NPX screen replacement

so I got rid of my guetto screens cause they where catching to much debris and blocking the filter.  So I bought a set of the The Two Little Fishes NPX screens.  Once outside of the plastic seal I cut them to size from the original screen the media reactor had.  After trimming them to minor adjustments, they where able easily fit on the bottom and the top cap.  So no more debris and perfect flow going inside the reactor.

media reactor turned into a bio pellet

So I decided to try out this Media Reactor to see if it would work with bio pellets.  It comes with different filtration pads, 1/2" tube, and john guest fittings.  It looks pretty simple to install and pretty much plug and play.  

                                                          I drilled in 2 screws and made sure it would be leveled.  The John Guest fittings slip really easy to a 1/2" pump output.  The issue I was experiencing here is that I don't have enough space on my chamber to work with,  I placed the pump on the far right chamber, had to force it a little to make it fit.

After leveling the cap on the screws, the next step was to add the bio pellets.   I measured the amount with a measuring cup for 1/4 . I sealed it up and realized the screen is not enough to hold the pellets. Since I can't use the sponges I had to remove them.  I used some left over filter bag to cover the screens.

I placed the return hose on the protein skimmer chamber, I connected the pump and turned on the valve.  To my disappointment there was not enough flow to get the pellets to tumble.   The next thing was to upgrade to a higher pump.  I got the MJ 1200 and to my surprise the pump has a smaller footprint than the one I had connected to the reactor and not to mention more flow. I'm pretty satisfied with results. I dosed some micro bacteria to the pellets to speed up the process and now just have to wait a week to increase the bio pellets for 1/4 cup