TLF Phosban Reactor

christyf5 · #1 01-21-2010, 05:41 PM

I have two as well and they work great.

For the carbon one, if you're using larger pellet carbon like kent, you won't need the sponge on the bottom, I just use the one on top as I run them full out and don't want any rogue carbon pellets escaping. I find less sponges cut down on the detritus that gets trapped in there. I do use both sponges on the phosban one as it catches a lot of phosban bits that try to escape when I'm first flushing the phosban.

Binare · #2 01-21-2010, 06:04 PM

Make sure you restrict flow before the reactor, these things don't like to be pressurized. Everytime I've heard of one leaking its cause people are restricting AFTER the reactor... Which pressurizes it.

rocco134 · #3 01-21-2010, 07:19 PM

Makes sense.. Thanks Binare!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Binare

Make sure you restrict flow before the reactor, these things don't like to be pressurized. Everytime I've heard of one leaking its cause people are restricting AFTER the reactor... Which pressurizes it.

Christy... do you run yours in series (daisy chained is what they call it i think)? If you do, what type of pump are you using. The package from J&L (http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...ID=tf-reactor3) comes with 1 MJ400 and they say it will be enough to run both reactors.

Binare · #4 01-21-2010, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocco134

Makes sense.. Thanks Binare!

Christy... do you run yours in series (daisy chained is what they call it i think)? If you do, what type of pump are you using. The package from J&L (http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...ID=tf-reactor3) comes with 1 MJ400 and they say it will be enough to run both reactors.

If you run em in series, you'll basically have to shut both down to do maintenance on one. You'll also have a hard time getting flow right through both. They will both have the same amount of flow... Different media will require different flow. I'd tee off the pump, then put the ball valve on each outlet, then reactor after each valve. That way you can adjust flow independantly. Maintenance is also easier. Simply turn off the valve for the one you want to remove stopping flow to it, but leaving the other one running. Depending on your media, a mj400 may not be enough for 2 in parallel, essentially cuts the flow available to each one in half. I reccomend pre-filters on pumps feeding reactors as well. The sponge will stop pods n such from getting trapped in the reactors and rotting away inside... Kinda defeats the purpose of running them.

rocco134 · #5 01-21-2010, 08:22 PM

Thanks again, Binare!!

rocco134 · #6 01-22-2010, 09:25 PM

the box arrived this morning and it is all set up. when can i expect to see some results in terms of lowering my phosphates?

Binare · #7 01-22-2010, 09:32 PM

How you judging your results? Based on visual... Current algae bloom. Or based on test kit results. My hanna meter showed lower po within hours and continued to lower for days until saturation was reached. If its algae, you won't "see" results really until you remove and see a slower or even better no growth rate.

fishytime · #8 01-23-2010, 02:31 PM

I always wondered how you are supposed to be able to "link" them together?....Like Binare said carbon requires 400-600gph and the phosphate medias require 300-400 gph..........I have two reactors and run them with separate pumps because I didnt want the hassle of trying to find all the little parts you'd need to chain them together properly..