Phosphate/carbon reactor question

[mm16]

I was told I should have a phosphate reactor. I was doing some research on it and it looks like a lot of people use carbon also. My tank is 285 gallons, I found the next reef mr1 monster with 2 chambers, it allows you to run 2 different media. Is this something I should consider?
Thanks

 

[sen5241b]

With a tank that big you will definitely need a reactor to run phosphate adsorption media. There is a bit of debate on running carbon. Most think it helps but some don't bother with it. I run it.

 

[noy]

wow thats the biggest reactor i've seen. Probably needs a huge pump to drive the flow through the media in the 2 chambers too.

A lot of what you are asking depends on what type of livestock you want to keep. If you want a SPS dominated tank - you will need pristine water and yes you will need this reactor. You may even run biopellets and need a different type of reactor. If you run a soft coral tank then you may be able to get away with a higher lvl of po4 (no calcification) and therefore a smaller reactor.

I don't think you need that big of a chamber for carbon so you may be able to get away with a single chamber one and run something like a phosban 150 for carbon.

The reason i run carbon in my system is that i have leather corals which can release toxic chemcials in the water column and the carbon goes towards neutralizing that and the odd impurity you may introduce in a water change.

You may want to hold off buying one right away - you can get your tank set-up and cycled and monitor phosphates as you add livestock.