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GFO and carbon reactor


dangros

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Anyone have experience with the Avast Spyglass reactors?  I would like better than dumping a bunch of bags in my sump. My BRS mini reactor clogged after about a day's use so I'm a bit resistant to try their full size reactors.  Any opinions would be greatly appreciated b/c I'm not sure it's worth it.  Plus, I will have to do a LOT of re-configuring to fit one of these bad boys in my crowded sump.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have their smallest spyglass in the sump of my Reefer 170.  It seems to work well and stays pretty silent after the first couple of days.

 

I had issues with media falling down below the ball they use to separate the output of the pump from the media, but just installed the small mesh "plate" and it working much better now.  What all do you want to know?

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I'm trying to find out if it's 

1) silent

2) worth it

3) how effective it is with gfo and carbon. Avast says you can tumble both in there but everything I see says not to tumble carbon so that you avoid creating dust.

4) the size I would need. Avast says for my 90g mixed reef, I should get the middle one.  I have almost no room to begin with so if I can get away with the smaller one, that would be great.

Thanks for the feedback!

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Cool!  I work well with lists :)

 

1- First couple of days, no, but it's not loud either.  After a few days, it's pretty quiet, I can't hear it at all with everything else running.

2- I think so.  Well, so far anyway. I'm still not sure about this whole "fluidizing" carbon thing....but it seems to be working well so far.

3- It seemed very effective.  I didn't end up with carbon "dust" floating around my tank or even on the while acrylic pieces of the reactor....but to be honest, see the second part above.

4- I can't really speak to that, you can email them though or ask in their dedicated part of this or other forums.  From my experience, they get back to you pretty quickly (email is probably best).

 

Hope this helps!

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1) Thanks again for the experience - yes it helps.

2) I spoke with them via email and that's where I got the reactor size recommendation - which made me hesitate.

3) I'm now worried about the sound. My tank is REALLY quiet and once I replace my return pump, it's going to be almost totally silent. So, if this reactor makes noise, that wouldnt make me too happy.

4) I like the idea of fluidized carbon over stuffing it in a bag (as long as it doesnt create fines).  My carbon clumps up in the bag with the GFO and I'm sure that makes it much less effective.

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Well, I need to do a water change tomorrow anyway, so I'll have everything shut down.  Maybe I'll make a quick video of the reactor running solo so you can check out the noise level.

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I'm not sure if Dan or I replied to you, but the small using high capacity gfo and/or rox 0.8 carbon will be plenty for a 90 gallon. It will be a lot quieter than any other pumps you use; the sicce nano is silent.

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I concur that it's totally silent.  I have all-in-one biopellets in the smallest size spyglass.  They also seem to fall down next to the ball from time to time so I'm going to be installing the screen in it too.  I am really liking the design once I learned how to get it lined up on the output of the little sicce pump.  Also, it's very easy to empty the media out and give it a quick rinse, refill, and back into the sump.  Really nice.  

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Thanks guys, this is very helpful.  

 

ctenophore: Dan said I should get the medium, however, the small holds up to 500ml of media (little > 2 cups).  According to BRS's calculator, that should suffice for GFO and rox. That's as long as I don't go with their recommended 3:1 rox to carbon ratio.  Do you agree?  Now, I did state that I have a 90g tank but the sump is a 40B.  So I used about 110g in their calculator.  And that really doesn't account for all of devices, the live rock, and 1-2" of gravel.

 

In order to do this, I will have to redo the plumbing, which includes replacing my Jebao 12000 DC with something a LOT more reliable and quiet.  Do you guys point me to someone who could help me plan this re-plumbing thing out?  

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Either will work fine.  The medium gives you extra capacity that you may want in the future at the cost of sump space.  I think 1 cup Rox and 1/2 cup GFO would be enough for ~100 gallons of water.  I'd look at a Sicce syncra return pump.  You don't get the electronic control, but the intake dial can limit the flow rate effectively.  But, they're silent, reliable, and have a 5 year warranty.

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