What Reactor Media do you use?

After looking through several pages and (maybe I missed it) not seeing general reactor media questions since 2013 I'd like to pose this. What medias are you using, and how are you using them, in what combinations. ie; Reactors, Bags of media in a sump, ect. Currently I have a Phosban 150 and am seeing now that activated carbon is probably not the best idea. So what to incorporate and how to do it is the question, but first I want to know what is working for everyone else, AND what's good and NEW!

 

Current tank has none I just have some Chemi pure blue in the media basket of my nuvo. But my last tank I was using the BRS deluxe media reactor with GFO. I tried to change the GFO every other water change, so about every 20-30 days. It seemed to work well, although every so often the GFO would get clogged and I'd have to increase the flow just to keep it tumbling. It may have been the reactor or it may have been user error. Either way, it worked well for me.

 

Black Diamond Premium Activated Carbon and SeaChem PhosGuard via media bags hanging inside an HOB filter.

 

matrix carbon by seachem in a bag sitting in my sump

 

I dont think you need to run one IMO

 

What methods do you use currently. for example, I don't have a skimmer on my Nano Cube at the moment so require something more than just water changes.

 

Good question. A skimmer is a must IMO. With that and weekly 20% water changes, I think you could sistain just about any tank size without the use of a reactor.

 

Weekly?

I run two little fishes GFO, Marineland carbon, and purigen in bags in my "sump" section of my AIO tank. Only reason I run Marineland carbon is because we had extra at work. It seems pretty decent though.

 

Running matrix seachem carbon and/or Brs rox. in a brs reactor. After the matrix runs out I'll probably just use the rox carbon. I run zeo which recommends passive carbon in just a bag but that didn't work well for me so went back to reactor. I can see a huge difference. Seems changing one thing may affect the other. I run about 1/4 of the recommended amount of zeo stones. I very much prefer this to gfo. It along with some bacteria keeps my po4/no3 at zero. I'm not full zeo I stopped carbon dose part. Just the stones and bacteria.( Either zeobak or prodibio digest).

 

I like the variety of answers I am seeing. Though I'm not surprised. Its giving me something to think about.