Stack method flow

[MichaelW]

I am about to be taking my bp reactor offline and starting up a media reactor with zeo mix, carbon, phos minus, using the "stack method".
My tank is 200 gallons so I'm thinking possibly full amount of each is about 800ml of each product for 2400ml total. (I will not be starting with full amounts, probably more like 400ml of each to see). Because of this I will likely choose the vertex 2.5L media reactor (unless someone has a better reccomendation). I know we want to get flow so phosphate minus gently tumbles on top.... However, I am not sure what kind of gallons per hour or litres per hour this is likely to be. Any kind of insight to what size pump I should look at... Hate to buy one and it be either too small and not get phosphate minus to tumble or waste money on one that's too big and have to valve it way down.

 

[plyle02]

@ Mike,
Not sure on flow recommendations, as I use the vertex zeovit 1.5L reactor with all medias stacked as well. The small eheim comes standard, and the ball valve is open about 75% to achieve the proper flow, I know Flo from Austria also has the same setup going on with similar results. That said, I think any reactor that holds 2.5L of media should be more than enough. I would always use a ball valve on any reactor to dial in flow, IME. I personally differ from Debora, I do not use equal parts in the reactor. I use in US cup measurements, 2.5 cups of AF Zeo Mix, 1.5 cups AF Carbon, and 1 cup AF Phosphate Minus. I guess it depends on how your system processes nutrients, you can sort of play with this combo to achieve your desired results

 

[MichaelW]

The reactors I am looking at do not come with a pump so was just looking to see what I should buy to put on it. Are we talking more like 500 gallon per hour or say 200 gallon per hour.

 

[plyle02]

I would lean on 500gph, always easier to dial down, but that is exactly what I would recommend. Any fluidized reactor should do. I like being able to remove media basket, while the reactor is still on line. That is why I like the Zeo reactor stacked.

 

[MichaelW]

Yeah the reactor I'm not too concerned about and pretty sure I will get the vertex 2.5 because of volume and they have the same removable media chamber like the your zeovit reactor so changing media will be easy.
From my research the eheim pump on the 1.5 zeovit reactor is max of 160 gph. So if you have that throttled down some I should be able to look at a pump around 300 and have plenty.
I know I could get stronger pump and just use a valve to keep flow down ... Just don't want to spend more money on a 500 gph pump if a 300 is plenty.

 

[2dawghouse]

@ Mike,
Not sure on flow recommendations, as I use the vertex zeovit 1.5L reactor with all medias stacked as well. The small eheim comes standard, and the ball valve is open about 75% to achieve the proper flow, I know Flo from Austria also has the same setup going on with similar results. That said, I think any reactor that holds 2.5L of media should be more than enough. I would always use a ball valve on any reactor to dial in flow, IME. I personally differ from Debora, I do not use equal parts in the reactor. I use in US cup measurements, 2.5 cups of AF Zeo Mix, 1.5 cups AF Carbon, and 1 cup AF Phosphate Minus. I guess it depends on how your system processes nutrients, you can sort of play with this combo to achieve your desired results

Perry, do you use a sponge/screen to keep the media separate or will it automatically segregate due to weight difference of each media?

 

[plyle02]

Perry, do you use a sponge/screen to keep the media separate or will it automatically segregate due to weight difference of each media?

I do use a media sponge between AF Carbon and Phosphate Minus, otherwise, the AF Carbon rests on top of the Zeo Mix I find this way I have little Phosphate Minus debris on bottom of the reactor. Cheers