possible media mixture

[jpontier212]

Hello guys, i'm a do it yourself kinda guy and got to brainstorming. You can combine carbon and gfo in a reactor and it works on keeping the water clear and phosphates low. Is it possible to mix bio pellets and gfo tumbling together in a reactor to create a nitrate/phosphate removing reactor? Or will the binding properties of the gfo make it a bad mixture for a tumble reactor as a pair?

 

[ReeferBob]

Look into an ATS that does a lot towards removing nutrients. In under 2 months all of my algae totally disappeared. I don't use GFO anymore.

 

[jpontier212]

Look into an ATS that does a lot towards removing nutrients. In under 2 months all of my algae totally disappeared. I don't use GFO anymore.

Does it help with phosphates as well?

 

[jpontier212]

The reason i wanted this post seen was because i have a jbj nano cube 24 with corals and 2 beautiful snowflake clowns. I built a DIY reactor from dollar store and home Depot items. Cool build for under $10. Bigger and better than a phosban 150 without the price but not sure what to put in it. Gfo with carbon or bio pellets.

 

[BoneXriffic]

What are your nutrient levels that thisis neccessary for? I tried gfo once in the 29gal and instantly stopped due to how fast it stripped my water. Imo in a small tank with not many fish its easy toanagr without chemicals

 

[jpontier212]

What are your nutrient levels that thisis neccessary for? I tried gfo once in the 29gal and instantly stopped due to how fast it stripped my water. Imo in a small tank with not many fish its easy toanagr without chemicals

My nitrates crept up to 80 ppm in 48 hrs. I'm going to test tomorrow and if it doesn't go down, water change here we come but if i had bio pellets i believe it would make these things less likely to happen

 

[BoneXriffic]

Whats your po4 at? Do you rinse your frozen food? And high nitrates may mean over feeding and not enough clean up crew.

Also another tip is once a month ise a powerheas to blast debris from rock work before water change... i think you can get it under control other ways. Gfo, again this is my opinion...can be dangerous in smaller tanks.

Carbon i have no concerns with though

 

[jpontier212]

Whats your po4 at? Do you rinse your frozen food? And high nitrates may mean over feeding and not enough clean up crew.

Also another tip is once a month ise a powerheas to blast debris from rock work before water change... i think you can get it under control other ways. Gfo, again this is my opinion...can be dangerous in smaller tanks.

Carbon i have no concerns with though

Po4 I'm assuming is phosphate and it's below 0.25 according to api. Not quite to zero but way lighter color than what 0.25 is. I have 1 sands shifting star, 5 blue legged hermit crabs 3 jumbo Mexican turbo snails and 3 white Atlantic snails for my cuc.

 

[BoneXriffic]

Po4 I'm assuming is phosphate and it's below 0.25 according to api. Not quite to zero but way lighter color than what 0.25 is. I have 1 sands shifting star, 5 blue legged hermit crabs 3 jumbo Mexican turbo snails and 3 white Atlantic snails for my cuc.

Then i would dodge gfo all together and focus on ways to get rid of nitrate. Maybe a good rock blasting and a few more crabs to help eat up left over food

 

[jpontier212]

Thank you very much. I will try it.