Can reborn calcium reactor media be cleaned and reused ?

[acropora4u]

I have reborn media that’s been sitting in an unused calcium reactor for a while now and has algae growing on it. See the picture, can I clean this and reuse it in the reactor that it’s going to be started up again?

 

[Chrisv.]

I'm not exactly sure how I would go about cleaning it, but it's from the ocean (probably washed up onto a beach or dredged) so this isn't the first time it's had algae on it.

You can't clean with acid or it will dissolve. It seems to me that it would be a real pain to clean... Not sure if I would consider it to be worth it, but that's a personal judgement.

 

[Chrisv.]

Looks like the media lower in the reactor may already be a bit broken down though. Was this run for a long time before being taken offline?

 

[Dburr1014]

Shake off the loose stuff when rinsing.
The ph will kill the rest on restart.
Just make sure it doesn't clog.
That's what I would do, but I'm not your normal reef keeper.

 

[acropora4u]

Decided to clean and refill with fresh media

 

[a.ocellaris]

I had the same issue. I dumped the old media into a colander, rinsed off the algae with a spray head, and put it back in the reactor. Cleaned out the reactor, too. No issues with the media. You could probably bleach it, but seems like a lot of extra work to dechlorinate it.

 

[acropora4u]

I had the same issue. I dumped the old media into a colander, rinsed off the algae with a spray head, and put it back in the reactor. Cleaned out the reactor, too. No issues with the media. You could probably bleach it, but seems like a lot of extra work to dechlorinate it.

I did not reuse the media. I put all new.

 

[Chrisv.]

Decided to clean and refill with fresh media

Nice calcium reactor!

 

[acropora4u]

Nice calcium reactor!

Thanks.

 

[dadnjesse]

I had the same problem with my reactor. I wrapped a black trash bag around it to keep the light from getting in and growing algae.

 

[xabo]

Thanks.

I have the same reactor and was in the same situation. Replaced the media and the reactor started leaking from the uniseals. Contacted Geo and he stated that the uniseals should be replaced every 2 years.