afamousjohnson
Valuable Member
Looking at this from this view it seems as common sense/knowledge but lil things like that within the hobby are easily missed.
Ran into a couple high phos issues over this past year in the system and while dealing with them noticed something. This could help those that dont have a test kit or meter for phos when trying to figure out when to change or if the gfo is exhausted.
Normally my phos is low and I always noticed that while changing out my GFO - it would DUMP easily out of the reactor with the water while emptying. When I ran into the high phos issues and was dealing with such I noticed that when I changed my GFO it would CLUMP and would not come out easily with the water while emptying the reactor. It would take a few good shakes to get it out.
I was lucky in that I have a phos meter to test so I knew where I was at number wise with each scenerio. Obviously when it dumped I was changing often enough for the number I was at with phos - and in the case of a clump - I was not changing often enough for the phos number I had in the tank.
So in the end - when you are changing your gfo out - if it clumps and needs to be forced out of the reactor when emptying - you may want to take a look at changing it sooner and or more often as there is a good chance it is exhausting its self before you are getting to it. Which in the end if your trying to lower phos numbers would be acting against you. At 1 point I was having to change out 1 cup gfo every 24 hours but this was when dealing with a 1-2+ phos reading. At my normal low phos range of .03 I can get away with 3-4 weeks before changing out and it still dumps easily.
Just some food for thought and something I noticed - also just an opinion.
Hope this helps some folks in dealing with any high phos issues.
Ran into a couple high phos issues over this past year in the system and while dealing with them noticed something. This could help those that dont have a test kit or meter for phos when trying to figure out when to change or if the gfo is exhausted.
Normally my phos is low and I always noticed that while changing out my GFO - it would DUMP easily out of the reactor with the water while emptying. When I ran into the high phos issues and was dealing with such I noticed that when I changed my GFO it would CLUMP and would not come out easily with the water while emptying the reactor. It would take a few good shakes to get it out.
I was lucky in that I have a phos meter to test so I knew where I was at number wise with each scenerio. Obviously when it dumped I was changing often enough for the number I was at with phos - and in the case of a clump - I was not changing often enough for the phos number I had in the tank.
So in the end - when you are changing your gfo out - if it clumps and needs to be forced out of the reactor when emptying - you may want to take a look at changing it sooner and or more often as there is a good chance it is exhausting its self before you are getting to it. Which in the end if your trying to lower phos numbers would be acting against you. At 1 point I was having to change out 1 cup gfo every 24 hours but this was when dealing with a 1-2+ phos reading. At my normal low phos range of .03 I can get away with 3-4 weeks before changing out and it still dumps easily.
Just some food for thought and something I noticed - also just an opinion.
Hope this helps some folks in dealing with any high phos issues.
