How often do you change your Phosguard??

[SauceyReef]

How often do you change your Phosguard??

Curious about what estimated time the pellets max out on collecting phosphate, and need to be replaced.

 

[Lavey29]

How often do you change your Phosguard??

Curious about what estimated time the pellets max out on collecting phosphate, and need to be replaced.

Directions say to check phosphate level after 4 days. I was changing mine about every 12 days though.

 

[SauceyReef]

Directions say to check phosphate level after 4 days. I was changing mine about every 12 days though.

Mine is lasting about 7-12 days and I thought something was wrong. I guess that is just how it works?

 

[Lavey29]

Mine is lasting about 7-12 days and I thought something was wrong. I guess that is just how it works?

I think it depends how much you use in a bag and how hard it has to work if you have elevated phosphate. My phosphate seems to have reached an equilibrium level of .4 and phosguard would not bring it down so I'm trying GFO now but even that seems to expire after 3 or 4 days use.

 

[Lavey29]

I like phosguard to because it walks the phosphate number down slowly.

 

[SauceyReef]

I like phosguard to because it walks the phosphate number down slowly.

Agreed - that is why I am using it! Not to shock the corals. I am at 1.0ppm for phosphate. Once I replace the PHOSGUARD, it goes down to around .7-.8 in a 3-5 day period. Than it just goes back up to 1.0. I guess it just takes time to remove phosphate that has leached into the tank. Hopefully this + adding Nitrate (plus running my macro heavily) will eventually help get these numbers down.

 

[Lavey29]

Agreed - that is why I am using it! Not to shock the corals. I am at 1.0ppm for phosphate. Once I replace the PHOSGUARD, it goes down to around .7-.8 in a 3-5 day period. Than it just goes back up to 1.0. I guess it just takes time to remove phosphate that has leached into the tank. Hopefully this + adding Nitrate (plus running my macro heavily) will eventually help get these numbers down.

I am kind of experiencing similar now. For whatever reason my phosphate was leveling out at .4 and used to consistently be .1. Nothing changed so not sure why it's elevated now. I always ran phosguard to stay at .1 I find phosguard does not seem to work effectively at the higher elevated phosphate numbers hence my reasoning for trying chemipure elite. My tanks seems unaffected by the elevated phosphate though so I'm trying to find a simple slow solution to bring it back down. Not going to try lanthium chloride either.

 

[SauceyReef]

I am kind of experiencing similar now. For whatever reason my phosphate was leveling out at .4 and used to consistently be .1. Nothing changed so not sure why it's elevated now. I always ran phosguard to stay at .1 I find phosguard does not seem to work effectively at the higher elevated phosphate numbers hence my reasoning for trying chemipure elite. My tanks seems unaffected by the elevated phosphate though so I'm trying to find a simple slow solution to bring it back down. Not going to try lanthium chloride either.

Interesting. GFO may be my next step if this doesnt work, but I will keep tampering and see how it goes.

 

[SauceyReef]

I am kind of experiencing similar now. For whatever reason my phosphate was leveling out at .4 and used to consistently be .1. Nothing changed so not sure why it's elevated now. I always ran phosguard to stay at .1 I find phosguard does not seem to work effectively at the higher elevated phosphate numbers hence my reasoning for trying chemipure elite. My tanks seems unaffected by the elevated phosphate though so I'm trying to find a simple slow solution to bring it back down. Not going to try lanthium chloride either.

Do you test your nitrate at all? Curious, what is it at?

I am finding if I dont dose nitrate accordingly, my nitrate bottoms out and my phosphate shoots up changing the amount of phosguard I need in.

 

[Lavey29]

Do you test your nitrate at all? Curious, what is it at?

I am finding if I dont dose nitrate accordingly, my nitrate bottoms out and my phosphate shoots up changing the amount of phosguard I need in.

