Two little fishies Phosban reactor

[jim barry]

Hi all

I was put onto this idea some time ago by a guy on here, wish i could remember his name as i have lost his contact details with the MFK upgrade. Anyway, he told me he uses one of these reactors with Purigen as the media and has excellent results.
I run a 9x4x2 tank.
I decided to give it a go and bought the larger 550 reactor. I was advised to use 'The Bag' by seachem as it does a good job at stopping the purigen leaving the reactor. I bought 2 of 'The Bag' and a large tub of Purigen. I am using the power head advised in the instructions for the reactor which is a maxijet 500.

Here is my problem. With two bags of media in the reactor, none of the media is becoming boyant and bouncing around or boiling as i would expect it to. I can see maybe one small area of the media boiling in one bag only. I get that keeping the media in the bag is restricting it from moving but i have left as much room at the top of the bag as i can before using the zip tie to tie the bag securlely closed.
Does anyone else use this stuff?
Should i have less media in the reactor? Maybe only one bag? If i reduce the amount of media then it is not really enough for the galloons of water i have.
I just feel that the media is not doing it's job when it is sat stagnant in the water and not boiling in the same way K1 would in a moving bed. I have a massive sump and filtration anyway so i can't tell if this stuff is working or not.
I only added it as the guy i spoke to a while back swore by it and said it made his water crystal clear. I have not witnessed any change since using it.

Any input would be great.

Thanks

 

[isde02]

When the guy on here used it in the reactor he didn't use a bag, iirc he changed or added something to the strainer so that the purigen couldn't escape.

 

[isde02]

 

[jim barry]

Now that looks better!! Many thanks for the vid.
Now need to work out how he done it?
Maybe he used the bag at the top of the reactor to stop the media escaping. I read it to understand that he put the media inside the bag, maybe i got that bit wrong. Looks like it is working really well in the vid there.

 

[isde02]

Now that looks better!! Many thanks for the vid.
Now need to work out how he done it?
Maybe he used the bag at the top of the reactor to stop the media escaping. I read it to understand that he put the media inside the bag, maybe i got that bit wrong. Looks like it is working really well in the vid there.

If you look at the top of the reactor it looks like he put a filter pad or something over the strainer

 

[jim barry]

Yes maybe that is where he put 'The Bag' ??

 

[shookONES]

A word to the wise, TLF Phosban reactors are notorious for leaking. Do yourself a favor and invest in one of the better ones. Vertex and BRS make awesome quality reactors for great prices.

 

[jim barry]

A word to the wise, TLF Phosban reactors are notorious for leaking. Do yourself a favor and invest in one of the better ones. Vertex and BRS make awesome quality reactors for great prices.

Ok thanks I will bear that in mind. Do you know anything about using pyrogens in reactors though?

 

[stingray keeper]

Jim it was me that you got the idea from. As previously stated its true that they can leak but id just hang it inside the sump for just in case. Ive never seen purigen loose in a reactor like in the video. Youd need very low flow to avoid the media from making its way out. Its so fine that most mech media and sponges wont catch it. Id be careful to not over pack the bag so that the media can move around and water can have proper contact and penetration throughout the media. It doesnt need to be seated so as the whole diameter gets water forced through. It can be offset but loose and still work. No sure if you understand my explanation but if not let me know. Cheers

 

[jim barry]

Jim it was me that you got the idea from. As previously stated its true that they can leak but id just hang it inside the sump for just in case. Ive never seen purigen loose in a reactor like in the video. Youd need very low flow to avoid the media from making its way out. Its so fine that most mech media and sponges wont catch it. Id be careful to not over pack the bag so that the media can move around and water can have proper contact and penetration throughout the media. It doesnt need to be seated so as the whole diameter gets water forced through. It can be offset but loose and still work. No sure if you understand my explanation but if not let me know. Cheers

Ok thanks mate I will try less purigen in just one bag although this does seem to defeat the object a little as I won't be using enough for my size set up. I am thinking of changing over to silica sand and using the reactor as a sand filter instead and I have found a different method for using the pyrogens. I have the details at work but will post them up next week.