Clearing up water; Carbon Reactor, Canister, or what?

[jeffesaurusrex]

My water is cloudy looking lengthways down the tank. There is also "snow" floating around in the DT most of the time, it wasn't noticeable to me but somebody else asked if I fed recently and I noticed it then.

All I have on the tank is an Octopus 150 skimmer, no other filtration whatsoever even a filter sock. I do have an Aquaclear 70 that I gutted and put some chaeto and a light on, I run my overflow through this before it drops into the tank. I did this so I can isolate the chaeto and prevent it from getting into my skimmer pump, and hopefully by creating ideal conditions for the chaeto by giving it it's own light and an ample supply of the dirtiest water in the system, I can starve out the cyano bloom going on in my very new tank.

I was thinking of a couple options but I have heard bad things about all of them and I'd like to try and get a general consensus.

I was at first considering the Two Little Fishes media reactor with carbon. But then I got to thinking, by the time I bought all the stuff to make it run I could buy a canister filter. They have them on sale at the LFS for around 150 bucks for a 100g system. Either of these I would likely run once a month for a week or so to "polish" my water. I saw this thing too, it says it's easily converted from constant use to "water polishing" which kind of caught my eye but it looks sort of junky: http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=3595.

I was also thinking of an Aquaclear 110, which really seems to me like the cheapest and best option but I'm sure there's a reason nobody runs them in saltwater. They have carbon and mechanical filtration in one unit and they're cheaper than a canister.

I'm stumped. Any advice?

[frog.pauley]

Bulk Reef Supply Dual media reactor. GFO and Carbon. Mine are coming in today so i am not an expert, but i read this constantly....canister filters have too much flow to use as a reactor...and from my own experience...take the time and money, do it right the first time. Check BRS though, they have everything you need pretty reasonable. Some of the others will chime in with exact details, but that is the jist.

[lordofthereef]

GFO will help with phosphates (generally used to keep algae at bay) but will do little for clarity. GAC (carbon) will likely help clarity. In some cases, clarity issues are due to bacteria, but more often than not this isn't the case. Try GAC first. It's cheap and you will know within hours if it's helping any.

[bennylab]

I use that exact canister filter on my qt tank because I had it left over from my freshwater system. I find it difficult to service, clutters up the display with drains & returns, and has no real flow adjustment or way to tell if the flow is correct for the media you are using since you cannot see the media. For my DT, I run 2 brs reactors for carbon & gfo and am pleased with their performance & ease of maintenance.