Reactors IN sump?

[Bam327]

Hey all. Newbie here making progress on a 120. I’m a few days away from getting wet and as this all comes together I’m realizing The space under my stand is too small to fit everything as planned. My 40b sump is taking up the majority of the space available. I have two vertex reactors that I plan on running carbon and GFO. I also want an ATO. The space l have left after the 40b will allow room for one of the two but not both. Both are near equally important to me with the ATO winning slightly.
I have 2 solutions I have thought of. First is make a box on the side of the stand to hold an ATO reservoir and plumb it into the stand. The second option is to set one reactor in my return and one in my refugium and have the reservoir next to the sump. I’d prefer the latter, although it would be cluttered I’d rather keep everything contained under the tank. Is this option viable? The reactors would be in 10” of water.

 

[boacvh]

Relative Newbie here too. Have been cramming everything on my stand. Check it out maybe it gives you some ideas. That has refugium, 3 reactors inside sump + skimmer, ato, dosing containers, kalk reactor and co2 scrubber. My suggestion is to select an ato first, since those can take pretty much any size and shape you want. Thin and tall could be great if you ran out of stand floorspace. And then the reactors can be small. For carbon and gfo I am running the TLFs. They fit perfectly inside my sump.

 

[W1ngz]

Only problem I can see is if the reactors have a label or anything on them, you'll have to remove it to keep it from detaching and either breaking down or blocking a pump.

 

[Hemmdog]

You shouldn’t need a GFo reactor. Carbon in a mesh bag passively also is good because it doesn’t strip the water too much. I don’t think you need to worry about the reactors, at least not for awhile.

 

[Billdogg]

I actually put my reactors in the sump on purpose - same setup - 120DT/40 sump. That way if they do leak a bit - who cares???

Although I agree that you probably don't need to use them at this point, it will be easier to plan for them now. As for using carbon in a mesh bag - it will work (barely) but is horribly inefficient. If you can, a reactor will be your best option for both it and for GFO (as needed only)