Media bags or media reactor?

[Nixzel]

Hi guys, I'm setting up a 34g solana downgrading from a 210g. On the 210 I have always used 2 reactors, one for carbon and one for gfo. What would be the best to do on the solana, get 2 smaller reactors and place both pumps in the middle chamber to feed the reactors or am I better off just buying a media basket and putting purigen, chemi-pure and cheato in the middle chamber instead? I'me very confused as to what to do with this. Any help would be awesome!

[Nixzel]

I also have a huge amount of left over rox carbon from BRS, could I use this in a media bag instead of using chemi-pure?

[Mstefa1]

I think it would determine what problem your trying to solve. A reactor would obviously have more water exposure so you would see better performance but you would then be dealing with external hardware. So if your addressing a water parameter issue then I think you would have more success with a reactor. If your trying to maintain the AIO design and your just trying to keep your parameters in check then a media rack would be effective.

 

Just my opinion.

[malawian]

youve used reactors before, you know how they work. If you can, i would run one as opposed to a media basket. media baskets are good but water flow through them is limited. I definitely get more flow from a reactor. remember that if you have an AIO and are using a reactor you may need to use a pump that is slightly too large or risk low flow due to loss.

[Nixzel]

Would a mj1200 be enough for each BRS reactor? I plan on having the reactors under the tank inside the stand. I don't know what other pump large enough to handle the reactors would work, but small enough to fit inside the chambers of the solana

[Tbone675]

i have a mj600 running my ato on my solana. it pumps the head height. a 1200 might be overkill.

 

in chamber 1 i have a tunze 9002, heater, and fuge w/ jbj led fuge light.

in chamber 2 i have a media basket w/ purigen, gfo, chemipure elite.

in chamber 3 i have return pump, ato sensors, fuge w/jbj led fuge light.

 

you should have room for the mj to run the reactors.

[Mstefa1]

i have a mj600 running my ato on my solana. it pumps the head height. a 1200 might be overkill.

 

in chamber 1 i have a tunze 9002, heater, and fuge w/ jbj led fuge light.

in chamber 2 i have a media basket w/ purigen, gfo, chemipure elite.

in chamber 3 i have return pump, ato sensors, fuge w/jbj led fuge light.

 

you should have room for the mj to run the reactors.

 

I guess it may depend on the reactor & media that you plan on using. I think biopellets need to rumble however GFO would only need a slight tumble. An MJ900 would probably do nicely however standard maxi jets tend to make noise the greater the resistence you put on it IMO. Resistence being head pressure or restricted flow from the ball valve to set it properly.

 

If you don't have room in your chamber then consider a pump that can run inline such as a mag or maxi jet utility. Slightly more expensive but overall a better pump. I use an NJ3000 stored under my cabinet to run my chiller and output to my return. It runs quiet & strong regardless of what its up against. This would obviously be overkill for a reactor but they have smaller versions.