jlanger's 120gal Arts and Crafts Inspired Reef Build

ChristopherKriens · Feb 7, 2015

What a tank!

Singlefin · Feb 8, 2015

Wow. Looks great. Nice intro to your tank.

goldy26 · Feb 9, 2015

beautiful! i am in the process of a 150 gallon upgrade (from a 60 gallon) and just ordered the BRS GFO reactor. i saw you stopped using it, any advice you might be willing to share???

jlanger · Feb 9, 2015

goldy26 said:
beautiful! i am in the process of a 150 gallon upgrade (from a 60 gallon) and just ordered the BRS GFO reactor. i saw you stopped using it, any advice you might be willing to share???

goldy26 · Feb 9, 2015

jlanger said:
Thanks.

The reason I stopped using the reactor was entirely my fault.
During a water change (and media change), I forgot to replace the cap onto the media chamber in the reactor. So when I turned the pump back on, some of the tumbling GFO escaped the reactor, entered the sump and made it into the display tank. I realized my mistake after only a couple of minutes, but the damage had been done. Within a couple of days, my RBTA melted and I lost most of my clams. Over the next few days, the larger two clams also perished.
Since I didn't want to ever risk that mishap again, I pulled the reactor. Plus, I also wanted to use that area of my sump for something else.

I really like the BRS Deluxe Reactor; great quality.
One piece of advice I can give is to buy a second reactor; the exact same model. When I would clean the reactor and add new media, I would rinse the new media in the second reactor using the old saltwater away from the tank in a laundry sink. So when I replaced the new media chamber into the display reactor, I didn't have to do much work inside the stand. And I could spend time later cleaning out the dirty canister and media chamber.
Doing this trick cut down on the time it took to have the reactor offline while doing maintenance.
The reason to by the exact same model is because the canisters are slightly different between the standard reactor and the deluxe model. When you would add water pressure, the seals would leak and water would spray all over.

Good luck with your upgrade!

thanks for that tip, i'll have to look into it!

jlanger · Feb 9, 2015

h8edpurdie · Feb 9, 2015

Wow

For the past couple years, I've googled ideas to replace my broken hood on my tank. I kept coming across yours and thought that would be awesome. So did the wife:clap2:. Her dad does custom cabinets and agreed to help me build a custom floating canopy off your idea. I'm happy to finally be able to see more of your tank. Thanks for posting!