This subject came up by chance with a few fellow classmates and reef hobbyist about running a HOB filter in a sump than reactor to house Purigen, Carbon, ChemiPure, and/or GFO. It sounds interest, BUT would like to hear from my fellow members about this subject at hand. Let's here the Pro's and Con's as well ideas to modify HOB for marine use in a sump.
-
Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
HOB Filter in a Sump 0.o
- Thread starter Angel730
- Start date
Most HOB filters, and I'm thinking along the lines of Aqueons and such usually used for freshwater, are simple chemical reactors (carbon and a nitrogen absorbing compound) with mechanical filtration (sponge or filter pad). I've used to use a HOB when I ran a quarantine for a short while. I just threw some carbon in a mesh bag, put it in the HOB, and cut a sponge to fit.
Pros are that they are cheap and can be effective in smaller marine tanks. Cons are that even the larger ones are underpowered for larger tanks, the shelf filters and replacements are not marine quality. For the price of fa HOB large enough to handle required media amounts (and with a pump large enough to drive it), its simply easier to go the extra $20-$30 and buy a proper reactor IMHO.
Saying that, I've known a few people that use canister filters as reactors on marine systems. They have the power required and many have multiple compartments you can fill with media of choice.
Pros are that they are cheap and can be effective in smaller marine tanks. Cons are that even the larger ones are underpowered for larger tanks, the shelf filters and replacements are not marine quality. For the price of fa HOB large enough to handle required media amounts (and with a pump large enough to drive it), its simply easier to go the extra $20-$30 and buy a proper reactor IMHO.
Saying that, I've known a few people that use canister filters as reactors on marine systems. They have the power required and many have multiple compartments you can fill with media of choice.
We ran HOB fuges on our tanks for years but that was because they were nanos and we did not have a sump. Once we upgraded later on to sumps, we switched to reactors because they are just much better at what they do. If you were pressed for space or if you wanted to run multiple medias, yeah a HOB will probably work. Also, two reactors running carbon and whatever type of GFO would probably work the same or better than all of those other medias in a hob situation.