Debating getting a phosban reactor. Tell us your experiences with them

[oldpaddy]

Morning all, going through gha hell on my 220. I've been battling gha for a long time and now I'm looking at a phosban reactor. I'm running gfo right now. I'd like to hear some opinions on them.

220gal, 55gal sump, 2x 300w leds at full blast (I believe this is my biggest issue with gha, but I like being able to grow sps on my substrate.), tons of corals, fish and invertebrates of miscellaneous sizes and types. I feed a small pinch of flakes in the morning and at night and a small pinch of pellets at lunch. I feed 2x frozen cubes before a wc and once a week on between. I'll usually not feed flakes or pellets those days. I do weekly 30gal wc. I run gfo and carbon and chaeto in the sump.
Everything in my system is doing great. Corals are growing at a good rate, colors pop, and fish are healthy looking with good color. I don't mind a little gha, but I do get tired scrubbing rock every week.
I'm not ready to turn down my lights yet or feed less. I'm more interested in seeing if a phosban reactor would be helpful.

1.025
No3 0
Po4 0
I'm sure the no3 and po4 are being eaten up.
420ca
1450Mg
10dkh

 

[oldpaddy]

Oops. Put this in the wrong forum.

 

[TheFishGuy31]

I'm not a fan of the Two Little Fishes Phosban reactor. I prefer my BRS reactor over it, but I'm replacing that with an Avast reactor soon.

What kind of light do you run on your Cheato? I went from a CFL to a homemade red LED setup & the growth exploded.

 

[oldpaddy]

I'm not a fan of the Two Little Fishes Phosban reactor. I prefer my BRS reactor over it, but I'm replacing that with an Avast reactor soon.

What kind of light do you run on your Cheato? I went from a CFL to a homemade red LED setup & the growth exploded.

I'm using t5 on my chaeto and it's growing large in my sump/refugium. I use the brs gfo/carbon reactors.

 

[Sk8r]

The trick to getting good out of your reactor is changing the medium often enough. It doesn't 'tell' you it's saturated and 'canna take any more'...it just sits there doing zip about the problem which continues to leach out of your rock. It can saturate in your first week. So at least change it every month until you see your problem thinning to nothing. Then you can leave it in, oh, 3-4 months. Just not until things start growing in it.

 

[oldpaddy]

The trick to getting good out of your reactor is changing the medium often enough. It doesn't 'tell' you it's saturated and 'canna take any more'...it just sits there doing zip about the problem which continues to leach out of your rock. It can saturate in your first week. So at least change it every month until you see your problem thinning to nothing. Then you can leave it in, oh, 3-4 months. Just not until things start growing in it.

Great advice! Do you recommend a brand or model of reactor?

 

[oldpaddy]

Wait a minute, phosban and gfo are the same thing? I thought they were two separate things.

 

[eastlake]

they are different things but they kind of accomplish similar goals. GFO media is longer running than phosban, like sk8r said change it out once a month. The phosban needs to be replaced every 3 days if I'm not mistaken. I had a really bad hair algae takeover a while back and I ran the two in unison and saw a HUGE difference even within a week. They key to it though is to make sure you keep up with replenishing the media while you work on where the phosphate is coming from, in my case it was a poorly aerated sand bed.

 

[firemountain]

When I was looking at reactors, the Spectrapure dual reactor was recommended by a lot of guys here. I have been running it now for 2 years with no complaints. It allows for carbon and gfo to be run separately. The nice part that you can put a ball valve on each of the inputs and fine tune the flow going into each of the media. GFO needs to slowly tumble or it will solidify into a little brick. For carbon the longer the contact time the better, but again you can adjust it.

The nice part is that when I flush the media, I start off by first closing both ball valves, then flush the gfo first, after a few gallons, then shut it off...then open up the carbon side.

Now,you have the Avast Marine new reactor which is supposedly amazing. If I was choosing now....I don't know which one I would pick.....possibly the Avast Marine. They make quality products....I own their Kalk stirrer and ATO....and love them both.

 

[scooter31707]

I have been using the Two Little Fishies Reactor and never had any problems with it. It has done it's job. Now I have mines on a timer and run it about every 4-5 days for 8 hours.

 

[oldpaddy]

When I was looking at reactors, the Spectrapure dual reactor was recommended by a lot of guys here. I have been running it now for 2 years with no complaints. It allows for carbon and gfo to be run separately. The nice part that you can put a ball valve on each of the inputs and fine tune the flow going into each of the media. GFO needs to slowly tumble or it will solidify into a little brick. For carbon the longer the contact time the better, but again you can adjust it.

The nice part is that when I flush the media, I start off by first closing both ball valves, then flush the gfo first, after a few gallons, then shut it off...then open up the carbon side.

Now,you have the Avast Marine new reactor which is supposedly amazing. If I was choosing now....I don't know which one I would pick.....possibly the Avast Marine. They make quality products....I own their Kalk stirrer and ATO....and love them both.

I use the brs duel reactors for gfo and carbon. I'm not crazy about it. I've been using it for a couple of years and I've finally found that if I use 1/4c of gfo and change it out every 2 weeks it stays tumbling. Any more than that and within a week or so the gfo hardens on me.

Thanks guys for the advice and help!

 

[oldpaddy]

I have been using the Two Little Fishies Reactor and never had any problems with it. It has done it's job. Now I have mines on a timer and run it about every 4-5 days for 8 hours.

Why not run it constantly?

I was reading up on phosban and I read somewhere that it was synthetic gfo. Can I run it in a reactor like gfo or carbon, or does it need a special type of reactor?