If you get the Two Little Fishies Phosban Reactor - you'll also need to get the extension kit to hang it. And get some plastic ratchet tubing clips of the right size. I have mine hanging on my sump, and when I first hooked it up the outlet extension came off and it was pumping water onto the cabinet floor - thank goodness I was there at the time! I used the ratchet clips on most of the fittings. I use a Maxi Jet 400 for my pump, but one even smaller should be OK.
+1^, I used 2 for a while one with CPE and one with Phosban in series. HOBs are great and you can do about anything with the TLF 150s and great accessories. My only suggestion is by extra sponges, if you tumble the media to fast it will break down into powder and clog up the sponges. Have fun!
Hi i just built my own, well bit of a fib that, i modified two clear tides mini reactors (500ml) to have a tap top and bottom so i could control the flow individually and to disconnect them easily !!!! I connected two side by side but feed them from the same pump and run Rowaphos in one and carbon in the other. Now is the first time i have had 0 phosphates.
snelly50 - this is my TLF Phosban reactor from the top - with the outlet extension kit in place - the inlet and outlet are both rotated 180 degrees in the picture, with the hanging bracket at the top in the picture. In use the inlet and outlet pipe extensions would be on the same side as the hanging bracket. As I said I put plastic ratchet pipe clamps on both of the extensions after I had the outlet extension pop off - the clamps aren't in the picture. Outlet pipe on the left - inlet on the right(without the pump & tubing in place).
Thanks Reefmack...the picture is great. Do you think the TLF Phosban reactor is better than the Two Little Fishes ?? I'm not sure where I'm gonna hang it off my RSM 130 yet.
One more question (and probably not the last).....Which media do u guys like the ROWAphos Phosphate Removal Media or the TLF Phosban ? I've heard that the Rowaphos is very fine and can cause problems.....thx Don
snelly50 - you may have figured out that TLF is just an abbreviation for Two Little Fishes - easier to type LOL!
I've switched over to Pura Phoslock - it's a harder particle GFO and doesn't disintegrate into mud and dust like most GFO. It rinses much quicker too with very little dust. I'm running a blend of Phoslock, TLF HydroCarbon 2 (Positively does not leach phosphates like many carbons do), and Purigen. A bit more expensive than other GFO types and other carbons, but it rinses and runs cleaner for me.
Here you go reefmack the pic's are not too good as i had to squeeze the camera up to the wall but they should give you an idea what i did. They are mounted onto some plywood screwed to the cabinet and can be totaly isolated and removed individually. The fittings have all the metal removed and just seat on "o" rings. You cannot see the mount through the tank due to the refraction and reflections in the tank so that was a plus.
This is the return unions you can see the white isolation tap to the left.
These are the taps that i glued into some extra fittings to control the flow, the left is the carbon fully open the right is the rowaphos adjusted to just "boil" the surface.
Very nice setup soily! One comment - I can't see any in the pictures, but it doesn't look like you have any pipe clamps on the push on vinyl tubing connections? I've seen a couple instances where the tubing loosens up over time and falls off, resulting in a lot of water on the floor. I'm just trying to help prevent that from happening.
Reefmack, I'm planning on running 100% Phoslock along till I get rid of my algae then run a blend of Phoslock and carbon after that. Does this make sense ? Do u run a 50/50 blend?
snelly50 - yes I run roughly 50/50 Phoslock and carbon - maybe a bit more carbon than Phoslock. I pretty much followed the Phoslock instructions as to how much I'd need for my tank (added some Purigen in the blend too).
Thanks.........I'm gonna order all my stuff tonight, Now I've got to figure if I'm hang it off the back or mount it underneath like Soily's. I've been looking for some pics on here but having found any good setups yet.
Thanks Reefmack. I'm ordering the ViaAqua Poly-Reactor (Multi-Media Reactor) and all the media you suggested from Marine Depot. I got the clamps u suggested also. I'm doing a big water change this weekend, cleaning out as much of the algae I can by hand and shutting my lights off for a few days. Hopefull when the reactor gets connected I'll see some good results. I'll keep u posted. Thanks for all your help....Don