Clay phosphate binder?

[hart24601]

Hey @Randy Holmes-Farley what do you think of this product for phosphate removal and the claims it makes about not releasing back into the water?

PKO is a bentonite-based phosphate remover by Easy Reefs | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Easy Reefs Phosphate K.O is a powdered clay material aimed at removing phosphate from aquariums. We spotted it at Interzoo in May and although there are lots of ways to remove phosphate…

reefbuilders.com

 

[CoralB]

Bump

 

[Dan_P]

Sounds like BS, but if it is not expensive, I would be happy to buy some and pressure test the claims. After a quick search, I could not find a price.

 

[hart24601]

It does sound like BS but with something like phosphate removal I would be somewhat surprised if it didn’t work at all as they would get called out almost immediately when people don’t see levels drop but with Randy being the phosphate king I figured he will have a good idea if it’s at least possible.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hey @Randy Holmes-Farley what do you think of this product for phosphate removal and the claims it makes about not releasing back into the water?

PKO is a bentonite-based phosphate remover by Easy Reefs | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Easy Reefs Phosphate K.O is a powdered clay material aimed at removing phosphate from aquariums. We spotted it at Interzoo in May and although there are lots of ways to remove phosphate…

reefbuilders.com

I don’t believe the statement about won’t release. Simple binding of phosphate doesn’t work irreversibly.

it will collect as a mud on the bottom.

I do not know how effective it really is since the 30 g/kg claim is likely not from seawater at 0.05 ppm phosphate. I expect that’s a case from very high phosphate in fresh water (if accurate at all).

 

[hart24601]

I don’t believe the statement about won’t release. Simple binding of phosphate doesn’t work irreversibly.

it will collect as a mud on the bottom.

I do not know how effective it really is since the 30 g/kg claim is likely not from seawater at 0.05 ppm phosphate. I expect that’s a case from very high phosphate in fresh water (if accurate at all).

Thanks Randy!

 

[chema]

Most likely it is a bentonite modified with lanthanum using an ion exchange process.

The application of this kind of absorbers to eliminate phosphate from polluted waters have been well studied. There are several publications on this

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2016.01.038
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2014.03.023

There are also studies on the modification with other elements such as aluminium of iron
https://doi.org/10.2166/wrd.2016.21