Rinsing Phosban w/Reactor

[loismustdie]

This ? has been asked a lot, so I thought I'd post how I do it and hopefully help a few people out.
I find regular rinsing of Phosban and related types of media to be a pain. So what I do is put the media in the reactor with no water. Pic #1
Then I hook it back up and let it fill up with tank water. Pic #2
Then I place the return into a bucket and let it run off of tank water until the water is clear. Pic #3
Depending on the type of media, I usually end up using about 1 to 2 gallons of water to rinse each reactor. So now what I do is siphon out all the muck you see on the bottom of my sump in pic #2 to = 5 total gallons of water removed.
I have 5 gallons of mixed salt water standing by and replace what was removed.
Rinse your media, clean up your sump and you get 5 gallons of new salt water.

 

[Pedro]

That is exactly what i do. It's amazing how rusty that water comes out a first. Great tip!

 

[loismustdie]

That's the Dr Foster and Smith stuff. It's very messy. Usually takes me 2 gallons or more to rinse that. Phosban usually takes a gallon.

 

[tosiek]

I usually run mine through Ro/di water to get everything out since i don't have 100+ gallons of water to play with. I just empty out whatever is in the reactor before i take it out of the tank, slightly open the lid and let the majority of it pour out while making sure none of the reactor media comes out.

 

[meschaefer]

I use the same method. I use this as part of my water change regiment.

The Drs. Foster and Smith stuff is incrediable "dirty". So far I have tried Phosban, Drs. Foster and Smith, and the stuff put our by Warner Marine (phosar?). I have some Rowaphos on order to try that as well.

So far I like the stuff by warner marine the best.

 

[ellebelle]

I rinse mine in a similar way, and try to time change with when I want to do water changes. It's like 2-in-1 maitenance.

 

[aaron23]

What i do is usually i do about a few 5-6 gallon bucket water changes, i take one of those buckets about to be dumped in the toilet and use that to rinse off the media

 

[House of Laughter]

I usually run mine through Ro/di water to get everything out since i don't have 100+ gallons of water to play with. I just empty out whatever is in the reactor before i take it out of the tank, slightly open the lid and let the majority of it pour out while making sure none of the reactor media comes out.

The two times I tried using a reactor, I used this method, I found it effective

House

 

[cali_reef]

OT.. Chris, where did you get those water tight electrical fittings used for your probes?

 

[vanceny]

Question, with that method of cleaning your sump at the same time do yo end up with a "dirty" mix of media and detritus? Is that a concern? I've used the Foster and Smith stuff and rinsed it under the tap but it took forever to clean.

 

[loismustdie]

Vacency, I don't understand what you are asking.
Pierce... I forgot, I'll get back to you.

 

[vanceny]

What I'm trying to say is since you're vacuuming up the sump does the "muck" have any effect on the phosphate media? Does the "muck" get trapped in the reactor?

 

[Awibrandy]

My method is similar, except that I don't draw the muck out of the sump into the reactors. I get the water from the middle not the bottom where all the muck is. Small water change in between 20% water change.:sgrin:

 

[loismustdie]

What I'm trying to say is since you're vacuuming up the sump does the "muck" have any effect on the phosphate media? Does the "muck" get trapped in the reactor?

No. I may have worded this wrong again. I do not pull the muck through the reactor. I siphon the muck out separately. Not through the reactors. Sorry if there was a misunderstanding.