in action.

I don't have specifics for the reactor you are using. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

[330Bob]

A little GFO goes a long way. Also you don't need a lot of flow. It does a ever so slight bubble like lava. Maybe tumble is a better wording. I use two little fish reactor which looks similar. Sponge over plate media in between. I am using the Maxi-Jet 600 and still use the supplied ball valve to lower it. What helped me was to look on the web for a few videos to see the reactor in action.

I don't have specifics for the reactor you are using. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Thanks for the info. I guess it depends on tank size. I told them 300 and that is what they suggested. I found very videos on that particular reactor with its dual sponges working, most just talk about it. The maxijet is 160gph you probably do not use a dual sponge. How many cups of GFO do you run?

On Bulk Reef the calculator for 300 gallons using the High Capacity GFO say 2.34 cups. Butit does not say at what flow rate. The reactor just says up to 150gph for GFO they do not mention the lower limit where its so slow it clumps up and by passes most of it.

 

[areefer01]

Thanks for the info. I guess it depends on tank size. I told them 300 and that is what they suggested. I found very videos on that particular reactor with its dual sponges working, most just talk about it. The maxijet is 160gph you probably do not use a dual sponge. How many cups of GFO do you run?

On Bulk Reef the calculator for 300 gallons using the High Capacity GFO say 2.34 cups. Butit does not say at what flow rate. The reactor just says up to 150gph for GFO they do not mention the lower limit where its so slow it clumps up and by passes most of it.

There are two plates and sponges in the reactor. I use between 1/2 and 1 cup. My display is 210 gallons, sump, and refugium. Probably around 170 - 185 gallons of water after corals, rock and substrate consideration.

I do use an lesser amount of GFO because I don't want to strip it too quickly.

 

[330Bob]

Yea its tough sometimes to calculate actual volume. I had mine filled a few times empty with a truck and flow meats (they charge per gallon) It was 300 once then I changed the sump and it was 330 after. The display i think is 310ish - sand and overflow maybe 280 at smallest + Sump is 330gallons at least what i was charged a few times by two diff companies. I used 300 for most calculations.

That reactor does look similar. I bet the difference is the hole size in the plates and the sponge poor size.
Top plate holes are fine and so are bottom. Maybe for carbon the sponges would be better.


That lower sponge on mine seemed too fine and the plates holes are pretty fine. Not good for say bio pellets (have a Recirculating one for those, Reef Dynamics 500)

Have you even put a gallon bucket under the outflow to see exactly what the flow is?

That is what I'm doing because pumps will say one thing and that does not always match with actual usage. It looks like around 100 gph is good on the aquamax 27 gph seemed too slow.

On my bio pellets I use a 800 gph eheim but most of that is just used for tumbling they can be controlled independently. The actual outflow is only like 60 gph. Going too much slower = anerobic = egg smell H2S

 

[Reef.]

Fine to use without sponges but if using rowaphos it will get out and fill your tank, and if you don’t rinse it , everything will be covered on red dust.
The idea of not putting too much flow through the media is you don’t want it grinding against itself and releasing into the tank, but you want enough flow so the media can remove the po4 from the water faster than the po4 is being added to the tank.

 

[330Bob]

Fine to use without sponges but if using rowaphos it will get out and fill your tank, and if you don’t rinse it , everything will be covered on red dust.
The idea of not putting too much flow through the media is you don’t want it grinding against itself and releasing into the tank, but you want enough flow so the media can remove the po4 from the water faster than the po4 is being added to the tank.

Thanks, I will do that. I'm using bulk reefs high capacity GFO, they said then I could get away with a smaller reactor using 1/2 the GFO. I could put a larger one in but space is tight. I think I would need 4 cups of reg GFO vs 2 cups of the high capacity and they said it lasts longer like 1 month vs 2 weeks.

I don't know if any of that is actually true never compared GFO types.

 

[Reef.]

Thanks, I will do that. I'm using bulk reefs high capacity GFO, they said then I could get away with a smaller reactor using 1/2 the GFO. I could put a larger one in but space is tight. I think I would need 4 cups of reg GFO vs 2 cups of the high capacity and they said it lasts longer like 1 month vs 2 weeks.

I don't know if any of that is actually true never compared GFO types.

I meant to add that a piece of floss after the top sponge is a good idea.

Your po4 is really high, once it gets down you will obviously be using less, it is also recommended to mix the gfo with carbon if you use carbon, it helps the gfo not clump together as much, keep that in mind when judging the size of reactor you may need.

 

[330Bob]

I meant to add that a piece of floss after the top sponge is a good idea.

Your po4 is really high, once it gets down you will obviously be using less, it is also recommended to mix the gfo with carbon if you use carbon, it helps the gfo not clump together as much, keep that in mind when judging the size of reactor you may need.

This floss, you mean something finer than the sponge? I'll give it a try. Just got it up running today with low flow probably 50gph.

Yea have a tank guy that does all the water changes and I thought he checked it. He said "Big tanks like that are usually stable never had a phosphate issues. I asked him if he ever checked it. "err no" I'm having start to check it again ever week. Just got a little lax on the maintance is all. Fish are happy though some 10+ years old.

Over feeding is the real issue, wife tends to put 5 x what is needed. But yea its high. just a hint of hair algae is creeping in, his fix was no lights but that does not get rid of the fuel.

