GFO not lowering phosphate

[Miami Reef]

Random question, do you dose silicate? How about lanthanun chloride?

Is your DI resin output 0ppm TDS?

 

[Lionfish hunter]

Random question, do you dose silicate? How about lanthanun chloride?

Is your DI resin output 0ppm TDS?

I do not dose silicates, to many tang deaths from lanthanun chloride for me to consider it, and yes 0 tds.

 

[exnisstech]

Wish I could offer some useful input. Something strange is going on. I use the BRS bulk gfo and am very careful and only use a few spoons full at a time because it strips the PO4 in my tanks.

I would also very much like to not clean my glass as often as I do.

Good luck with that. I run 3 tanks, one with NO3 at 15 and PO4 at 0.5 (not 0.05) another NO3 at 8 and PO4 0.15 the third had 0.5 NO3 and 0 PO4 last test and I still need to clean the glass daily on all 3 tanks so I don't think its PO4 related its just is what it is.

 

[dadnjesse]

Aquarium water .15, water from the reactor .17. Pretty upsetting results considering how much of this stuff I bought.

I use this stuf from Amazon

 

[areefer01]

Aquarium water .15, water from the reactor .17. Pretty upsetting results considering how much of this stuff I bought.

Basically the GFO in your container is exhausted. It should be lower than what is in the display as its role is to remove.

If it was me I would take the reactor off line, empty the GFO since it appears to be doing nothing and therefore exhausted, rinse out the reactor, refill proper amount of GFO (I don't remember size of tank in question, sorry), get a bucket of rodi water, rinse at least a gallon through or until copper color is gone (want clean water), then set back onto display. Make sure you have a gentle bubble with the GFO, not crazy town. Wait an hour. Test tank water, test reactor output water.

I understand your frustration - sorry.

 

[Pistondog]

I don't know if testing the GFO reactor output is productive. It should be lower than the input, but the difference might be within test kit error.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

Basically the GFO in your container is exhausted. It should be lower than what is in the display as its role is to remove.

If it was me I would take the reactor off line, empty the GFO since it appears to be doing nothing and therefore exhausted, rinse out the reactor, refill proper amount of GFO (I don't remember size of tank in question, sorry), get a bucket of rodi water, rinse at least a gallon through or until copper color is gone (want clean water), then set back onto display. Make sure you have a gentle bubble with the GFO, not crazy town. Wait an hour. Test tank water, test reactor output water.

I understand your frustration - sorry.

Yes possibly but that is a little sad seeing as my phosphate didn't go down even a measurable amount with the recommended amount of phosguard. 235 gallons. I just put in 2 cups of brs high capacity gfo and an hour later the output measures .1. The tank was .15-.17 right before(tested 2 times today). First promising result I have seen. Not sure how much lower the reactor output normally lowers the tank water.

 

[TWYOUNG]

Yes 100$ of brs gfo has done nothing in the media bag. Reactor has been set up for a couple days now. Doesn't seem to be doing anything, but maybe too soon to tell. It is not tumbling because it is full, but its seachems gfo. Larger pellets, they don't clump. 0 tds ro water, and my water changes are the only time I get lower phosphate readings. I certainly pump plenty of phosphates in the water, but is it really possible gfo can’t keep up? I thought it would be more effective considering how expensive it is and how paranoid everybody is on going slowly to not bottom out phosphates.

I initially completely filled a reactor with two cups brs gfo, (appropriate amt for my 130g system), and my phosphate dropped from 0.5 to 0.15 in 24hrs. Since then I use <1 cup so unfortunately I can't say why it's not working for you.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

I initially completely filled a reactor with two cups brs gfo, (appropriate amt for my 130g system), and my phosphate dropped from 0.5 to 0.15 in 24hrs. Since then I use <1 cup so unfortunately I can't say why it's not working for you.

It’s possible the brs gfo was doing nothing in the media bag, and it seems the seachem phosguard did nothing in the reactor. The brs gfo in the reactor is initially doing something.

 

[areefer01]

Yes possibly but that is a little sad seeing as my phosphate didn't go down even a measurable amount with the recommended amount of phosguard. 235 gallons. I just put in 2 cups of brs high capacity gfo and an hour later the output measures .1. The tank was .15-.17 right before(tested 2 times today). First promising result I have seen. Not sure how much lower the reactor output normally lowers the tank water.

I've not used that brand so couldn't comment. I have used BRS and Kolar both with decent success.

Glad you are seeing a change. Just monitor/test for a couple days so you can see the pattern. You don't want to drop too fast but you also want to see how your water responds. This way you can get an idea of the frequency at which you need to change.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

Well mystery solved, phosphate is already down to .8 after running the brs gfo in a reactor. Basically did nothing in the media bag for a month. I pulled the reactor to prevent it from bottoming out. Does anybody know how to store half used gfo?

 

[Miami Reef]

You can dry it out, and then store it back in the container.

Thanks for the update.

 

[Koty]

Do you carbon dose?

 

[danimal1211]

One thing you could try is if able put a piece of your rock in freshly mixed SW then test PO4 after 24 hours. It may provide some insight as to what is happening. While waiting that 24 hours you could kill time reading this

Phosphate Absorption Rates in Aragonite

The more you add, the more will bind!

www.reef2reef.com

 

[schooncw]

In my heavily rocked-rock is 20-30 years old- bare bottom, mature system, I can't get PO below 1.0 and nitrate is now around 40. It was stable at 25 and I really can't account for the rise. I run a macro algae reactor, bio pellet reactor, skimmer, carbon dose and do regular water changes. My GFO is in filter cups and I am about to hook up a small eheim canister filter to run it there and hope that makes it's usage more efficient. I will add, that this 120 gallon softie/LPS system is over stocked and over fed but looks great, w no nuisance algae and the strange thing, is that my leathers do not do well, while my euphyllia is just fine.

 

[mossanimal]

Are you certain your test is reporting accurately?
Phosphate, because there’s so little, is sometimes hard to measure, many kits can’t read below .2ppm ish.

I got fooled like this for months, until I started measuring Phosphorus in PPB with the Hanna. All the time it was 0.06ppm, not .25ppm.

Just a thought.

hmmm... I just posted something on my phosphates and I'm wondering about my poor zoa, Xenia and GSP growth. My Cephastrea are growing great. I get a 0.25 reading on P04 with Salifert and API but no algae problems. Tank looks great other than not much growth. My nitrates are also getting low (less than 10) due to vigorous Chaeto growth in fuge (as well as my mangrove/deep mud display fuge). I also have a light fish load for a 90 gallon tank.. 2 clowns and a blenny