Reactor and supplies just arrived...now the questions

[lawpoke]

First things first....do I need to rinse the rocks before I place them in the reactor?

[fkadir]

Yup, rinse them really well... its very dusty..

[John Brancheau]

Sorry all. speaking without reading.................

[nbd13]

I first clean my rocks under cold water, then soak them in RODI water for 24-36 hours. Finally rinse with RODI water a couple times....

Nick

[lawpoke]

Thanks for the prompt replies. Rinsed the rocks. Ran the reactor w/ rocks in RO for about 10 minutes. Now in sump running. Time to start dosing.

[lawpoke]

My reactor's almost full of rocks. Will simply lifting the stir-bar 3 or 4 inches and rotating it several times be enough to clean the rocks? The rocks don't move much when I do this. BTW....my wife thought I had bought gravel when she saw the dry zeovit in the bags.

[fkadir]

Which reactor are you having? Some reactors have a bar specially meant to stir and shake the zeoliths if we are spinning it. Issit possible for you to move the handle up and down rapidly to help dislodge the mulm?

[lawpoke]

I have the large Gro-tech. Pretty hard to rapidly push the handle up and down w/ almost 5 liters of media in it. I assume you turn the pump off while you stir....if I leave it on some of the rocks come out the drain.

[Orion76]

Ouch 5 liter Grotech, pumping that thing is hard work. It's definitely a lot easier to shake the rocks with the pump ON!!

[G.Alexander]

If you switch off the pump while you mix up the stones the bacteria mulm will not be blown out of the reactor very effective so the pump has to be switched on while you mix up the stones.

I am not familiar with the big Grotech reactor so I can not tell you if it will work with 5 liters zeolite. You should be able to move the stones up and down for about 4 inch so maybe another Grotech user can jump in here.

G.Alexander

[Orion76]

You should be able to move the stones up and down for about 4 inch so maybe another Grotech user can jump in here.

It will work but some small stones will inevitably be flushed out the reactor when you pump. No big deal, just make sure your sump return pump has a strainer if the reactor is in the same compartment.

[lawpoke]

I can move the rocks up and down 4 inches or so....but it doesn't appear that the rocks are moving alot among themselves. Also, I'm dosing 2.5ml of Zeostart twice daily using a syringe. I'm holding the syringe directly in front of the intake to the reactor and slowly dosing the Zeostart beside the intake. Is this the recommended procedure for the dosing?

[G.Alexander]

With my reactor I have also the possibility to move the zeolite up and down for 4 – 5 inches which works well since years. I pump the stones once or twice daily 20 x so a lot of mulm is coming out of the reactor. Rotating the bar while you pump down is also helpful. If your reactor is installed in a filter camber of your sump it would work fine if you just does ZeoSpur2 in this camber, that is what I do.

G.Alexander.

[Aged Salt]

Hi Curt, I use the lg. GroTech as well & do have some stones pour out onto the sump with the new fillups. As Timon, said, it is not a problem & these can be left insitu for some time if you wish, just being careful not to allow the stones near access to any pump.

With the Grotech, you may not notice the stones moving[they are] but you should notice clouding of the water around the reactor after cleaning. This is the mulm that needs to be carried up into the water column to feed our corals or be exported by our skimmer. Dose the zeo-components[Bak,Food,Start2] near thje reactor's pump when "on". Always handle-pump the reactor when it's running. Be sure to turn off your skimmer for 60min after dosing Bak/Food7. This is not necessary when just dosing Start2. Bob

[lawpoke]

The reactor is located in the first chamber of the sump next to my 2 downspouts. I placed it there to prevent any displaced rocks from reaching my pumps. Since I have roughly 5000g/hr of flow I am dosing the Zeostart right next to the pump intake. Thanks for the info as far as skimming is concerned as I was not aware of the need to turn the skimmer off during some of the dosing. Will the zeo rocks retain their current almost turquoise tint?