Media bag vs. reactor

[Big Boy69]

Can someone explain to me what is better, running a media bag in your sump filled with rowa phos, compared to a phosphate reactor running rowa phos.


Goods, bads, uglys and personal experiences.

[woz9683]

Media reactors are better because more surface area of the media is actually exposed to the water column. Sitting in a bag on the bottom of the sump, the media is not utilized as well as it can be with a reactor.

[netboy]

If the bag is just sitting in the sump the water will tend to go around it rather than through the media.

[firsthesitation]

I build my sump so I could put a T on my outlet and run the water to both the skimmer side and the fuge side, then in the center I have the return section where i built a egg crate shelf and put my bag of carbon so the two sections run over it before getting back into the tank....if that helps....?

[TomRep]

I talked to BigBoy lastnight. the area he has it in his sump is a passage that all the water has to flow over the media to get into the next chamber. So, the bag isn't just sitting on the bottom of the sump or anything like that.
tom

[Big Boy69]

Thanks Tom, you posted before I got to post.
The media bag is in my second chamber, in the downflow part and then goes through to the next upflow chamber.

[TomRep]

Figured I'd post it for you. When I got to it this morning, it was on page 29 or something like that!
tom

[mouscacha]

I just rec'd my 2 TLF phos reactor. One as phos and one carbon. It was the best 40 dollar investment do date.

Let me explain to you the different ways I've approached this. I wanted to be cheap with my yellowing water because it wasn't hurting anyone/any fish. I researched on here and found out I could just stick a carbon bag in my sump, or high flow area to fix the problem. It did... sorta... My yellowing went down by about 15-25% after a few days. I tried my overflow box, skimmer output, shooting a pump over it, and wedging it in one of my baffles. The overflow box seemed to do the most, but the bag was disgusting after a few days.

You might want to check this out too. I had researched this after my bag problem didn't work. A link from Melevs site brought me here.
http://www.pets-warehouse.com/carbon_1.htm

After I installed the reactor, I noticed an immediate difference in water quality. I have the Carbon reactor attached to a tuned down MJ 600. My water went from yellow to clear. I could see all the way to the back of my tank!

I don't know what else to say. Just my $0.02 anyway...

[chin]

The reactors are going to work better than having water flow through it either sitting in a sump or even having water flow over it. The difference w/ the reactor is water is flowing upwards, filling the chamber ahd flowing through the media. This eliminates dead spots and allows maximum contact time between the water and the media. Having a media bag sitting in a baffle will help, but not as efficiently as a reactor b/c unless water is actively pushed through the media, water will always pick the easiest route to flow.

[Big Boy69]

I'm running a reactor now.

[dohc97]

I just saw this thread and wanted to point out that if people have a used aquaclear hob filter laying around you can use it and save yourself the reactor money. Of course this only works if you have a smaller tank like me. Im using one that i had hanging around and i stacked carbon and a bag with fauna marin ultraphos in the media section. The water gets pushed through the carbon and gfo on its way back to the tank. Im sure a reactor might be more efficient but this works sufficiently for me.