GFO & Carbon Reactor - cleaning ?

[ktkreegs]

One of the duties I hate to do is switch out my carbon and GFO from my reactor. Reason for this is I have found no easy way to clean the material inside the reactor before hooking back up to the system. I try to run a gallon of clean water through it until the black dust comes out clear in my waste bucket.

My procedure:
- Take the unit off the system.
- Discard of the material in the reactor.
- Clean out the foam pads and clean the reactor.
- Put new material into the reactor.
- Setup two 5 gallon buckets. 1 with a couple of gallons and the other empty.
- Run a maxi jet pump from the water bucket through the reactor, water runs into the empty bucket.
- Try and drain some of the water out of the reactor.
- Then hook it back up to the system.

Might be the only way to do this, but still a pain.

Does anyone have a good way of doing this and how do you do it?

Just looking for other ideas that I might not be thinking of.

Thanks. Kevin

[reef_enthusiast]

I do a similar method of changing out. When it's time to change it usually is at the same time I'm doing a water change. So, I first clean out the reactor, put in new media, and reassemble. Then, the 1st bucket or 2 I take out of the aquarium for the water change is from the reactor till it comes out clear from the reactor. That way, I don't have to worry about draining the reactor.

[BFG]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15568180#post15568180 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reef_enthusiast
I do a similar method of changing out. When it's time to change it usually is at the same time I'm doing a water change. So, I first clean out the reactor, put in new media, and reassemble. Then, the 1st bucket or 2 I take out of the aquarium for the water change is from the reactor till it comes out clear from the reactor. That way, I don't have to worry about draining the reactor.

I do this too. Old water being taken out and top it up with new saltwater, a water change!

[luther1200]

I also do a WC at the same time.