I have a bag of carbon in the sump (no reactor) 2 cups of HC GFO in the new reactor and started bio pellets 24 oz 2 weeks ago. Will up to 48 oz in a week or so.
He does 20 percent water change a week but its not enough.
I have a separate 57 watt UV on a 1000 gph closed loop bottom drain thats been offline for 5 years. He wants me to fire it up. Maybe in a few months think I want to see how the GFO + bio-pellets works to lower it.

Both nitrates are phospates are high 30 and 1.5.

 

[Reef.]

Yeah just filter floss, maybe you don’t need it, depends on the size of the gfo you use, normally something like rowaphos needs it.

30 nitrates is good to be fair, and if no issues with the po4 being high, then no rush to change anything, some have issues with 0.04 po4 some claim to run their tanks with 2ppm po4…keep an eye on your fish guy tho, that response is a little concerning.

 

[330Bob]

Yeah just filter floss, maybe you don’t need it, depends on the size of the gfo you use, normally something like rowaphos needs it.

30 nitrates is good to be fair, and if no issues with the po4 being high, then no rush to change anything, some have issues with 0.04 po4 some claim to run their tanks with 2ppm po4…keep an eye on your fish guy tho, that response is a little concerning.

Hehe yea I short of got a chuckle out of his response.

Well he is a nice fellow not sure why he does not like to test. He does many aquariums around the city. He is not nearly as picky as most people that have home systems. People can go OCD chasing numbers he is not that guy. But he is reliable in terms of bringing in water cleaning skimmers and algae off the glass.
I've been on and off with marine aquariums over the years. I use to do it all mix water just too busy at times so I hire it out. As you know its can be alot of work.

 

[330Bob]

Yeah just filter floss, maybe you don’t need it, depends on the size of the gfo you use, normally something like rowaphos needs it.

30 nitrates is good to be fair, and if no issues with the po4 being high, then no rush to change anything, some have issues with 0.04 po4 some claim to run their tanks with 2ppm po4…keep an eye on your fish guy tho, that response is a little concerning.

The bulk Reef high capacity is working but not taking it down super fast. Its been 3 weeks and now its maybe 1.0 to maybe just under 1. Down from 1.5 to 2.0 range.
I'll change it out at 3 weeks which is 1 day from now. Maybe since it was so high it used up the GFO faster. I'll check the outflow see if its zero phosphate.

 

[Reef.]

The bulk Reef high capacity is working but not taking it down super fast. Its been 3 weeks and now its maybe 1.0 to maybe just under 1. Down from 1.5 to 2.0 range.
I'll change it out at 3 weeks which is 1 day from now. Maybe since it was so high it used up the GFO faster. I'll check the outflow see if its zero phosphate.

GfO can exhaust within hours.

Also as you remove po4, rock and sand will release the po4 they have absorbed, you will also be adding more with every feeding.

With high po4, you really need to be testing daily and only testing the effluent of the reactor at least until you start seeing a steady drop in your readings.

 

[330Bob]

GfO can exhaust within hours.

Also as you remove po4, rock and sand will release the po4 they have absorbed, you will also be adding more with every feeding.

With high po4, you really need to be testing daily and only testing the effluent of the reactor at least until you start seeing a steady drop in your readings.

The Tank is at around 1.0 and the water cumming out of the reactor with 2 cups Bulk reef high capacity GFO is 0.5 Its been going for 3 weeks, so it appears the GFO is still working a little.
Maybe the high capacity stuff works slower, meaning it can't use it all up in 1 day. Not sure but I will change it out this weekend.

 

[Reef.]

Yeah it’s a balancing act, speed of flow and amount of GFO.

 

[330Bob]

Yeah it’s a balancing act, speed of flow and amount of GFO.

300 gallon tank with some hair algae starting past 3 months phosphates were 1-3 ppm range.
Follow up after 1 month of the GFO in a Aquamax FE-SE reactor using a mighty jet 324gph pump (valved to 40 gph) + BPE 500 pellect reactor (started 2 weeks prior)

Changed the GFO with 2 cups of fresh and checked phosphates 3 days later and they are finally under 1.0 maybe .25.

I took some photos of the phosphate salifert tests over the past month. 2nd batch of GFO kicked it in pretty fast.

Algae on the tanks glass and hair have dramatically reduced.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

Moving goo. is a pain Best to keep the gfo sedentary I layer a media filter chamber it with carbon and gfo then have it dump thru filter floss to catch any escaping fines. My reactor is 4 inch tube 22 tall. On my 300 gallon I use about 3 cups of carbon and 2 cups of gfo

 

[330Bob]

Moving goo. is a pain Best to keep the gfo sedentary I layer a media filter chamber it with carbon and gfo then have it dump thru filter floss to catch any escaping fines. My reactor is 4 inch tube 22 tall. On my 300 gallon I use about 3 cups of carbon and 2 cups of gfo

I'm not running any carbon right now. I have put some in a bag in the sump. Do you run carbon as a precation? I had not run any in years but put some in sump while doing the gfo in case extra chemicals got into tank from the gfo or new reactor.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

I'm not running any carbon right now. I have put some in a bag in the sump. Do you run carbon as a precation? I had not run any in years but put some in sump while doing the gfo in case extra chemicals got into tank from the gfo or new reactor.

I think carbon never hurts as the corals waging chemical warfare and it helps keep the gfo from clumping up so much