Carbon Question

[Jayreefer]

Hello all, I have not posted much the past too years, but over the past 2 months I have been getting my tank back up to par as with life I was not giving the tank the attention its needs.

My question is in a two little fishes media reactor can I put 2 diffrent media as long as it is seperated. I ask as I am running the a phospate media and I was thing of putting carbon in as well as it is only half full. From bottom up half two little fishes phosphate media, and then carbon. Anyone see isssues in doing this?

Also here is a pic of my happy 12" puffer who is about 3 years old. He likes to be pet, lol. Sorry for the bad cell phone pic.

 

[jomskie_ad]

some say its not a good idea as one get used quicker than the other and when u change the depleted one you have to change the other one too,

im not saying u cant, as i have done it before with carbon and a phosphate remover in a 2 lil fishes reactor

im sure more experienced people will chime in but it always end up what u want to do

good luck

 

[lockekeyy]

Hey Jay! Nice to see you back on here. You going reef again?

You can run gfo and carbon in same reactor but the results might not be as good as separately. Run carbon so that water hits it first then gfo. There's two reasons for this. Carbon requires a higher flow than gfo. So when the flow hits the carbon, it should slow it down for the gfo. Second, sometimes carbon will leech phosphates and the gfo can catch it. Hope this helps.

 

[dww1188]

I know nothing about your question but I will you give you props on a 12" fish that you can pet!!! That's cool

 

[fishysmell]

You could consider using Seachem Seagel...it's a proportionate mix of GFO and carbon in one bottle. That way you don't have to worry about separating it or anything.

 

[criecken]

Hey Jay! Nice to see you back on here. You going reef again?

You can run gfo and carbon in same reactor but the results might not be as good as separately. Run carbon so that water hits it first then gfo. There's two reasons for this. Carbon requires a higher flow than gfo. So when the flow hits the carbon, it should slow it down for the gfo. Second, sometimes carbon will leech phosphates and the gfo can catch it. Hope this helps.

I have done exactly per the above with no issues.

btw, good to see you back online Jay.

 

[fishysmell]

You could consider using Seachem Seagel...it's a proportionate mix of GFO and carbon in one bottle. That way you don't have to worry about separating it or anything.

Edit: It's a mix of PhosGuard and carbon which isn't the same as GFO...plus I don't think it's made to run in a reactor, just in a mesh bag. Sorry about that.

 

[Jayreefer]

Thanks for the info as I have not used carbon in the tank before, but I think I will need it to get the levels back to reef quality. How long does carbon last, monthly? In the past I have only used for short period of times like a week here and there.

 

[rafajara1985]

Let me know if you decide to go reef and need to rehome that puffer

 

[dublo8]

I ran both in a single reactor for a while. The carbon needs to be on the bottom then a pad separating the two and the gfo on top of that. GFO needs to have a slight tumble to it. It will work no worries. Fwiw seachem's phosphate media is aluminum based and some, including myself had issues with it. Mainly with lps corals.


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[Jayreefer]

Sorry, puffer is not going anywhere, also he has not toched a singe mushroom, leather, or my prple plating sponge. I will see what happens with zoas and some LPS when the water is right.

 

[tozzi]

U can run 2. Check out brs's website for instructions

 

[tozzi]

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[dublo8]

Despite how BRS has it set up (yes, I have tried it that way) it's better to put the carbon on the bottom. Fines and small pieces of gfo will get stuck in the pad above it blocking flow if done the BRS way. Try it, it may work but I thought it worked better the other way.

 

[Jayreefer]

I will try putting the carbon on top as then I can change it and leave the GFO in place. Thanks for the tips. I am getting some yellowish water, but no ammonia and no nitrites so the carbon should clear it up.