Chemi pure elite in a reactor?

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FreeDumb182

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Has anyone used chemi pure elite in a reactor? I have an 8g Nuvo tank and i currently have the chemi bag in the first chamber but i don't think it's getting good water circulation through the chemipure bag. Plus, i dont want any mechanical filters in my system but this is acting like one due to the placement and i see a lot of detritus build up on the mesh bag when i replace it.

I've done a little research about it and it looks like some people are running chemi pure elite in reactors but it says on the container to "not remove it from the mesh bags".
 
i could be mistaken , but i think thats because it has carbon in that bag as well and we not supposed to tumble carbon because it will grind is self down . gfo we can tumble softly .ive only put it in the chamber of the biocube. interested to see if some have used a reactor and how along with any downsides to doing so following along
 
lunacris said:
i could be mistaken , but i think thats because it has carbon in that bag as well and we not supposed to tumble carbon because it will grind is self down . gfo we can tumble softly .ive only put it in the chamber of the biocube. interested to see if some have used a reactor and how along with any downsides to doing so following along
Click to expand...

I see. Yes, i didn't have a problem when I had it in my 29 biocube but the chambers in the Nuvo 8 are a lot smaller the the biocube. Will the carbon still grind itself even if the flow is really low? I think a very low flow in a reactor beats any flow in a 2.5x2.5 chamber specially since most of the water just passes through the side of the bag instead of through it.

I have the the TLF reactor and was thinking of getting a bigger one like the BRS reactors and maybe drop the chemi pure elite bag in there if I can't open it.

I emailed Boyd Enterprises yesterday; hoping i'll get a response today!

Thanks for you input Chris!
 
No reason not to give it some low flow through a reactor but also a waste of money. Chemipure elite is just low grade carbon and some GFO. The other ingredients is ion exchange resin (DI) that is not at all effective in salt water. If you want to run a single reactor get the sponges for the TLF, run the GFO on the bottom at a low tumble and the carbon in the top/middle held firmly between 2 sponges. This does restrict flow though and make it difficult to "tune" the reactor.
 
SkullV said:
No reason not to give it some low flow through a reactor but also a waste of money. Chemipure elite is just low grade carbon and some GFO. The other ingredients is ion exchange resin (DI) that is not at all effective in salt water. If you want to run a single reactor get the sponges for the TLF, run the GFO on the bottom at a low tumble and the carbon in the top/middle held firmly between 2 sponges. This does restrict flow though and make it difficult to "tune" the reactor.
Click to expand...

I have used TLF GFO and also tried biopellets but I had the most success with chemipure elite. I'm kinda afraid to replace the chemi pure elite now.. LOL. Just wanted a way to not have the chemi pure bag in a small chamber because it is trapping detritus.

So you're saying it is okay to run chemi pure elite in a reactor with low flow??? Awesome! Thanks Ted!
 
I just stuffed the whole bag in the top half of my reactor. In a few weeks I'm switching to k1 media in the reactor and will be pulling the chempure
 
FreeDumb182 said:
I have used TLF GFO and also tried biopellets but I had the most success with chemipure elite. I'm kinda afraid to replace the chemi pure elite now.. LOL. Just wanted a way to not have the chemi pure bag in a small chamber because it is trapping detritus.

So you're saying it is okay to run chemi pure elite in a reactor with low flow??? Awesome! Thanks Ted!
Click to expand...

Chemipure elite is both carbon and GFO though. It has nothing to do with biopellets. In any case, yes, you can run it slowly in the reactor. Don't even take the stuff out of the bag, just let it sit there in the reactor, that will force water through it.

Twitch said:
I just stuffed the whole bag in the top half of my reactor. In a few weeks I'm switching to k1 media in the reactor and will be pulling the chempure
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that K1 has nothing to do (at all) with removing phosphate, nitrate, or trace chemicals. If your aim is to replace your chemipure with something that does a similar job, K1 isn't going to do it.
 
Just toss it in there. It's not going to be 100% effective since water is still going to flow around it, but it'll be more effective than it sitting in the sump (which is what I do with my carbon and have no issues).
 
Thanks for the info ted. And just wrap it around the tube in a way that almost forces water through it.
 
have you looked into the intank media baskets? they are larger than the stock ones and force more water through them
 
UPDATE: A rep from Boyd Enterprises finally called me back! He said it's okay to use it in a reactor as long as you use everything inside the bag and to make sure water flow is low enough as to not force any of the contents out of the reactor and not ruin the carbon. He said the only reason it says not to open the media bags is so that people won't try to just use portions of the content in the bag or they'll end up with the wrong proportions of the GFO, carbon, etc.

I'm going to use the same media bag as a "filter" to keep the contents from getting out.

Thanks for all your input and ideas!
 
Okay, I was able to set up the TLF reactor with my 8g Nuvo but is this too much flow for chemi pure elite? I kinda want to add more flow...

[video=youtube;_aFeFOVYqZs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aFeFOVYqZs&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
Oh no, you shouldn't have taken it out of the bag (despite what the rep at Boyd said). The carbon is harder than the GFO and it will crush it to dust when it tumbles. I would dump out the reactor and start over with a fresh bag.
 
Will that ruin the tank? Or will the gfo just run out faster? I kinda don't want to waste it lol. Can i just run it for like 1-2months then put in a new one inside the bag?
 
Ok. I will have to change it tomorrow because my wife will kill me if i spend any more time with the tank tonight lmao.

Thanks Ted!
 
It's my understanding that GFO is significantly harder than carbon and you definitely don't want a mix of carbon and gfo to be tumbling as the carbon will soon become dust. Tumbling GFO in a reactor is more to prevent it from clumping up than anything else. You can run both GFO and Carbon in one reactor but just use some pads to hold the media in one place securely.

Checkout this video for more info:

[video=youtube_share;yba8hkQ6WC8]http://youtu.be/yba8hkQ6WC8?t=2m4s[/video]
 
I decided to disconnect the reactor because it was starting to cloud the tank. I hope my corals and fishes are okay.

Thanks guys
 
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