Carbon Reactor????

[Reef1589]

SO, i was curious if this would be considered the same thing as a carbon reactor... or if it would serve the same benefical effect..

i had a box of carbon given to me by a friend... and i had a crappy hang on the back filter... super small for like a 10-20 gallon tank..
its the Tetra Whisper... i was sitting here last night looking at it...and the carbon.. and thought what the heck..why not, pulled out to old dirty filter's.. put in a new sponge.. and put a bag of carbon in it... and hooked it up to a tank... small tank..

is this to be considered a DIY carbon reactor? lol.. or am i just running water through carbon? (which is what im pretty sure happens in a reactor anyways.. ) and is it beneficial for me?

[kawicivic]

I am not sure I would consider it a "reactor" but you are doing the same thing. By definition (A container or apparatus in which substances are made to react chemically, esp. one in an industrial plant) I suppose it fits though.

Reactors are designed to provide better contact area through all of the media vs. your filter whose main job is to clean the crud out of water and the carbon is an added benefit. Also, unless you have a huge filter (I have one that runs 4 sponge and carbon things from when I kept piranha), you can probably fit much more carbon in a reactor therefore not having to change it as quickly and allowing more water to go through it.

With that said, every once in awhile, I might throw a hang on filter with carbon on the tank. They work well when you clean off your display rocks. I usually turn of the return and then blow everything off the rocks. Then the hangon filters out a bunch of the gunk without it settling out in the fuge or sump. If a reactor were to handle that, it would be a pain because I wouldn't want all that detritus sitting in my tank until I changed the carbon. With the filter, you can run it and toss it when you are done (carbon really does not last as long as most people think - i know most change their carbon like once a month in a reactor, but I believe most people say it is toast long before).

Thats my $.02

[Reef1589]

well that works for me, ya i pretty much just gutted this... and threw the sponge type at the bottom, and slammed it full of carbon bags.. lol thinking in general it would do the same thing.

[fordguy24]

I did this with a small canister filter on a 30 gal tank and ran carbon and gfo in it and had good results!

[snorvich]

You can use a reactor (active usage) or a bag filled with carbon (passive usage). Either will work, the former will work better.