# Plumbing help



## ruckuss (Jan 11, 2015)

Hey guys,

I'm doing a Herbie setup for my reef tank. I'm adding a refugium to my sump. I was going to run some reactors for carbon and GFO.. here is where I can't make up my mind.

1. Should I run carbon and GFO in seprate reactors, do I really need to run them in a reactor?

2. I have Sicce Syncra Silent 3000 pump. I was planning on having a manifold tee'd off the return to run the reactors and the refugium. I was thinking of having 3 outs, 2 for reactors and one for fuge. Would it be a bad idea to run only 2 outs for the reactors and have them put water into the fuge, getting rid of the third?

i'm just wondering if my pump will be able to keep up.

Thoughts?


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## arturo (Jun 29, 2014)

http://www.reefcentral.com/index.php/head-loss-calculator

have you used this calculator before? I think its pretty helpful for figuring out if your pump will keep up.

As far as carbon and gfo, it is better to have them in their own reactors to keep them from breaking down faster <- dont quote me on that though, i think i heard that from a BRS video


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## ruckuss (Jan 11, 2015)

arturo said:


> http://www.reefcentral.com/index.php/head-loss-calculator
> 
> have you used this calculator before? I think its pretty helpful for figuring out if your pump will keep up.
> 
> As far as carbon and gfo, it is better to have them in their own reactors to keep them from breaking down faster <- dont quote me on that though, i think i heard that from a BRS video


Yes, I have read the same things about running both media in one reactor, but, would like to see if there are some doing it here for first hand experience.


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## fesso clown (Nov 15, 2011)

Carbon and GFO require different flow rates and deplete their effectiveness at different rates. Separate reactors with adjustable flow to each is ideal. 
My guess us that you will have enough flow from your return to run the 2 reactors plus feed your fuge.


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## arturo (Jun 29, 2014)

Since I'm planning my plumbing too, I'm also wondering about feeding the fuge with reactors. Would it not be better to have the water a little bit dirty (not from a reactor) feed the fuge? Or is the difference negligible?


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

arturo said:


> Since I'm planning my plumbing too, I'm also wondering about feeding the fuge with reactors. Would it not be better to have the water a little bit dirty (not from a reactor) feed the fuge? Or is the difference negligible?


here is the secret - your tank could be in the perfect shape even without fuge.

If not set up properly fuge will became waste storage

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## ruckuss (Jan 11, 2015)

arturo said:


> Since I'm planning my plumbing too, I'm also wondering about feeding the fuge with reactors. Would it not be better to have the water a little bit dirty (not from a reactor) feed the fuge? Or is the difference negligible?


That is my main concern also. I don't have much room in my cabinate.. trying to keep it as neat as possible.


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

GFO is supposed to be fluidized for it to be effective (meaning the pressure from the water is just enough that the GFO is lifted slightly - like a fluid). 
This exposes the maximum surface area of all the GFO particles to water. If the flow is too low - it just lumps at the bottom and not too much of the GFO is actually exposed to the water. 

Carbon is supposed to sit there for the water to flow through. Its not supposed to tumble because this creates friction and carbon fines in the water which is found to cause problems for fish (HLLE in tangs and i can attest to this personally). So you can't really use one reactor for both. 

I don't think you need to run carbon in a reactor and a mesh bag in a high flow area will do fine (there is an old Adv Aquarist article explaining this). I fill mesh bags with carbon and put them in a filter sock. If I do stuff like pull off palys or cut a leather coral - i will usually put a bag in the tank itself. 

I don't like to have my reactors tied to the return system and i just run a separate pump for it. When you change GFO media - you will usually get a bit of brown runoff even if you rinse your GFO. I usually like to run the reactor in the sump with the skimmer going to reduce brown run-off from getting into the display.

You don't need to feed your refugium macroalgae with "dirty" water. If there is less PO4 in the water - the macro just grows slower (or not at all).


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## ruckuss (Jan 11, 2015)

Thanks to all for taking the time to reply. Much appreciated

I was going to run a second pump on the reactors at first.. but then there is one more thing to worry about.. I think I will put the carbon in a bag and see how that goes.


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## ruckuss (Jan 11, 2015)

Ok, so I am getting all the plumbing in place now that I have my sump. As I mentioned, I am planning on running a T off the return to feed the fuge and reactors. Does anyone have any issues keeping a constant water level in teh return chamber of the sump? 

I have read on gmacreef that having media reactors off the return can be tricky.

I just want to do it right the first time.. thoughts?

Thanks,
Shaun


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## PaulF757 (Dec 9, 2013)

You need to get two shutoff valves to control the flow into the reactors thats all, the shutoff valve on the main drain will do all the work when it comes to adjusting and keeping a proper level.


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