What size spyglass reactor?

[re76]

I am interested in getting a spyglass reactor while they are on sale but I am not sure what size to get.

I am setting up a Red Sea Reefer 450 which has a total system volume of 116 gallons. I want to use the spyglass to run bio-pellets.

Everything I am reading seems to suggest ~500ml bio-pellets per 100 gallons which happens to be exactly in the middle of the small and medium spyglass reactors.

My gut is telling me to go with the small because I think it is closer to what I need than the medium, but I would like some expert opinions.

I have a manifold off of my return line with a gate valve on each output to control flow. My plan is to use one output as an input for a recirculating bio-pellet reactor. The other would be for a ROX carbon reactor, maybe mixed with some GFO if needed.

With this in mind for bio-pellets I would use the small spyglass with the Syncra nano pump in full recirculating (mode B) with the manifold output providing the water input to the spyglass.

In an ideal world I would then get a second small spyglass to run the carbon (and maybe GFO) which would be set up in manifold mode with no additional pump. This may or may not have to wait due to budget concerns, and the fact that I already have a TLF phosban 150 that I could use for the time being.

Does this make sense?

To summarize my questions:

1. Is the small spyglass a good size for running bio pellets on a tank with a total system volume of 116 gallons?

2. Would a second small spyglass be suitable for running some combination of ROX carbon and GFO? What about just carbon?

 

[Avast Marine]

Hi Ryan,

Your plumbing plan sounds perfect and I would use the small for biopellets on your tank, the little bit of +/- on the volume of your systems is pretty insignificant so I wouldn't sweat it. Mixing GFO and rox carbon in the Spyglass works great as does simply running the rox carbon by itself, phosguard is another po4 media that can be used as an alternate to the gfo and mixed with the carbon and after a few months of experimenting with it we actually prefer it to the GFO/carbon mix due to how clean and easy it is to work with.

 

[re76]

Hi Ryan,

Your plumbing plan sounds perfect and I would use the small for biopellets on your tank, the little bit of +/- on the volume of your systems is pretty insignificant so I wouldn't sweat it. Mixing GFO and rox carbon in the Spyglass works great as does simply running the rox carbon by itself, phosguard is another po4 media that can be used as an alternate to the gfo and mixed with the carbon and after a few months of experimenting with it we actually prefer it to the GFO/carbon mix due to how clean and easy it is to work with.

Perfect. Thanks so much for the response!

 

[re76]

Hi Ryan,

Your plumbing plan sounds perfect and I would use the small for biopellets on your tank, the little bit of +/- on the volume of your systems is pretty insignificant so I wouldn't sweat it. Mixing GFO and rox carbon in the Spyglass works great as does simply running the rox carbon by itself, phosguard is another po4 media that can be used as an alternate to the gfo and mixed with the carbon and after a few months of experimenting with it we actually prefer it to the GFO/carbon mix due to how clean and easy it is to work with.

One more thing while you are around. It seems pretty widely accepted that carbon should not tumble in a reactor because it will cause the carbon to break down and create fines that make it into the tank. Is there any way to address this issue with the spyglass? Or is this not something you have witnessed being a problem?

 

[Avast Marine]

Rox .8 is a harder extruded carbon and does not produce excess dust, additionally the flow is very gentle on all medias in the spyglass so any media fracturing is minimized.

 

[re76]

Ok great. So I'm pretty sold at this point. I think I'm going to get two smalls, one with a syncra nano pump and one without.

I think rather than worry about GFO I will just go with AIO biopellets in the one that is run in single pass mode directly off the manifold, and run the carbon in full recirculating mode being fed by the manifold.

I'm probably going way overboard on planning this out. I apologize for all of the question. In your opinion is there any benefit in running the carbon in full recirculating mode or should I just ditch the pump and run them both in single pass mode?

 

[ctenophore]

No, I would run the carbon in single pass. You'll get better contact time with your water volume. It doesn't take much flow to gently fluidize Rox carbon.

 

[re76]

No, I would run the carbon in single pass. You'll get better contact time with your water volume. It doesn't take much flow to gently fluidize Rox carbon.

Ok thanks for the feedback. I think I'm just going to get two smalls then, with no pumps and run them both in single pass mode off the manifold.

One for Carbon and one for AIO biopellets.