Running Phosban Reactors in Sequence

[seapug]

I'm considering installing a second Phosban Reactor for running carbon or Purigen on my tank. I know quite a few people here have them daisy-chained together and I'm curious what arrangement seems to work best for people and any other considerations/advice you might have. Do you do

Phosban to Carbon

or

Carbon to PhosBan

Also, those of you who do this, have you found better results running Carbon or Purigen in the reactors?

Thanks.

[Craig Lambert]

I would go with phosban first, then the carbon.

[bpoore89]

I know a lot of people run carbon second to catch anything that the phosban may be leeching into the system

[corals b 4 bills]

I'm just running mine side by side.

[seapug]

I just picked up the reactor and got some advice from the LFS that made sense-- they recommended using spherical carbon in the first reactor with the valve wide open then run the PhosBan second in line with the valve backed off as usual. That way, the carbon can do an initial polishing then the PhosBan can do it's job on the remaining crap as well as adsorb any Phospate released by the carbon. It'll probably help extend the life of the GFO, too.

BTW, sharp looking setup, Coral 4 Bills. Or, in my case, Bills 4 Coral....lol.

[corals b 4 bills]

Hey that will work, I'll try that Thanks.

[Craig Lambert]

Originally posted by seapug
I just picked up the reactor and got some advice from the LFS that made sense-- they recommended using spherical carbon in the first reactor with the valve wide open then run the PhosBan second in line with the valve backed off as usual. That way, the carbon can do an initial polishing then the PhosBan can do it's job on the remaining crap as well as adsorb any Phospate released by the carbon. It'll probably help extend the life of the GFO, too.

BTW, sharp looking setup, Coral 4 Bills. Or, in my case, Bills 4 Coral....lol.

High quality reef carbon doesn't leach phosphate. (Two Little Fishies Hydrocarbon for example). I would go with phosban first so there isn't any phosphate going into the carbon to begin with.

Phosban doesn't do anything to the "remaining crap" It is a binding agent, and phosphate binds to it. Nothing else.

[seapug]

Yeah, I can see how that logic makes sense, too. I picked up a container of SeaChem Matrix Spherical Carbon. I know there's great debate about the quality of different brands but it was the best stuff they had.

[DrBegalke]

you can also use both gfo and carbon in the same reactor...

[seapug]

I was considering that but was told it's a big NO-NO. They have significantly different lifespans and mixing them reduces the efficacy of both.

[Craig Lambert]

Originally posted by DrBegalke
you can also use both gfo and carbon in the same reactor...

I've seen a number of posts from people who do this, but why why? GFO lasts alot longer than carbon, so it would be a waste of GFO to change it out every couple of weeks. Seems that a second reactor would be payed for pretty quickly with the savings on phosban media.

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Carbon first, then GFO. This will help eliminate anything that might gunk up the GFO and reduce its effectiveness. Yes, GFO is a binding substance, but if the surface of it is covered in crap it won't have as much surface contact with phosphate to bind.

[seapug]

That's the method/logic explained & recommended to me. Craig Lambert's idea to the opposite does make sense, too, but this makes more sense to me. Especially considering carbon has a generally shorter lifespan and is cheaper to replace more often.

[2639]

I use Seachem matrix as well. It's good stuff.

[Craig Lambert]

Originally posted by seapug
Yeah, I can see how that logic makes sense, too. I picked up a container of SeaChem Matrix Spherical Carbon. I know there's great debate about the quality of different brands but it was the best stuff they had.

Seachem is very good. Check out this thread, and the chart several posts down:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...+chart+results

[seapug]

cool, thanks for the link. Glad to know I bought the good stuff.

[rockindacheeks]

i daisy chain 2 phosban reactors in line. I put carbon first because people say that carbon can release phosphates so if it does its not going very far. Then phosban second...