Battling against Live Rock Leaching Phosphate

[AetherealKnight]

There are frozen fish foods with seaweed mixed in for herbivores.

Would it be cheaper to make it myself? I saw in another thread in which the they bought spinach, lettuce, shrimp and squid and made their own Mysis.

 

[divewsharks]

You can pull a rock, put is a fresh bucket of new saltwater and test to see if any PO4 is leaching out.

 

[divewsharks]

Would it be cheaper to make it myself? I saw in another thread in which the they bought spinach, lettuce, shrimp and squid and made their own Mysis.

Definitely cheaper for me.

 

[Lavey29]

Would it be cheaper to make it myself? I saw in another thread in which the they bought spinach, lettuce, shrimp and squid and made their own Mysis.

Sure people do that but I'd wash all the ingredients in RODI water before blending and freezing.

 

[Dburr1014]

Lanthanum Chloride is perfectly safe, just dose it into either your skimmer or a 100micron filter sock as the precaution.

1) not perfectly safe
2) 10 micron sock not 100
3) yellow tang tells me not to use in tank.

 

[divewsharks]

1) not perfectly safe
2) 10 micron sock not 100
3) yellow tang tells me not to use in tank.

Sorry, meant 10micron.
But either way, never had an issue with any of my Tangs. I don't use any PO4 control any longer; but never saw a single issue and its a more controlled measure than GFO and others.

 

[Dburr1014]

Full tank pic?

I want to see how big the sps are.
May be easier to break them off a couple rocks at a time and use lanthanum in a vessel. You will have to soak after in fresh salt water to rid of the Lanthanum.

Remounting sps is simple enough.

 

[Dburr1014]

Sorry, meant 10micron.
But either way, never had an issue with any of my Tangs. I don't use any PO4 control any longer; but never saw a single issue and its a more controlled measure than GFO and others.

Nice!

Because you had no troubles it's a broad statement to say it's "perfectly safe".

That is misleading with all the tang deaths of seasoned reefers.

 

[cdnco2004]

I had bad luck with GFO and Phosguard. What I found that actually worked was Brightwell Aquatics Purit. It was able to pull the phos out of the rocks.

 

[divewsharks]

Nice!

Because you had no troubles it's a broad statement to say it's "perfectly safe".

That is misleading with all the tang deaths of seasoned reefers.

True, broad statement. But I know many who use it and never had a single issue - only been told/warned of the potential issues. And if you take precautions to mitigate... GFO on the other hand i have first hand felt the impact on corals as it rapidly strips your tank of needed PO4.

 

[Dburr1014]

True, broad statement. But I know many who use it and never had a single issue - only been told/warned of the potential issues. And if you take precautions to mitigate... GFO on the other hand i have first hand felt the impact on corals as it rapidly strips your tank of needed PO4.

I do the GARF method.
Works for me and nice and slow. Very safe.

Thread 'Desorbing phosphate from sand with lanthanum.' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/desorbing-phosphate-from-sand-with-lanthanum.981286/

 

[AetherealKnight]

Full tank pic?

I want to see how big the sps are.
May be easier to break them off a couple rocks at a time and use lanthanum in a vessel. You will have to soak after in fresh salt water to rid of the Lanthanum.

Remounting sps is simple enough.

I’m currently out of town until next week, but I’ll try to get a pic asap. I think I actually lost my only sps which was my red montipora. The rest are lps and softies and well to be fair most look abysmal. But they went from looking completely dead to having small branches of polyps growing back.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I had bad luck with GFO and Phosguard. What I found that actually worked was Brightwell Aquatics Purit. It was able to pull the phos out of the rocks.

Bad luck means what?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

.. GFO on the other hand i have first hand felt the impact on corals as it rapidly strips your tank of needed PO4.

It is only rapid if you use a larger than needed amount. You can use as little as you want and go as slow as you want.

 

[cdnco2004]

Bad luck means what?

Yeah not very descriptive in this case. It would not pull enough phosphate. It would pull from the water but the overall levels never reduced with the rocks just leaching it back into the water.