Uses for media reactor

mikebusc · Jan 4, 2025

I’ve never had a media reactor before, but I’m wondering if it would be a good investment and I’m not sure what its uses are. I have used several things at different times just in a mesh bag. Such as GFO, GAC, Phos Sorb. Do reactors work with all of these? Do you only use one product at a time in it? Or are there different types of reactors? Again I’ve searched for answers but I’m not sure at this point how it’s used.

hoffmeyerz · Jan 4, 2025

Media reactors can certainly be beneficial as they send water directly through your media rather than relying on flow alone. They also can give you the option of varying the amount of water through through the media with the use of valves.
I have two media reactors, one has always run matrix carbon and the other I used to run Phosgaurd which I recently stopped after PO4 levels dropped. Depending on the reactor or media choice you can have several different options to run in the reactor. Some media should tumble and others shouldn't, some media is larger and some more fine. You will want to make sure a reactor will handle the type of media you want to run. After I took out the Phosgaurd I put filter floss in that reactor to help clean up the particulate a new diamond goby was throwing into the water column.
I'm lucky in that the Lifereef system I run has spaces for the reactors built right into the sump and I have a manifold directing flow to them each controlled by their own ball valve.
I will say though if your tank is running well using the media bags then leave it as is! If you aren't getting as much of a result from the media your using in bags then a reactor may help.
Happy reefing :)