- Hey, it's Thomas here, and today, we're gonna be checking
out Lifegard's Side Flow Turbo Reactors.
This one here's the nano version. It's the smallest one.
So we're also gonna see how small it actually is, and
whether or not it might fit in the back of your all-in-one.
These are great little mid-tier reactors,
so they're not very pricey.
They're really capable of doing quite a few things.
They're rated for carbon, GFO, and Bio Pellets.
Let's dive into it. Let's see what these things can do.
There are lots of different styles
and types of reactors out there.
Designed to be used with various types of media.
Some are more economical, like the BRS Media Reactors,
and others come in at a premium, especially if
they're designed to do a specialized job,
like Avast Vibe Reactors,
but what if you just want a solid, internal media reactor
with a small footprint that is gonna be able to take care
of things like carbon, GFO, or Bio Pellets
that already comes with a pump, is very simple to use,
and hits that middle of the road price point?
Lifegard's Side Flow Turbo Reactors do a great job
of exactly that.
You get a well-built, acrylic reactor
with smooth, rounded edges, a built-in valve
for flow control, and sponges for sandwiching media
like carbon, and it's driven by a Quiet One Pump
that pushes water from the bottom of the reactor to the top,
which is capable of tumbling GFO or Bio Pellets.
So without further ado, let's get this one
out of the box, and take a closer look
at these internal media reactors.
In the box, you'll find this Side Flow Turbo Reactor,
the Quiet One Pump, the foam pads,
the base plate, and the instructions.
The Side Flow Turbo Reactors come in four sizes,
including nano, medium, large and XL,
and they have 250 ml, 450 ml, 750 ml,
and 1.2 liter capacities, while being rated for tanks up
to 75, 150, 250, and 850 gallons respectively.
They also all include a Quiet One Pump,
ranging from roughly 100 gallons per hour,
up to a 1000 gallons per hour, depending on the model.
The nano version that I've got here is actually pretty small
and it might just fit in the back of your all-in-one system.
It comes in at just 4.95 inches long,
including the down flow pipe by 3.15 inches wide,
and sits at just under 14 inches high,
which is pretty dang tiny for a ready to rock reactor,
already outfitted with a pump.
Assembly's really simple and it only takes a moment.
The pump pushes into a small fitting in the base,
and then the acrylic platform slots in underneath the pump.
You can then attach the removable outflow pipe
if it came loose during shipping, and you're ready to go.
These reactors are also simple enough to fill up.
They use four thumb screws to hold the top on,
remove those, pop the top off,
and you can fill up the reactor.
Well, I don't normally love thumb screws,
I will say that Lifegard did a good job
by keeping them relatively shallow.
So you don't have to sit there, turning them over, and over,
and over, and over four individual times.
Instead, it's three quick turns per thumb screw
and they come right out.
Lifegard also gives you two foam pads, which is great,
so you can easily sandwich your carbon
up at the top of the reactor so it can't tumble.
You can also use only a single foam pad
or no foam pads at all.
If you're using media,
you need to tumble like GFO or Bio Pellets.
On that note,
the side flow reactors have a valve built right
into the outflow pipe, right near the top
where it's easy to access.
So you can control the flow rate of the reactor.
While it is similar to a wedge pipe design,
they did put stops, so you know exactly
where fully open and fully closed are,
which is a nice touch and should make it easier
to help you dial in the flow rate to suit your needs.
When it eventually comes time to change out the media
or clean up the reactor,
just about everything comes apart for maintenance,
including the base of the reactor and the internal grills,
which I can definitely appreciate.
That makes the body of the reactor much easier to rinse out,
and prevents any permanent trapped bits of carbon
or debris that can happen with reactors
that don't have removable bases or grills.
If Lifegard's ready to rock, drop-in media reactors match
your reefing mantra, you can pick up one
of these Side Flow Turbos by clicking right here.
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