Gfo, phosphates not dropping

[George81]

So i just started using high capacity gfo. The tank ppm is .1 with Red Sea between .1 and ,25 salifert.
I checked the effluent coming out of the gfo I’ve had in there for 3 days and it’s the same as the tank. I assumed it was exhausted. So I replaced it with new gfo and upped the amount from 1 cup to 1.5 cups. I checked the effluent of the new gfo I just changed and it was again the same as the tank.
I don’t understand why it’s not lower. Surely it didn’t exhaust within minutes of me changing it.
I have it in a phosban 150 the gfo is tumbling, it’s fed off my return pump manifold.
any ideas what’s up? Why isn’t the effluent lower coming out of the reactor.

display is 120, sump is 20 gallons I have about 175 lbs of live rock that was out of an old reef I ran in the early 2000s stored It dry for 12 years. Prior to using it I let it sit in rodi and bleach for about 1 month. Then air dried it.
I feed frozen, I never rinsed it before I fed, but now I have been With rodi.

no sand, bare bottom.
tank has only seen rodi water.

help please?

 

[Pistondog]

I don't think it works like a filter sock, but removes part of the phosphate per pass.
Read up on lanthanum chloride for a quick fix.

 

[George81]

I have read up on it, because I have tangs and read about fish dying I figured I would go the gfo route and not risk fish dying because I’m chasing numbers, if it was one or two threads about fish dying I would chalk that up to user error but there are multiple threads here and elsewhere. I just don’t want some mistake I make to put the life of my fish in danger. I know it can be done safely, at this point I don’t feel comfortable enough trusting myself to do it...if the gfo doesn’t drop the phosphates in a month of so I’ll consider lanthanum Chloride. I’ve read about people dosing them in skimmers and 10 micron filter socks.

 

[Pistondog]

I have read up on it, because I have tangs and read about fish dying I figured I would go the gfo route and not risk fish dying because I’m chasing numbers, if it was one or two threads about fish dying I would chalk that up to user error but there are multiple threads here and elsewhere. I just don’t want some mistake I make to put the life of my fish in danger. I know it can be done safely, at this point I don’t feel comfortable enough trusting myself to do it...if the gfo doesn’t drop the phosphates in a month of so I’ll consider lanthanum Chloride. I’ve read about people dosing them in skimmers and 10 micron filter socks.

The tangs die due to the lanthanum phosphate flocculant in the water .
Using Brightwell aquatics phosphat-e, I dilute 50:1 and drip over 8 hours into a 5 micron sock. This removes all flocculant prior to entering the tank.

 

[George81]

Thanks, ill See if I can find a 5 micron sock, stuffs a bit harder to find in Canada. one online retailer has a 10 micron and phosphate rx, but no brightwell.

 

[George81]

I was able to find a 5 micron on amazon and ordered brightwell phosphate e.
I’ll give that a try, do I take the gfo offline while dosing this stuff?

 

[Pistondog]

I was able to find a 5 micron on amazon and ordered brightwell phosphate e.
I’ll give that a try, do I take the gfo offline while dosing this stuff?

yes take gfo offline. If the water phosphate level drops, the gfo will release phosphate until it matches.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How well is the water flowing through the GFO? (as opposed to around it)\
What phosphate kit?

 

[George81]

The test kit is salifert and red sea. The red sea expired at the end of october. The gfo looks like it has a good steady tumble. So i am going to guess its decent to good flow through it.

 

[Daddy-o]

Good Luck! with the LC

 

[Daddy-o]

@George81 A couple of us fellow reefers are going through the same thing and are currently dosing Lanthanum Chloride products. It would be great if you were to post on the thread. I know when I started I had a lot of questions. Look forward to you posting!!

Did I unlock all the phosphate from 100#s of live rock?

Hi, @Randy Holmes-Farley Several months ago I did a tank clean up. I pulled all the rocks one by one, soaked them in straight vinegar for at least 15-20 minutes, washed, rinsed, and put back into the reef. My question, is it possible that at 2.5ph, the vinegar has unbound phosphate from my...

www.reef2reef.com

Cheers! Mark

 

[George81]

@Daddy-o will do, I kind of browsed that thread while reading about lanthanum chloride. I’ll go through and read it again before I use the product.
I have a 5 micron sock coming. do I replace my 200 micron with It? I was planning on adding another sock holder and using a spare port of my return manifold to feed the sock separately and drip the Phosphate e into it.
I retrofitted a sock holder into my sump so I currently run one sock with my overflow drain going right into it, I change socks every 2-3 days.

 

[Daddy-o]

@Daddy-o will do, I kind of browsed that thread while reading about lanthanum chloride. I’ll go through and read it again before I use the product.
I have a 5 micron sock coming. do I replace my 200 micron with It? I was planning on adding another sock holder and using a spare port of my return manifold to feed the sock separately and drip the Phosphate e into it.
I retrofitted a sock holder into my sump so I currently run one sock with my overflow drain going right into it, I change socks every 2-3 days.

Yea, I dont think the 200 micron will do much in the way of catching flocculent. My 10 microns clogged in about 12 hours so insure that if they overflow it is back into the system. I would guess you will be dosing for long enough that you will be an expert.
Cheers! Mark