two little fishes phosban reactor

[an411]

to run 2 of them would 1 maxi jet 404 pump be good enough or should i get 1 for each of them?

[an411]

I know people on here have this setup I was reading a post a few days ago where people were talking about running one of these for carbon and one for phosban media. I just want to know if I should get a maxi jet for each reactor or 1 for both of them. I am ordering asap

[SaltyDr]

You can "daisy chain" them together. I'd run the carbon first and the GFO second.

[rbursek]

You can run them in series, carbon first, I am going to change my two over to this is a day or two, you just may need to control the flow into the phosban to just have the media rolling, not too much flow thru it.
Bob

[an411]

so the maxi jet pump 404 should be sufficient to run them in a daisy chain right

[Shooter7]

an411, I've sent a PM to someone who is on here at the moment and I know has had a couple reactors set up in series before to see if he could comment on a pump. I only have one reactor so can't comment on the mult use.

[an411]

yeah I mean i could just get 2 of them they are only 13 bucks each but why waste the 13 bucks if I only need 1 to run it efficiently

[Avi]

I'd suggest that if your intention is to run two different kinds of medium through them, one of which would be for carbon, then use one pump for each. The slow water movement is more specific for phosphate-removing mediums. These reactors work best on that kind of medium if the medium is "fluidized," which means that there is a slight suspension of the medium in the reactor while it's working. Not only isn't it necessary for the carbon to be maintained in the reactor in that way and there's no problem in having a faster flow when using carbon than when using phosphate-removal mediums. Also, the reactor that contains the carbon will tend to collect detritus more quickly and so make adjusting the flow in the phosphate-removing reactor much more difficult. So, it's just a lot more convenient to have a proper pump dedicated to the phosphate reactor containing the phosban or other phosphate-removing medium.

[an411]

AVI i couldn't of asked for a better reply that was great I understand what you are saying and I think with that said I will go with the 2 unless someone could convince me that having one is better

[hyperfocal]

Originally posted by an411
AVI i couldn't of asked for a better reply that was great I understand what you are saying and I think with that said I will go with the 2 unless someone could convince me that having one is better

Avi is spot-on in my experience. I have two reactors on my system (one GFO, the other Purigen), each with it's own Minijet 404. There's no way I can't get by with one, the GFO is so dense and the Purigen so buoyant that one or the other won't get the correct amount of flow.

Maybe you could get by with one pump (I'd go with a Minijet 606 if running two reactors -- the 404 is maxed out on my GFO reactor) if you were running carbon in one and GFO in the other, but the pumps are cheap and flexibility is priceless.

[an411]

Yeah I went and ordered the 2 pumps can't wait to get it all set up

[leoslizards]

I think you could use one 606 and use some type of manifold before the reactors to adjust the flow. I think the flow on the GFO should be about 50gph and the GAC should be a lot faster.

[crossi92]

I use one 606 to run both but instead of daisy chaining them, I split the output of the 606 before the pumps so they both get there own feed.

[jccash]

An411, have you tested the phosphate in your tank? Are you having a problem or are you looking covering all angles?