how to rinse carbon and gfo?

[johnfallon135]

i combine mine in 1 reactor so when i rinse them through my reactor are they suppose to tumble? normally i assume no since they shouldn't be tumbled when in use together in 1 container however when i rinse them clear water comes out.. if i tumble them then it's just counter productive right? since they just grind each other? i use brs large carbon and rowa phos. i watch videos of people rinsing them from their reactors and they get a lot of black and brown coloration first however that wasn't the case for me today am i doing something wrong? thanks!

 

[downbeach]

After replacing the media, I used to rinse them when I did a WC by running the pump in a forward (normal) direction with a BRS reactor in the sump. When the water ran clear, I would place the pump back on the outflow side of the reactor, so it would run in reverse flow for this application. Although I have separate reactors for each media now, I still run the GAC in reverse flow to keep it from tumbling. The media will tumble during the rinsing process. I have also rinsed each media separately before I mixed them together, and placed the mixture into the reactor and would do the previous mentioned rinse again briefly.

 

[C.Eymann]

I always rinse carbon in RODI before I use it. GFO the same, I have read rinsing carbon in RODI before using helps open up the fine pores in it.
Never really gave thought into rinsing GFO in RODI but figure it can't hurt.

 

[Potatohead]

You want the GFO to tumble slightly, but you want the carbon to stay stationary. Depending on your reactor you can usually play with the bubble plates and/or foam to make this work. If you can't, just mix them together before putting in the reactor and set it up so it does not tumble.

As others have said after I have loaded the reactor I just pump some RODI through it for a few seconds until it runs clear.

 

[johnfallon135]

you guys didn't quite understand my question sry lol i did mix them and pumped r/o water through them but my question was how come my water came out clear. there was no black or brown coloration that rinsed out first it was just straight clear water and i was wondering why

 

[oseymour]

you guys didn't quite understand my question sry lol i did mix them and pumped r/o water through them but my question was how come my water came out clear. there was no black or brown coloration that rinsed out first it was just straight clear water and i was wondering why

There are many different kinds and grades of carbon. There is a really soft type that is hard to rinse clean.

I use the BRS ROX 0.8 which is a pelletized carbon with very low dust which rinses clean after a couple of seconds.

Check this BRS video about the different types of carbon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP5Vu6OvLOI

 

[Potatohead]

RowaPhos typically takes a while to rinse so I have no idea why it's clear right away. Sounds like a good problem, lol.