GFO questions

[Seth401]

Guys,

Who runs GFO? I just ordered a small reactor and BRS gfo. My phosphates in my 60 cube are staying around . 21-. 23. Sps colors are pretty good but wonder if they would get even better and if growth would increase it I can keep them below . 1. Don't want to chase the numbers but think maybe a very conservative amount of gfo will help. Should I use half what is recommended? Thanks!

 

[hawkinsrgk]

I run GFO and use half what is recommended.

I started off using a full dose for several months. I had a hair algae problem that I was trying to get rid of and drove down nutrients to the point that half of the chaeto died. So I started adding less and less GFO to see if I could keep nutrients high enough that chaeto would thrive but not to the point that I would have hair algae. That turned out to be half a dose.

On something like this your going to get opinions all over the place. Some will say don't use it and that it cleans your water too much. Some will say use the BRS calculator to see how much you need, etc.

Hope this helps
Thanks
Randy

 

[Seth401]

Thanks Randy!

 

[hawkinsrgk]

Thanks Randy!

Your welcome Seth. Let me add this. I have never had a phosphate reading ever. The value has always been 0. Even when I had a really bad algae problem when I first setup saltwater in Huntsville, the reading was still zero. So really can't speak to if .2 would have worse color than .1.

 

[twilliard]

To get the best po4 reading and P would be a triton water test.
Imo the best test to know what's going on with water.