Issues with spectrapure dual chamber reactor

I am having problems with SpectraPure Dual Chamber Media reactor. It's very similar in design to BRS dual chamber reactor and numerous others out there.

No matter what I do, after about 2..3 days of running, the flow through both reactors nearly stops down to a tiny trickle. I am having to take media shells out, replace the media, clean the media shell screes and put everything back every 3..4 days.

Originally it came with a single MJ-1200 pump to drive both reactors. I've tried to remedy the problem by purchasing second MJ-1200 and running separate pumps for each chamber. That helped some, gave me maybe another 2 days of running, but ultimately reactors still get clogged. I am even running foam pre-filter on both MJ-1200s.

The funny thing is that water in my tank is not even that dirty. I have very little detritus in the sump and water column. The foam pre-filters are barely dirty.

I think the media shell screens are the culprit.

Anyone else ran into this kind of issues?

If not, what type of reactor do you use for Carbon/GFO?

Thank you.

 

Bump. Nobody is using SpectraPure dual reactor here?

 

No experience with the spectra pure. That has been my experience with the BRS and others I know have had the same issue with the BRS. It just seems to be a really poor design, so, if the spectra pure is similar tat may be the issue. With the BRS, getting rid of some of the sponges did help a bit though, but the Phosban style reactors just seem to work much better.

 

thats what i feared and suspected. design is basically the same. guess its time to get two new reactors. can anyone recommend specific reactors for each brs rox carbon and brs high capacity gfo? thanks.

 

My single BRS reactor has been working just fine for carbon for 1.5 years now. I also use a TLF Phosban single reactor for carbon on another tank with no issues.