Reactor Questions

xcorallusx · Jun 23, 2011

Hey guys I am new to this site, I have a 350 gallon mixed reef with a 90 gallon refugium/full of live rock and a 40 gallon sump. I hooked up a 2 little fishes phosban150 with biopellets from brs. I just ordered the dual reactor from them and was going to add carbon and gfo. I have more than 20 fish, my biggest is a sohal tang. Ive got a few other tangs but they are only a few inches. I have been having some hair algae problems in spots and hope the gfo will take care of it. I have the phosban 150 hooked up to a mj1200 and wanted to add the dual reactor to the biopellet output.
Would you recommend this biopellet-->carbon-->gfo?

Thanks,
Tim

Salty Dog · Jun 23, 2011

have you tested the water?Nitrates? Phosp? ect

xcorallusx · Jun 23, 2011

I have not tested in a while, I add kalk with vinegar for top off and ph stays around 8at night and 8.2 during day. I will test when I get home. I was wondering if the output from the biopellets would be ok going into the carbon reactor and then the output of the carbon going into the gfo. I know each media requires different flow rates so I was hoping that would work.

pickupman66 · Jun 23, 2011

Biopellets work best in their own reactor with the output directed to the inlet of the skimmer. this way your skimmer picks up most of output and skims out the processed waste. for a tank your size, you need at least 1000-2000ML of biopellets for them to be effective. I dont think that TLF reactor is large enough to handle that. fwiw, I have 1000ml in use on my 180 with about 225 gallons total volume. you want enough flow thru them to give them a gentle tumble or what looks like a slow boil. if they dont tumble they will bind and not be as effective. dont use vinegar as another carbon source when using the pellets.

the GFO is much less flow tolerant. you want the bed fluidized and just the top layer to tumble. the granular works best. if you have too much flow thru it, it will grind up and release fines into the water to damage your corals. Carbon is the same way. too much agitation and it grinds up.

xcorallusx · Jun 23, 2011

Thanks, I wanted to start off small with the biopellets so my corals wouldnt bleach. I think that if I have the bp carbon and gfo it should be fine, ill test the water and if the levels still arent where they should be, ill change the reactors. The biopellets are tumbling, but not too fast, I think the output is just enough flow to feed the carbon and gfo. My return pump feeds the skimmer also but I do have the biopellet output going to the return pump. Should I add a filter sock for the reactors return or keep it how it is now?

revhtree · Jun 23, 2011

Hello there and welcome to R2R!

What skimmer if any are you running and are you using RO/DI water?

pickupman66 · Jun 23, 2011

That is the way mine is setup. my pellet reactor dumps into my sump as I have a massive return pump that feeds all my reactors and the skimmer and tank. Dosing the pellets is not like vodka where you really have to ramp up. the pellets need to colonize. you should be good to go with 1500ml or so of the pellets with that bioload and water volume. when you add in more pellets, you will need more water flow. dont limit yourself by hooking them all together.

xcorallusx · Jun 23, 2011

Thanks! Here is the skimmer ETSS 1400
The water filter I am using is a kold sterril unit, I bought new filter media earlier this year, cost me 70 bucks. I like the unit, doesn't have waste water and comes out relatively fast. I know both pieces of equipment are kind of old but they still work great. Anyone else on here use either of these? The GFO and dual reactor should be here on friday, if it helps after a few weeks ill keep with the same routine, if not I will get a larger reactor for the biopellets. Do you have chaeto with the biopellets? I had a small clump grow pretty big and I went on vacation for the weekend and came back and most of it was dead. Do you think the biopellets took out all the nutrients because the tank wasnt being fed as much as normal?
Thanks,
Tim

pickupman66 · Jun 23, 2011

yes. sounds like the biopellets out-competed the chaeto for the nutrients. that is a good sign. it normally takes the pellets a few weeks to get cycled in. I dont run a fuge on my tank. I need to get one just for the pods, but I may try to make some of those pod hotels they showed on Garf. I have a 150 rubbermaid tub for a sump so I have plenty of room.

I ahve never heard of that filter you are using. so long as you get zero TDS out of It I guess it would work. I have your standard 4 stage RO/DI system.

NICE SKIMMER! that thing is a BEAST. looks like an upgraded version of mine. I am guesing it uses two beckett injectors?

