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GFO packing tight after two days


Wade

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What causes GFO to get so tightly packed that no water will pass through it? I thought if you had the flow too high that would happen, but I had mine reasonable low I thought. Does it have to be just at a trickle to begin with? I'm using the regular BRS GFO.

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I'm using a BRS reactor will loose GFO. The BRS calculator states about 1.33 cups for my water volume, but I only use about a cup. I woke up with a thought this morning (you might be a reefneck if you wake up thinking about your tank...). Are the BRS reactoes supposed to flow up from the bottom or down from the top? I think they're supposed to be upflow and I may have my GFO hooked up backwards. I know my carbon is upflow, but for some reason I have this memory of seeing the water trickle down from the top when I changed it out a couple of days ago. If I have it backwards, then that's my problem. Thoughts?

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Haha "reefneck".

I'm not absolutely sure because I have never owned a reactor but I would assume the water would need to flow up in order to make the GFO tumble. If it flowed down it would just compact the GFO even more. I say switch it up and see what happens :)

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I'm using a BRS reactor will loose GFO. The BRS calculator states about 1.33 cups for my water volume, but I only use about a cup. I woke up with a thought this morning (you might be a reefneck if you wake up thinking about your tank...). Are the BRS reactoes supposed to flow up from the bottom or down from the top? I think they're supposed to be upflow and I may have my GFO hooked up backwards. I know my carbon is upflow, but for some reason I have this memory of seeing the water trickle down from the top when I changed it out a couple of days ago. If I have it backwards, then that's my problem. Thoughts?

You should have the the GFO on the left side and carbon on the right side as you look at the reactor. With you flow coming in and hitting GFO first

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They're two separate reactors. I've confirmed that I do have them connected correctly. I'm not sure why the flow stopped the other day, but it's going now with the valve set at about half flow, maybe a little less. I can't really see the GFO tumbling much, but I do have flow so I guess it's going through the GFO. My supply is almost gone so I think I'll switch to ROWA Phos and see how that works.

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How quickly did you run out? I just emptied the last of my first gallon of regular BRS gfo. I have 55 total water volume gallons and using the recommended amount and changing it once a month, it lasted me 15 months exactly.

Water flows in on the left, trickles down the outside canister and comes back up through the center canister and out the hose on the right. Works exactly like rodi sediment, carbon, and DI canisters. When mine stops tumbling I just open the valve and that breaks it loose, let it churn vigorously for a minute then close it back down to a tumble. I suppose over a months time the actual amount in the reactor will appear to lose about 10% of its volume. I assumed that is normal. I understand that the HC gfo is a bit harder and won't clump or grind down as easily.

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Maybe the powerhead I have connected to the reactor is not big enough to handle the heavy GFO. I'm using a Cobalt MJ-1200 (295gph) for both the carbon and the GFO reactors.

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Those parameters are in the normal ranges. I think maybe I just had it turned down too low to start. Which allowed it to settle. Now, even when i have the valve wide open there's no tumbling action. I do still have flow through the media, but I can't see any movement whatsoever.

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MJ1200 should be plenty powerful. It can also cement together under conditions that I haven't been able to replicate (very high alk or CA?).

I ran the MJ 12 on my 28G as the supply for my single lil fishy. I ran 1/2 the GFO you are and barely had enough flow to get a good tumble. However I had increased head pressure as I also ran it thru my chiller then into the reactor which hung on the back of the elevated tank. Since I started the 75G I now use a Seicce pump with 500+ gph to do the same job and now have much more than I need. Bottom line is if when you put fresh GFO you cannot get it to tumble then you do not have enough gph to do the job. Turn off the GAC reator and see if the GFO reactor begins totumble. That'll answer your question for sure. And gfo can calcify and harden, but usually over some period of time greater than a couple of weeks.

Most of us are reefnecks and wake up thinking about our tanks. LOL Bottom line is since I'm busier than a sand sifting goby moving a new pile of sand at work, and I still find time to log in and reply to the forumn... then I know i'm a reefneck ! HA!

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