Media Reactor-is this right?

[ianryd]

I just got the IM Mini Max media reactor. Its my first time running a media reactor and Im not sure if Im running it right. I put my gfo and carbon in and left a little room for it to tumble. The reactor is submerged about 10 inches with about 4 inches sticking out of the water. Water is flowing through the entire chamber but the media only tumbles in the submerged section. The media above the water line seems to just be stuck. There is also a gap in the media about 1 inch on either side of the water line. I have adjusted the flow of the reactor to see if I can get it all to tumble, but no luck. Is this normal? I hope this makes sense! View attachment 1933203 I attached a short video to illustrate.

 

[ianryd]

 

[homer1475]

Normally you would want GFO to tumble like you posted in the video. The GFO needs to tumble for it to be effective and not become a solid brick. Carbon on the other hand, you do not want to tumble. As when it grinds against itself, it creates carbon dust which can cause all sorts of problems.

When you mix the 2 like you have, you want it packed in tight. The carbon mixed in will keep the GFO from binding up.

 

[ianryd]

Normally you would want GFO to tumble like you posted in the video. The GFO needs to tumble for it to be effective and not become a solid brick. Carbon on the other hand, you do not want to tumble. As when it grinds against itself, it creates carbon dust which can cause all sorts of problems.

When you mix the 2 like you have, you want it packed in tight. The carbon mixed in will keep the GFO from binding up.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I've gotten carbon dust in a different tank, and that really sucked!