Here is my setup. on teh far left is my dual biopellet chamber. 500ML of biopellets in each. the GFO is run in a Phosban reactor with a maxijet700 fed from teh skimmer bin. Pardon the green in the CaRx. the sunlight in teh garage windows messed it up. ill clean it when i get low on media. skimmer is fed directly from the main pump via 1" plumbing. the pellet reactor comes off the manifold on the center right. that manifold also feeds the CaRx, the UV, and the chiller. Jeez, I need to clean it up a bit.

xcorallusx · Jun 23, 2011

Very nice, here is the kold steril unit Kold Ster-il Hi-Flow Three Stage Water Filter
The skimmer has a dual downdraft with two air intakes which are hooked up to a mini reactor that has carbon in it. The skimmer collection cup has a drain that goes to another mini reactor that has a ping pong ball to shut it off and also has a carbon cartridge to keep the smell down. Its a nice big skimmer and easy to clean. I have low flow in the 90 gallon "refugium" and put a bunch of dry rock that I left outside for 6 months. It is now purpling up and has lots of critters in there. I will keep it going to help filter and I think it helps keep the temperature low and parameters stable. I have 3 400 watt metal halides on the main system and 2 12" reefbrite led strips. I plan on getting two more strips, maybe the 24" ones. I have a deltec calcium reactor that I havnt setup yet as most of my sps are small. Should I setup it up now or wait till the limewater isnt cutting it?

xcorallusx · Jun 23, 2011

Do you have an etss? I had a reef devil deluxe on my smaller tanks and liked it. This is my first "big" tank so I am learning a lot. I dont have a TDS meter but I will get one next time I order from BRS. When I first started out I didnt have any water filter and would use kalk and tap water and you could see the kalk get a nice yellow on the bottom, maybe it was binding with the impurities? I am getting a 33 long next month and setting it up as a quarantine tank. I have always dumped corals and fish in the DT and hoped they worked out. I now have a lot of nice fish and corals and cant risk it anymore.

pickupman66 · Jun 23, 2011

NO, I have an MRC-MR2. nice unit, just needed some tweaking. it drains into an Oceanic salt bucket that I dump every weekend or two. I have maybe 20 SPS frags in my tank now. my CaRx only does 1 drop per minute and it is keeping up with my demand now. as the corals grow, ill just increase its feed rate. I have coralline growing everywhere now though. it is thick as molasses in places and looks like purple globs of glue on some of the rocks. it has almost coated my overflows. how long did you use the tap? I have found in my experience that the rocks can absorb the phosphates in the tap and release them over time. the longer you used that bad water, the longer it will take for your rocks to stop. be careful with the gfo, you can overstrip the phosphates and shock the corals especially when you are using the pellets. watch for burnt tips of your acro's. I found in my tank, that they are more likely to burn if you have a high KH (over 8.5) and are running the pellets. my sweet spot has been 8KH, with 400-420 Ca.

I dont QT my corals. they all get a 5 minute swish in a Coral Rx PRO dip. Knocks all the nasties off them. heck, it even knocks the pods off too... its good stuff. as for my fish, I shoudl QT but havent set up the facilities yet. I have the tank, but no filtration yet. I have just given them a fresh water dip for up to 10 minutes to kill parasites and dumped them in. I am pretty careful about the fish I buy, and am currently getting them from a single source who does my QT before I purchase them.
here is a shot of my tank now. lets see yours.

xcorallusx · Jun 24, 2011

YouTube - ‪tccoplan's Channel‬&rlm;
here are some videos of my setup

pickupman66 · Jun 24, 2011

nice looking Sohal. is yours high strung? mine is very laid back. Good looking tank overall.

xcorallusx · Jun 24, 2011

Thanks he gets high strung sometimes, I think he just likes to tell everyone hes the king of the tank. He chases the foxface sometimes and will pick on his spines but other than that everyone gets along. I am going to redo the rockwork as soon as I setup my quarantine tank. When I bought the setup the rock had a lot of majanos and I couldnt set it up when we got it back so I put the rock on a tarp in the driveway and let it dry out and go through winter. I let it soak and then rinsed it with a hose before I put it in the tank and put all of live rock and corals from my 90 gallon. I know this isnt the best way to do it but the rock is starting to look nice again and getting lots of coralline growth.