How do you determine the correct flow rate for a biopellet reactor, how do you determine the ideal flow rate for a refugium, and is there any chance those two could be compatible?
I’d like to add a Clear Tides HOB refugium to my 20G AIO. Their refugiums have the option to include a vertical tube around the inlet, turning the front end of the flow into a media reactor.
I’m currently a broke college student, and my goal with this AIO has been “use it to learn as much as you can about reefkeeping before your eventual upgrade to a proper sump‘d system once you’re outta school” So this would give me firsthand experience with a media reactor, which is practically never seen in most smaller AIO systems. So I’d like to take that a step further by using this as an opportunity to gain firsthand experience with biopellets. I’ve been tempted by the KZ zeovit system for a while but that seems a bit too impractical for this particular application, whereas I think biopellets could work.
The issue is- could I push enough flow through this system to get the biopellets tumbling the way they’re supposed to? And, if I were to do that, would it end up pushing too much flow through my refugium? The return pump that this thing comes with is rated for 350 liters/hour or 92 gph. I believe the necessary flow for biopellet tumbling to be dependent upon the size of the reactor (its gonna need more flow to get twice the amount of biopellets all tumbling) but still, the lowest number I found on google was 150gph, and most suggestions were up at 200gph+. For the sake of this hypothetical you can dismiss any concerns that are specific to the return pump shown in the pic. Assuming I were to get a larger pump to get the media tumbling, would I then be putting too much flow through my refugium?
I’d like to add a Clear Tides HOB refugium to my 20G AIO. Their refugiums have the option to include a vertical tube around the inlet, turning the front end of the flow into a media reactor.
I’m currently a broke college student, and my goal with this AIO has been “use it to learn as much as you can about reefkeeping before your eventual upgrade to a proper sump‘d system once you’re outta school” So this would give me firsthand experience with a media reactor, which is practically never seen in most smaller AIO systems. So I’d like to take that a step further by using this as an opportunity to gain firsthand experience with biopellets. I’ve been tempted by the KZ zeovit system for a while but that seems a bit too impractical for this particular application, whereas I think biopellets could work.
The issue is- could I push enough flow through this system to get the biopellets tumbling the way they’re supposed to? And, if I were to do that, would it end up pushing too much flow through my refugium? The return pump that this thing comes with is rated for 350 liters/hour or 92 gph. I believe the necessary flow for biopellet tumbling to be dependent upon the size of the reactor (its gonna need more flow to get twice the amount of biopellets all tumbling) but still, the lowest number I found on google was 150gph, and most suggestions were up at 200gph+. For the sake of this hypothetical you can dismiss any concerns that are specific to the return pump shown in the pic. Assuming I were to get a larger pump to get the media tumbling, would I then be putting too much flow through my refugium?