phosban totally calcified!

[dolt]

I had just tested my TLF phosban reactor output for phosphates and it was creeping up so I decided to change the media (which was strange as it had been only in there for one month) when I opened it the media was frozen into one solid mass that I had to chisel out with a screwdriver bit by bit! - why did this happen and how can I prevent it?

 

[dunham16]

i am a noob but i think if you do not have enough flow through the reactor it will cause this i think you are supposed to have the media rising to about 3/4 the reactor height.

 

[dolt]

that is interesting - I guess that is a possibility as I do not have a ton of flow through it but still seems strange from just too little flow - is the media supposed to be moved by the current through the reactor?

 

[Wiskey]

yes the media is supposed to move from the flow through the reactor, if you look at the surface of the media it should be moving.

That being said, this is the first time I have ever heard of this.

Whiskey

 

[AZDesertRat]

You need enough flow so the media is fluidized or suspended in the flow. Not too much though or it will grind itself down to dust and get in the aquarium. I adjust mine so it rises about 1 to 2" in the column and its seems to work well.

 

[dolt]

well this might be the problem then as I had totally filled the chamber with media - therefore it would not be moving as it has no room but it still seems weird even given that that it calcified

 

[wahshk]

Do you add kalk by any chance near the inlet of your reactor? Do you have high PH?

 

[dolt]

I use B-ionic at this point - I do add it to my sump but not near the intake and the sump is pretty big - 150 gallons so seems it would dilute it when I add it - maybe I will turn it off when adding B-ionic

 

[AZDesertRat]

You only fill the reactor with one 150 gram container. It only fills it up about 1/3 but thats the best way.

 

[dolt]

I bought the big canister so am not sure exactly what volume that would be - is there a volume conversion to cups?

 

[dolt]

when I say big canister I mean of phosban - not the reactor - I will try filling it about 1/3 of the way up then unless someone knows exact volume to gram conversion as I do not have a scale

 

[AZDesertRat]

Probably about 1 cup it looks like when I hold a measuring cup up to the reactor. When I measure it with the flow off its about 3.5" high in the chamber.

 

[washingtond]

I had the same thing happen on two different tanks. The 200 gal tank had 2 reactors connected in series and only the second had the problem. Also the sponge was as hard as a rock.

By the way the first reactor has nice fluid flow the second does not.

 

[AZDesertRat]

My sponges were getting hard also so I put the sponge prefilter on the MJ400 powerhead that feeds it and it helped a lot by prefiltering the water entering the reactor.

 

[dolt]

OK I think that I figured it out - in my zeal to get as much media as I could in there thinking that it would remove even more phosphates, I had overfilled it and it could not move at all and just solidified over time - now with it filled less it refluxes nicely and I suspect it will not happen again - just as an FYI marine depot sells replacement sponges really cheap if you need them

 

[dolt]

thanks for all your guys' help! I learn something new every day - hopefully this will work better now at getting phosphates out to boot