Can I put carbon reactor in my refugium?

[Collink91]

Is it going to be a pain doing maintenance on my carbon reactor if it is in the fuge? My skimmer chamber just isn't big enough to include the reactor, but I was planning on doing a fuge.

follow up question, if I just added a second reactor (I already own it) and ran GFO and forwent the fuge, will I regret it later?

 

[Collink91]

last follow up question, if I run my reactor off my main return pump, can i just set the reactor outside the sump altogether to save the space so long as outflow tube of the reactor goes back into the sump?

 

[NanCrab]

I cannot answer your questions I can only tell you what we did. We have a 125 gallon with a cabinet and canopy. We have a manifold plumbed in already. We (as in my husband lol) mounted the reactor inside the cabinet wall and it is fed water from the manifold and return tubing goes into baffle section between Refugium and return pump section to prevent micro bubbles from entering DT.
In my extremely limited experience I‘m learning GFO etc may not be worth the risk and probably a more natural nutrient export option would be less detrimental to your tank health like water changes and a Refugium with Chaeto and a good Refugium light. I’m sure people with a lot more knowledge than me can chime in here @ActiveAngel @aestheticlibra @Adam @sharis100 @dball711 to name a few

 

[Shawn]

So. You CAN do any of those things. I would not run carbon/gfo alone. I would certainly have a refugium. And I wouldn't run the reactors all the time - just when needed. You can certainly run it off your main return pump - I know a lot of folks who do that. I didn't - but I also prefer to be able to control it through my Apex.

For example - I've got a dual BRS reactor - GFO and carbon, on a separate pump in my skimmer chamber (I've got a 6' sump so I've got plenty of room for all this). If I could do it all over again, I'd have two pumps on two single reactors so that I could turn one or the other off as necessary.

If you're having to run a constant carbon/gfo reactor, then you're most likely over feeding, or there's another issue at play. I'm a FIRM believer in eliminating the source of high phosphates/nutrients/crap that carbon would need to pull out.

For the last three weeks, I've ran around .03 phosphates with no GFO running. Before that I had .3 phosphates and I turned on GFO for a single day. That was it.

All of this is just my $.02. That's the great thing about reefing - there's 32 ways to do everything

 

[ActiveAngel]

yup, ditto on @aestheticlibra

the only thing I have to add, why many people don’t put these reactors in their fuge, is that the pumps can suck in Chaeto or other macro algae. But you can get around this by simply putting your inlet hose into the skimmer compartment.

 

[Adam]

Also, ditto on both above posts.

My addition is, the whole point of the fuge is for it to see some of the dirtiest water first. Returning water treated by the reactors after the fuge would be best.

Once you get your nutrient issues under control, shut down the reactors, and remove all media from them being sure to drain the lines too. This also goes for any item that isn't in permanent use. When not in use DRAIN all lines and reactor chambers. It does not take long for bacteria to start thriving in stagnate water, this will quickly create Hydrogen Sulfide (smells like rotten eggs and is toxic). You don't ever want stagnate water pumped back into your system.