Nyos Torq: One of the worst designed aquarium products yet

Reefcowboy · May 22, 2020

To start, this is my opinion based on my experience owning the 1.0 reactor body for about 6 months, which has been horrible.

I was excited when I learned about the option to remove the reacting chamber(body) from the base. Had used the TLF units and although they work great, servicing and changing the media was always a hassle.

My wife noticed the Torq sitting in my shopping cart for a while and decided to surprise me with a gift.
I had been debating about it because the more I read reviews the less I wanted to pull the trigger and buy it. All feed back out there is the same; O-rings holding base piece and top lid slip off and media flows over to the outside into the sump.

I remember looking into its design and knowing it would be a matter of time. My wife surprising me made me feel bad about returning it so I decided to give it a try.

So here are the issues. The bottom piece o ring slipped as I tried detaching the body for servicing it the first time already. Saltwater and buildup quickly made it impossible to detach it without having to have both hands on the unit and it was very frustrating. If you have a small space to work with in your sump, the aggravation level will be at a 10.

The top piece has the same issue, but worse because the media is pushed up and as it builds debris inside the body and clogs the contents(in my case, rox .08), it literally is only a matter of time for a carbon party everywhere the sump.

I had been keeping a bag filled with crushed coral on top of the unit trying to prevent the top from detaching(not what you expect to do when paying $200 for a reactor), but over the weekend the pressure pushed it out and the rox carbon flowed into the sump and the return pump pulled it to cover my whole display tank sand.

It will be weeks until I can get to remove the annoying pellets stuck in crevices and hard to reach areas everywhere.

I would discourage everyone from using this product. It will fail, it is just a matter of time.
This reactor will soon make you hate it more than any thumbscrew old fashion reactor ever would.

Some pics of the fail and what the tank looks like after a few WCs siphoning wherever I could get to.

Blue Spot Octopus · May 22, 2020

I live how Nyos is silent on this issue that people have found with their reactors, no apologize, coupons for other purchases, say their skimmer. Just sorry Charlie from afar.
Yeah, I purchased the reactor body but not pump, I quit buying after reading the reviews, so Nyos is off my purchase recommendation just like a few other companies.

Keen4 · Jul 5, 2020

Good to know- I bought this reactor and had returned my BRStv dual reactors. Im cycling my tank right now and gonna get some bio bags to put my media in when im ready. So nervous now about the pop off lids not so much using two hands to unscrew the chamber. Lack of using space and efficiency was the whole reason that I made this purchase.

blaxsun · Jun 23, 2021

Well, I have a Nyos Torq reactor and my experience has been the exact opposite - but I got it specifically to run Zeo and I’ve had zero issues with the o-rings or seal with the top. This is a 2.0 body, though - so a bit wider. Unlike carbon or phosphate remover, the zeo rocks are heavy enough such that they can’t be blown around by any amount of flow. I do run carbon and Rowaphos, but these are in a media bag in a canister in my sump.

blaxsun · Jun 28, 2021

Addendum: In my Red Sea setup I'd been running two sock filters and a pair of media baskets with carbon and GFO in the media bags in the post-return chamber. While the media baskets were working, I found that they seemed to foul up fairly quickly and the water flow through was inadequate (sometimes barely a trickle). In addition, the two sock filters were clogging up fairly quickly and necessitating changing out more often than I would've liked.

I had room in my rear sump chamber and decided to run another Nyos Torq reactor (just with a 1.0 body, which holds ~1000ml of media). I tried running it external to the tank and encountered zero issues whatsoever. Both the bottom plate and top lid were firmly sealed and didn't budged a fraction - even when the flow was turned up to maximum.

This did get me thinking if those that experienced problems were missing one or more of the clear o-ring seals on the base and cap. Because with those in-place, this thing is 100% rock solid.

Reefcowboy · Jun 30, 2021

blaxsun said:
Addendum: In my Red Sea setup I'd been running two sock filters and a pair of media baskets with carbon and GFO in the media bags in the post-return chamber. While the media baskets were working, I found that they seemed to foul up fairly quickly and the water flow through was inadequate (sometimes barely a trickle). In addition, the two sock filters were clogging up fairly quickly and necessitating changing out more often than I would've liked.

I had room in my rear sump chamber and decided to run another Nyos Torq reactor (just with a 1.0 body, which holds ~1000ml of media). I tried running it external to the tank and encountered zero issues whatsoever. Both the bottom plate and top lid were firmly sealed and didn't budged a fraction - even when the flow was turned up to maximum.

This did get me thinking if those that experienced problems were missing one or more of the clear o-ring seals on the base and cap. Because with those in-place, this thing is 100% rock solid.

I would keep a close eye on that reactor. The unit I ran had all seals and I made sure they were tight when I replaced media. Issue is over time, rubber seals in saltwater get stiff a d wont do their job as well. On top of that water pushes debris and particles through the media which will undoubtedly push the media upwards towards the top lid over time, depending how long you have it running without servicing it.

If you look at reviews for the reactor, will see many have had issues.
Unit looks great but is very prone to fail

blaxsun · Jun 30, 2021

I’ll be servicing it every 1-2 months, so it shouldn’t be an issue. I have a 1.0 body on the first Toqr, so it has the rod and shelf in the middle separating the media - so only a portion of the media is being forced against the top. There is physically not enough force from the water to separate either the bottom plate or top lid. The O-rings are also silicone - not rubber.

On the second Torq reactor with the 2.0 body, at full flow the pump can’t even lift the smallest zeo rock - so again, there’s zero issues with the top ever being pushed off (and it weighs more on the 2.0 body).