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13 Sep 2019

Blue Life Introduces New Kind of Resin Reactor

Posted By : Guest

Resin reactors are a brand new concept in reef aquarium water treatment being promoted by Hmahli Marine Life Support Systems, specially designed for use with the Blue Life USA line of resins. Chemical medias such as activated carbon, granular ferric oxide and aluminum oxide are an important tool in the control of unwanted substances and nutrients in the reef aquarium.

More recently, a new class of chemical absorption and adsorption resins are pushing the envelope of nutrient removing performance, and some of them have the added benefit of being regenerable. Over the last several years Blue Life USA has grown to become one of the country’s leading supplier of water conditioning medias. With the FX Advanced Regenerable Resins line, Blue Life is making it both cheaper and easier to condition your water while reusing media resins for removing phosphates, nitrates and general organics.

The Nitrate FX, Phosphate FX and Organics FX are high capacity resins for removing specific compounds from aquarium water with special emphasis on those which create nutrient problems and fuel algae growth. This is not the first time we’ve seen reusable resins for these compounds but Blue Life USA takes it a step further by offering their own regenerating solution called Regen FX.

Unlike some highly toxic resin regenerators of old, Regen FX is a mixture of concentrated carbonate salts which are safe to handle, and available in a size that can repeatedly recharge the FX Regenerable Medias up to six times. It’s important to point out that these regenerable resins are considerably more expensive than typical one-use medias such as carbon or GFO. But once you factor in their advanced adsorption ability and using each pouch up to six times, the economic benefits quickly become clear.

Nitrate FX, Phosphate FX, and Organic FX come in both 250ml and 500ml sizes, all prepackaged in a reusable pouch and cost R525 & R960 for the Nitrate FX, R890 & R1350 for the Phosphate FX, and R525 and R960 for the Organics FX. Meanwhile a jar of Regen FX to recharge these medias will cost around R225.

The most effective method of using chemical medias in the aquarium is to actively pass a generous volume of water through filter media reactors. Chemical resins however work better with slower flow through to enable more contact and dwell time with the medias, which is where Hmahli’s new resin media reactors come in.

The Hmahli resin reactors come in two colours, red or blue, and are currently only being offered in South Africa in one size as a complete kit which includes an Aquael Uni-Pump 700, tubing and a 250ml container of Blue Life Fx resin of your choice. One cool new feature of the Hmahli Resin Reactor is the use of quick disconnect John Guest fittings which allow the semi rigid tubing to be easily installed and removed, and the flow control valve is also of the John Guest variety.

While these Blue Life Fx chemical medias are more expensive up front compared to GFO or Carbon, it is their regenerating capacity that adds long term value to using them. The Hmahli resin reactors are also intended to serve as the regenerating container wherein the active tumbling of the media in the regeneration fluid surely will increase the recharging efficiency. The complete kits are just now beginning to trickle into the U.S. aquarium market and with so much promise, it’s only a matter of time until we learn more about the performance & efficacy of these novel reef aquarium media reactor.