Gfo

Wildreefs

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How fast can you come down safely when running gfo? I’m coming down about .25 ppm a day, is that too fast? Was 1.04 last night, .78 today.

also, with high bio load, can I safely run gfo all the time to manage phosphate or is that too risky?
 
A little GFO goes a long way. What is the purpose for running GFO? Lets start there. Also to clarify you mean .78 not .078 correct?
 
Trying to keep hard corals. Started out in the 2.05 range on Hannah . Water changes and gfo has it down to to .78.

And he’s .78, close to 1
 
Do you have any corals in the tank? The main thing is to not drop it too fast and not let it get too low. .25 is pretty fast but it was very high to start so you should be ok. Just try and tune the reactor to run a little slower or use less gfo as it drops closer to a lower number. I have never had it anywhere near that high so maybe someone can chime in with experience on how quick they dropped that high of a po4 reading.
 
About 40 acros. All added within last month or so, was fish only prior, just weekly water changes , no gfo then.
 
How much did the P jump back up today? The rock/sand will unbind a bunch of P to "equilibrium" and the water level will rise again. This up and down "bounce" is what you are looking to avoid. Test it today and see. I would not be shocked if it is back up to 1.02, or so.

The best action is to use a very small amount of GFO and change it out quite regularly, like every day. This way, the rock/sand (aragonie) can unbind at about the same rate that you are removing it from the water column and you get no "up/down spikes." This will take a while.

GFO is quite safe to use, but if you use it too fast, or use too much, then you can really harm corals after a while.

If your tank is large at all, it could take many gallons of GFO to get your levels down below .1, for example. If you have a sump with filter socks, then you might consider some Lan Chloride since it is much cheaper and easier to dose. Once your levels get lower, then use some GFO to polish the water to where you want it to be - Lan Chloride works best in higher concentrations of P rather than lower.

Whatever you do, GO SLOW.

*I took over a reef with very old Marshall Island live rock (worth saving), a few clams, some easier SPS and a whole bunch of Z&P. P was about 1.0 and there was no algae since it was getting poisoned by the P - no coralline or soft algae. I used Lan Chloride into a sock for about 6-8 weeks to lower the P from 1.0 to about .15, then put some chaeto online (since it would grow now) and used a bit of GFO. I did a big water change once the P got lower - mostly to introduce trace elements back for the chaeto. Chaeto could keep the levels from rising, but cannot drop them, so that is why I used some GFO. Got the levels down to about .05, showed the owner how to test, prune the chaeto and even use some GFO if needed and have not been back. Reef is still doing good and growth has started again. I estimate that this would take about 5 gallons of GFO to get this 240g down this low. Coralline is growing strong again, but there were some times when hair, cyano and a few diatoms started to come when the P level got lower, but we pushed through.

I also use LC to remove P from used rock that I buy/trade since people getting rid of it have never taken care of it. It works great if you can remove the crystalline structure that it creates when it binds with the P (called floculant) - filter socks and/or HEAVY skimming work best.
 
How much did the P jump back up today? The rock/sand will unbind a bunch of P to "equilibrium" and the water level will rise again. This up and down "bounce" is what you are looking to avoid. Test it today and see. I would not be shocked if it is back up to 1.02, or so.

The best action is to use a very small amount of GFO and change it out quite regularly, like every day. This way, the rock/sand (aragonie) can unbind at about the same rate that you are removing it from the water column and you get no "up/down spikes." This will take a while.

GFO is quite safe to use, but if you use it too fast, or use too much, then you can really harm corals after a while.

If your tank is large at all, it could take many gallons of GFO to get your levels down below .1, for example. If you have a sump with filter socks, then you might consider some Lan Chloride since it is much cheaper and easier to dose. Once your levels get lower, then use some GFO to polish the water to where you want it to be - Lan Chloride works best in higher concentrations of P rather than lower.

Whatever you do, GO SLOW.

*I took over a reef with very old Marshall Island live rock (worth saving), a few clams, some easier SPS and a whole bunch of Z&P. P was about 1.0 and there was no algae since it was getting poisoned by the P - no coralline or soft algae. I used Lan Chloride into a sock for about 6-8 weeks to lower the P from 1.0 to about .15, then put some chaeto online (since it would grow now) and used a bit of GFO. I did a big water change once the P got lower - mostly to introduce trace elements back for the chaeto. Chaeto could keep the levels from rising, but cannot drop them, so that is why I used some GFO. Got the levels down to about .05, showed the owner how to test, prune the chaeto and even use some GFO if needed and have not been back. Reef is still doing good and growth has started again. I estimate that this would take about 5 gallons of GFO to get this 240g down this low. Coralline is growing strong again, but there were some times when hair, cyano and a few diatoms started to come when the P level got lower, but we pushed through.

I also use LC to remove P from used rock that I buy/trade since people getting rid of it have never taken care of it. It works great if you can remove the crystalline structure that it creates when it binds with the P (called floculant) - filter socks and/or HEAVY skimming work best.

Have not checked it yet today. I can tell you each time I measure it, every night, it has steadily declined for last week or so, on average of .25 a day with just gfo.No bounce ups at all . Most of the rock is 6 months old, bought new from reef cleaners in December, so hopefully not much has become bound to the rock in that time.
 
What is your Nitrate at? NO3 and PO4 are sort of tied together. When I did use GFO, I used BRS GFO and used their calculator for how much to use.
 
If you have 1.0 in the tank water, there is a massive amount of phosphate bound into the aragonite as well... it is just how the stuff works. Aragonite, calcite and dolomite bind phosphate from their outside environment.
 
Understood. Measured again last night, .60

same test, procedure etc to keep variables the same. So dropped in 24 hrs again from .79 previously, to .6
 

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