Phosban... Without a reactor?

[dismayed]

If I wanted to put some Phosban in a filter bag and then stuff it either in my HOB skimmer or inside my Emperor somehow, would that do any good? Or do I really need a reactor?

[Sk8r]

You really need a reactor. The medium is expensive to rebuy and rebuy, and using it in a bag just does not IME give the benefit of a reactor, which if properly adjusted, lets the medium toss and seethe, exposing a lot of water to the medium. In a bag, it just sort of lies there and collects sediment and never does enough good for a bad algae problem.

[SALTYwaterDOG]

Darn! ! I just mixed a bunch up in my carbon bag to day hoping it would help��

[hart24601]

I have never seen a clear demonstration of bags not working with phosphate media. Clearly they will not work as fast as a reactor, but if you put the bag in a high flow spot of the sump and make sure it doesn't get covered in detritus or clump I don't know why it wouldn't be ok. It's not like there is only 1 way to do things in this hobby.

FWIW check out BRS video about activated carbon and reactor vs bag. They saw the bag worked just fine, it just took longer. For someone with really high phosphate the longer time might be seen as a positive as you don't want to strip high phosphate really fast.

[reefwiser]

I use a GFO in a bag in a 14 gallon QT system. Works great knocked algae right out Put it in the over flow section on a 14 gallon bio cube.

[fishchef]

GFO does work in a bag. I wouldn't mix it next time with carbon since both will exhaust at different times.

[BleuFish]

I haven't measured my phosphate, but I have a bag of activated carbon and another bag of rowaphos in my skimmer. If your skimmer is like the reef octopus bh-2000, and has that extra chamber it could work. I've been doing carbon like that for a half year and just started the rowaphos, no issues yet.

[kentwo]

I haven't measured my phosphate, but I have a bag of activated carbon and another bag of rowaphos in my skimmer. If your skimmer is like the reef octopus bh-2000, and has that extra chamber it could work. I've been doing carbon like that for a half year and just started the rowaphos, no issues yet.


I do the same thing in my Reef Octopus skimmer. Use a media bag and some phosphoban to help reduce the phosphates. It is in a high flow area which I guess is similar to a reactor.

[Mcgeezer]

GFO is the most effective within a fluidized reactor, however there is nothing wrong with placing it in a mesh bag/sock in a very high flow area such as your sump drain or in the baffles.

But the highest level of effectiveness is your reactor. The reactor forces the water to be moved thru all of the media in a confined space and allows it to turn over phosphate free water back into the system thru the output tubing.

[diveredd]

It works fine in a bag in a high flow area. However, I think it would be better in a reactor. I've had great success with a bag to eliminate GHA.

[3dees]

can someone explain how to use the RO BH-2000 for phosphate control? do you use the empty chamber? doesn't seem like much flow. what am I missing. I'm thinking about a reactor but I would rather not have something else hanging in my dt. I have no sump.