Help! High Phosphates
- EMERGENCY
- Thread starter The Fish Tankist
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WVNed
The fish are staring at me with hungry eyes.
I route a piece of air line tubing through the hole in the lid and down into the body of the skimmer above the bubble plate.
You do not want it to go to the bottom. That is where the water exits the skimmer. You want the precipitate formed to be inside the skimmer so it gets removed.
This is what I made
I fill the cup mostly with RO/DI and then add the LaCL to it. That is just to slow the addition down.
I put a bend in the line and then a twist tie around it.
This makes a flow restrictor so you can control the drip rate.
I added pieces of acrylic tube I had to weight the ends down.
To get it started I suck on the end that goes in the cup and pull water up out of the skimmer into the tube and then stick it in the cup and it flows back into the skimmer.
To check your flow rate lift the end out of the cup a second and you will get a bubble in the line. You can watch the bubble go down the tube to gauge how fast the flow is going.
You do not want it to go to the bottom. That is where the water exits the skimmer. You want the precipitate formed to be inside the skimmer so it gets removed.
This is what I made
I fill the cup mostly with RO/DI and then add the LaCL to it. That is just to slow the addition down.
I put a bend in the line and then a twist tie around it.
This makes a flow restrictor so you can control the drip rate.
I added pieces of acrylic tube I had to weight the ends down.
To get it started I suck on the end that goes in the cup and pull water up out of the skimmer into the tube and then stick it in the cup and it flows back into the skimmer.
To check your flow rate lift the end out of the cup a second and you will get a bubble in the line. You can watch the bubble go down the tube to gauge how fast the flow is going.
The Fish Tankist
Active Member
Oh ok. What is the benefit of this rather than just dosing into the display. Wouldn’t this only lower the phosphates within the skimmer?I route a piece of air line tubing through the hole in the lid and down into the body of the skimmer above the bubble plate.
You do not want it to go to the bottom. That is where the water exits the skimmer. You want the precipitate formed to be inside the skimmer so it gets removed.
This is what I made
I fill the cup mostly with RO/DI and then add the LaCL to it. That is just to slow the addition down.
I put a bend in the line and then a twist tie around it.
This makes a flow restrictor so you can control the drip rate.
I added pieces of acrylic tube I had to weight the ends down.
To get it started I suck on the end that goes in the cup and pull water up out of the skimmer into the tube and then stick it in the cup and it flows back into the skimmer.
To check your flow rate lift the end out of the cup a second and you will get a bubble in the line. You can watch the bubble go down the tube to gauge how fast the flow is going.
WVNed
The fish are staring at me with hungry eyes.
The benefit is the skimmer removes the reacted lanthanum solids. As somebody else mentioned you can catch them in a 5 or 10 micron filter sock but good luck finding one right now.
The water inside the skimmer is the water in the system. It goes in and out continuously. We are just using the skimmer as a reactor.
BostonReefer300
Valuable Member
Your phosphate is in your water so it doesn't matter where in the tank you're adding the Lanthanum from that perspective. What matters is where you collect the precipitate from the reaction. That's why they're doing it in the skimmer so it's easy to remove the precipitate
Pistondog
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I route a piece of air line tubing through the hole in the lid and down into the body of the skimmer above the bubble plate.
You do not want it to go to the bottom. That is where the water exits the skimmer. You want the precipitate formed to be inside the skimmer so it gets removed.
This is what I made
I fill the cup mostly with RO/DI and then add the LaCL to it. That is just to slow the addition down.
I put a bend in the line and then a twist tie around it.
This makes a flow restrictor so you can control the drip rate.
I added pieces of acrylic tube I had to weight the ends down.
To get it started I suck on the end that goes in the cup and pull water up out of the skimmer into the tube and then stick it in the cup and it flows back into the skimmer.
To check your flow rate lift the end out of the cup a second and you will get a bubble in the line. You can watch the bubble go down the tube to gauge how fast the flow is going.
WVNed
The fish are staring at me with hungry eyes.
LaCL calculator I found
http://larryl.emailplus.org/fish/dosing-instructions-phosphate-removers.html
http://larryl.emailplus.org/fish/dosing-instructions-phosphate-removers.html
Pico bam
Well-Known Member
Do your best to get an accurate reading on the amount of phosphate in the tank. I use phosphate-e from brightwell's personally to remove it. Ive found that the majority of brightwell's products are pretty strong and a good bang for your buck. You might also look at removing the sandbed or at least vacuuming it. If the api test kit is "new" and reading above ten it likely is. You have to be very careful when removing phosphate because if you go to fast you can damage your coral. I recently found my frag tank at .9 phosphate after running without a skimmer. You can get some serious brown jelly Disease in a tank with high phos/nitrate. Hopefully this is a help. Good luck its a kindouve a limbo trying to remove phosphate.
