Can lanthanum strip phosphate from phosphate absorbers?

[Subarcticreef]

A hard core chemistry: what happens if a solid phosphate absorber saturated with phosphate is incubated in a lanthanum solution? Does lanthanum bind phosphate with a higher affinity than GFO/Al based absorber? Could dirt cheap lanthanum intended for pools be used to regenerate absorbers?

 

[Doctorgori]

If that works, Almost ingenious …
but then again thats almost like burning perfectly good gasoline/oil to run a generator to power a electric car…
(or have they already tried this LOL)
anyway..
why wouldn’t someone not just toss the GFO and use the lanthanum directly? you can’t the regenerate the LC (or can you)
I’m not seeing the profits in this, unless you are thinking LC is a lot cheaper, or you need the solid GFO for certain applications..

 

[Miami Reef]

Yes. Here’s a thread where someone uses lanthanum to regenerate a bag of sand for phosphate removal.

It can also work for GFO.

Desorbing phosphate from sand with lanthanum.

Finally got around to a hap hazard test for desorbing sand with lanthanum. The sand has been churning around in my fluidised media reactor for a week on a tank currently measuring 0.6 ppm. From previous measurements in the Aragonite adsorption thread, Dan-P kindly calculated my sand had adsorbed...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

A hard core chemistry: what happens if a solid phosphate absorber saturated with phosphate is incubated in a lanthanum solution? Does lanthanum bind phosphate with a higher affinity than GFO/Al based absorber? Could dirt cheap lanthanum intended for pools be used to regenerate absorbers?

I expect it goes both ways setting up an equilibrium,, but yes, one can likely strip phosphate from solid particle binders. Lanthanum will also bind to them, as may other metals in the lanthanum product.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If that works, Almost ingenious …
but then again thats almost like burning perfectly good gasoline/oil to run a generator to power a electric car…
(or have they already tried this LOL)
anyway..
why wouldn’t someone not just toss the GFO and use the lanthanum directly? you can’t the regenerate the LC (or can you)
I’m not seeing the profits in this, unless you are thinking LC is a lot cheaper, or you need the solid GFO for certain applications..

Avoiding problems with tangs would be one readon.

 

[Subarcticreef]

If that works, Almost ingenious …
but then again thats almost like burning perfectly good gasoline/oil to run a generator to power a electric car…
(or have they already tried this LOL)
anyway..
why wouldn’t someone not just toss the GFO and use the lanthanum directly? you can’t the regenerate the LC (or can you)
I’m not seeing the profits in this, unless you are thinking LC is a lot cheaper, or you need the solid GFO for certain applications..

People tend to be a “neurotic” when it comes to pouring lanthanum in the tank. Personally I’ve hade no problems with it but I have also been very careful using phosphate analysis before dosing it.

 

[Subarcticreef]

I expect it goes both ways setting up an equilibrium,, but yes, one can likely strip phosphate from solid particle binders. Lanthanum will also bind to them, as may other metals in the lanthanum product.

So you think we would risk having impurities from the lanthanum solution contaminating the absorbers?

 

[Doctorgori]

Avoiding problems with tangs would be one readon.

that’s a good one actually

People tend to be a “neurotic” when it comes to pouring lanthanum in the tank. Personally I’ve hade no problems with it but I have also been very careful using phosphate analysis before dosing it.

True but I might be one of them, I don’t fully trust either LC or GFO ….Ive often used just 1/2 of each (together) …
so your post has a lot of relevance for me

I just recently posted on this (I’ll go look) but someone replied that a fast drop in phosphate is harmful and they quoted TM’s Hans Werner for reference /backup

I don’t want to abuse the summons function for a clearly busy person, but should he (Hans) pass by; perhaps some clarification

 

[Nate Chalk]

Avoiding problems with tangs would be one readon.

Main reason I'll never use it again

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So you think we would risk having impurities from the lanthanum solution contaminating the absorbers?

It certainly is some risk, but I have no idea if it is significant or is a reason to not try it.