New Montipora have some question

[murph145]

hmmm as far as keeping nitrates so low at 0 to be exact lets see....
good skimming
lots of flow to keep detrius suspended in the water column so my overflow box can suck it down to the filtration
200 micron filter sock changed weekly
phosban 150 reactor
lots of cheato macro algae in the sump to help suck out all nutrients grows like a total weed
and i run 2 bags of chemipure carbon in the sump baffles
other then that thats about what it takes....
oh and u want your live rock to work for u as its job a water purifier and in order to do that u have to have the water flow through out the rock work this really helps the rock take out any excessive nutrients

 

[quakstar]

Would you mind explaining how the phosban 150 reactor works and if it could be used as a hangon the sump and what exactly it does bc that seems to be a low cost investment that may help

 

[murph145]

basically its a small plastic chamber that u have a powerhead hooked up to it feeds water slowly into the chamber and it passes throught the phosban media and then back into the sump/tank.... it forces water through a phospate remover media to help remove it out of your tank....
ive seen people use these reactors with other medias as well such as carbon.... just kinda helps ensure flow through the media instead of just sitting it in your sump
heres a show of my sump area u can see it hanging on the front side of the sump

 

[quakstar]

I think i may get one of those... My 72 gallon bow does not have that much room underneath it. and my sump has a protein skimmer already hanginig on it but i think i can possibly run this phosban 150 reactor off to the side... Is this thing anything like a denitrator where you have to feed it everyday perfectly or it dies and releases all the nitrate back into the aquarium or does it work more like a protein skimmer with just a differ style of media???
plus i have a lovely refuge working, with chaetemorphia, halemadia, and red mangroves growing in it and it is a 29 gallon with good lighting, but it has only been up 3 months and i can tell a drop in my nitrates already
but thank you for helping me out i have so many questions and really no one to ask this message board is my only HELP

 

[murph145]

hey no problem like i said anytime people around here are usually nice and like to help

as for the phosban reactor u use phosban media or something similar basically some lil granular stuff that when water passes by it it sucks out the phosphates keeping it in the material until its satruated and it wont ever leach them back into the tank so no worries its fail proof

 

[ejensen]

Hey Murph. What kind of pump are you using for your reactor. I just order one and It says to go with a 30 gph pump so I ordered a mini jet 404. Hopefull it works. What Part of So Cal are you from.

 

[quakstar]

haha i just ordered one as well ordered a slightly larger with 70-90gph
but one more question how often and what percentage water change do you do

 

[murph145]

Originally Posted by ejensen
Hey Murph. What kind of pump are you using for your reactor. I just order one and It says to go with a 30 gph pump so I ordered a mini jet 404. Hopefull it works. What Part of So Cal are you from.
geeze im using some old Penguin powerhead i had laying around..... with the phosban chamber they give u an inline ball valve so u can dial back the flow going through the reactor... i have mine dialed back half way.... u just want a nice tumbling motion in the media u dont want it flying all around just tumbling around nicely...... and when u first hook it up run the first pass through into a big bowl becuz the media has alot of dust in it ... i dont think it will hurt anything but it gets into the water and makes it yellow so i would run the first pass into a bowl so u clean the media dust out first

 

[murph145]

Originally Posted by Quakstar
haha i just ordered one as well ordered a slightly larger with 70-90gph
but one more question how often and what percentage water change do you do
i basically do a 15% water change 30G every 6 weeks or more.... since my tank runs really good with all the equipment i have ive backed off on the water changes last time i did one i waited 2 months