I test it weekly but it has not deviated from 10 to 12 for many months. Alk stays consistent calcium too with dosing. It's only phosphate that I am recently having elevated levels. When my tank was younger like at 6 months I had to double dose neophos and neonitro to get measurable numbers. I'm at 2 years now and everything is consistent except my phosphate recently.

 

[Reef.]

If you have high po4 then your remover could be exhausted in less than a day, if it’s also not in a reactor it will be far less effective.

If you can’t get phosguard or Rowa to work then I really don’t think you will have much luck with chemi.

0.4 is very high, you are unlikely to see a drop if you don’t change it very often, remember too that when you remove from the water your sand and rocks will release more, to replace what has been removed, it will look like it’s not being removed when you retest your po4 because of this, the key is to change often and keep on top of it (the plus side with a reactor, you can test the effluent to see when it’s exhausted.)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Any binder depletes at a rate related to the phosphate concentration and how well the water is flowing through it. It might deplete in less than an hour at very high phosphate, or last weeks at very low phosphate.

I personally do not think that the rate of removal is binder dependent as much as it is controlled by the amount used and the way it is used.

 

[SauceyReef]

If you have high po4 then your remover could be exhausted in less than a day, if it’s also not in a reactor it will be far less effective.

If you can’t get phosguard or Rowa to work then I really don’t think you will have much luck with chemi.

0.4 is very high, you are unlikely to see a drop if you don’t change it very often, remember too that when you remove from the water your sand and rocks will release more, to replace what has been removed, it will look like it’s not being removed when you retest your po4 because of this, the key is to change often and keep on top of it (the plus side with a reactor, you can test the effluent to see when it’s exhausted.)

My phosphate is at 1.0+ ppm and the PHOSGUARD is clearly working. It is getting exhausted in 5-10 + days, not a single day. My tank is super small so a reactor seems pretty overkill when placing a bag in the chamber after the intake grid is working just fine.

You are correct though. It seeps into the sand/rocks and is taking some time and a lot of replacements to get out. And I only have a 10 gallon! Clearly any larger system and you might as well just use GFO.

 

[SauceyReef]

Any binder depletes at a rate related to the phosphate concentration and how well the water is flowing through it. It might deplete in less than an hour at very high phosphate, or last weeks at very low phosphate.

I personally do not think that the rate of removal is binder dependent as much as it is controlled by the amount used and the way it is used.

This also makes a lot of sense. Just wanted to get a general idea of what others were experiencing. Clearly the medium/binder is a bit of a factor.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Clearly the medium/binder is a bit of a factor.

I don’t agree, but I know that is what some folks believe. No one here has actually presented data to demonstrate their claim.

 

[SauceyReef]

I don’t agree, but I know that is what some folks believe. No one here has actually presented data to demonstrate their claim.

I feel like it is pretty safe to assume that GFO, Phosguard, Chem Elite, and other sources of Phosphate removers/binders have different consumption/absorbtion rates. That is all I meant by the medium/binder is a bit of a factor in when to remove.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I feel like it is pretty safe to assume that GFO, Phosguard, Chem Elite, and other sources of Phosphate removers/binders have different consumption/absorbtion rates. That is all I meant by the medium/binder is a bit of a factor in when to remove.

That’s what I don’t agree with. I do not think there is a rate difference that is defined by the material composition. The rate will be determined by how much is used, and the way it is used.

If you put GFO in a sock the way some folks use Phosguard, the binding will be even slower than Phosguard since the channels into it are so much smaller than for larger chunks of Phosguard.

 

[nothing_fancy]

I agree that everyones experience will be different dependent on needs. In my 40g AIO Ive been using the same routine for some years now and its (2) bags (the ones that are sold in the bags) sitting at the top of the media chambers, changed out monthly. If I notice the po4 going over 0.1 I throw 1/4 cup of GFO in a bag and let it sit in front of the overflow for a couple days. Its fairly predictable if I see 0.14 the GFO bag brings it back down to around .06-.1 and then the phosguard bags maintain that pretty well in my experience.