GFO for High Phosphate Tanks

[piranhaman00]

Hi,

My fish only tank 220 gallons has a PO4 around 5.0ppm and has hair algae and bryposis. Dosing Fluc and vibrant is helping but I want to lower phosphate to keep rocks free of leaching phosphate if I ever use them in a reef tank again.

I looked into PhosphateRx and Phosphate E (lanthanum chloride) and seems like it could be potentially dangerous to fish and I dont use socks.

How would GFO work with this high amount of phosphate? Can I just load a double reactor full with it and let it run? Is it dangerous to drop phosphate fast even without coral?

How much GFO would be needed for this ball park?

Thanks,

 

[Miller535]

This is just my opinion, but I do not think more GFO reduces the phosphates faster. If anything the only thing is does is let you go longer in between changing out the media. I can not think of any reason that dropping the phosphate quickly would bother fish. Other then GFO does have a pretty hard hit on alk which could lower your ph, to what degree I do not know. My best advice would be to put the recommended amount in and change it often. They recommend measuring the effluent of your gfo reactor to know when it's exhausted.

 

[piranhaman00]

This is just my opinion, but I do not think more GFO reduces the phosphates faster. If anything the only thing is does is let you go longer in between changing out the media. I can not think of any reason that dropping the phosphate quickly would bother fish. Other then GFO does have a pretty hard hit on alk which could lower your ph, to what degree I do not know. My best advice would be to put the recommended amount in and change it often. They recommend measuring the effluent of your gfo reactor to know when it's exhausted.

Thanks, So should no measurable PO4 make it through the reactor?

 

[josephxsxn]

I am only using Phosphate-E, I run a sock dedicated to it as most socks are not small enough micron. Most people recommend 5-10 micron, I have been using a 1 micron. You can just put the sock onto something in your sump and drip into it very slowly.

 

[piranhaman00]

I am only using Phosphate-E, I run a sock dedicated to it as most socks are not small enough micron. Most people recommend 5-10 micron, I have been using a 1 micron. You can just put the sock onto something in your sump and drip into it very slowly.

Is there visible precipitate in the sock you clean out?

 

[Miller535]

Thanks, So should no measurable PO4 make it through the reactor?

Correct, there should be NO PO4 coming out of the reactor. This is the best method. GFO is not cheap, especially not on a large tank with high PO4. You do not want to pitch it until it starts to get a reading.

 

[josephxsxn]

Is there visible precipitate in the sock you clean out?

Here is a photo before pulling it out, I believe this is floculant. I have dripped to fast before and droped my alk, its a balance for the speed. My recent approach has been around higher level of dilution 1: 100-300, and dripping slowly over a week, etc. But recently I have also figured out my phos with my feeding is around 0.02ppm a day i believe so I may change to a more continuous dosing approach now that I have been doing this for a bit. I have 2 Zebrasoma tangs (sailfin and scopas) which they claim are the sensitive ones in other posts, have never seen any issues with them.

Build Thread - Mixed Reef 167gal Peninsula

[LAST UPDATE - Mar 22th 2021] This first post will function as an index and master status for this tank. Latest Tank Photo [ Mar 22th 2021 ] Build Equipment WaterBox 7225 Display Tank Volume 167gal Sump Volume 42gal Total Volume 209gal Ecotech Vectra M2 3x Ecotech Radion XR15 G4 PRO...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[excell007]

Do you have rocks? Rocks absorbs phosphate and it will leach it back to the water and the phosphate in the water is lower than what's on the rock. Battling very high Phosphate takes time, 6 months ago my fowlr have >4 phosphate, today I am still at 1.6. I tried both LC and GFO.

 

[piranhaman00]

Do you have rocks? Rocks absorbs phosphate and it will leach it back to the water and the phosphate in the water is lower than what's on the rock. Battling very high Phosphate takes time, 6 months ago my fowlr have >4 phosphate, today I am still at 1.6. I tried both LC and GFO.

Which worked better?

Yes I have rocks. I know it will take time, I want to get a head of it now.

 

[excell007]

They're pretty much the same. I am not using a reactor though, and they say GFO works better in a reactor.

 

[Cwentz758]

In my experience a little GFO goes a long way. On the box there’s usually a formula for X amount of GFO for X amount of gallons. I’d say you could use half of that and get your phosphates down. I know I went from .69 to 0 in like 12hours and was shocked. (It’s not what I wanted to do).

normally I run 60/40 carbon/gfo in my reactor

 

[excell007]

But .69 is so far away from 5 or in my case 4.4. When you get to this level the rocks have already absorb a lot of phosphate and will release it back. During the my first couple of months using GFO my phosphate will go down by one point and then go back up by .8 when GFO gets exhausted. Even now my Phosphate will go from 1.86 to 1.2 in 1 day then 3 days later it's back to 1.6. But I am getting there, the maximum number of phosphate is getting lower and lower each week.