I finally got around to adding a flow meter to my carbon reactor and I always knew the carbon flow was reduced by the time I changed it, but the actual numbers are quite surprising. I change the carbon every 2 weeks and I was getting about 80 gph when I first changed it out. I noticed it was dropping about 10 gph/day pretty steady.
I am seriously reconsidering if using a reactor is the best method for running carbon as compared to a media bag. Sure, for the first couple days the reactor is superior because it has better contact because it is active filtration vs passive. After just a couple days though, the surface gets so fouled I might as well just pull it out. Now if I were to run a media bag I could reach in and knead the bag from time to time to rejuvenate the media as it gets clogged up. With a reactor, I can't do that.
Any thoughts on this? I am pretty sure I am going to switch back to media bags for carbon based on this experiment and the resulting data.
I am seriously reconsidering if using a reactor is the best method for running carbon as compared to a media bag. Sure, for the first couple days the reactor is superior because it has better contact because it is active filtration vs passive. After just a couple days though, the surface gets so fouled I might as well just pull it out. Now if I were to run a media bag I could reach in and knead the bag from time to time to rejuvenate the media as it gets clogged up. With a reactor, I can't do that.
Any thoughts on this? I am pretty sure I am going to switch back to media bags for carbon based on this experiment and the resulting data.
