Phosphate drop after gfo addition

[neilsarah]

Hello. Yesterday I added go into a reactor into my system. My PO4 was consistently around 1.0ppm (checked with Hannah) when I added it yesterday I was at .88. I just checked it and it’s reading .25 (checked with high range and ulr). Is that a normal amount to drop after less than 24 hours?

 

[Reefering1]

How much gfo did you put? Sys volume?

 

[neilsarah]

I started doing the 1 tbsp per 4 gallons as the container instructed. (Brs gfo). It seemed like a lot to me so I stopped adding it. My total volume is around 200 gallons. I stopped around 40 Tbsp

 

[Reefering1]

Well, if your test results are accurate, I might remove 3/4 of the 40 Tbsp.. are there corals in this tank?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

That stuff is very potent and acts very fast. I always start with half dosage of any recommended product.

 

[neilsarah]

Well, if your test results are accurate, I might remove 3/4 of the 40 Tbsp.. are there corals in this tank?

Yes there are corals. All softies. So I assume that swing is too much for less than 24 hours?

 

[Reefering1]

Yes there are corals. All softies. So I assume that swing is too much for less than 24 hours?

Yea, that's pretty aggressive. And you don't want to hit 0.0 either...

 

[crazyfishmom]

I would run the reactor only a few hours a day and monitor how your system does.

I stopped using straight GFO on its own and use Phospban instead since the drops tend to be more gradual.

As an example, I took my media reactor offline 3 weeks ago as an experiment to understand how my system is behaving over time and what I need and do not need.

I have a 250 g water volume system total and my phosphate was 0.68 at 9 am yesterday, 0.34 by 9 pm after putting the reactor back online, 0.29 this morning at 9 am. I will run it for a few more hours till it’s at 0.1-0.2 and then only run it for 2-4 hrs a day depending on how my system responds.

Your rock will also start releasing some phosphate back into the water to achieve equilibrium. It’s all a balance.

 

[neilsarah]

I would run the reactor only a few hours a day and monitor how your system does.

I stopped using straight GFO on its own and use Phospban instead since the drops tend to be more gradual.

As an example, I took my media reactor offline 3 weeks ago as an experiment to understand how my system is behaving over time and what I need and do not need.

I have a 250 g water volume system total and my phosphate was 0.68 at 9 am yesterday, 0.34 by 9 pm after putting the reactor back online, 0.29 this morning at 9 am. I will run it for a few more hours till it’s at 0.1-0.2 and then only run it for 2-4 hrs a day depending on how my system responds.

Your rock will also start releasing some phosphate back into the water to achieve equilibrium. It’s all a balance.

What about the carbon in the other side? Any issues running carbon only a few hours per day? I can easily set it on a timer and monitor. I was hesitant about buying a dual reactor.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Running carbon only a few hours a day is also fine. Less is more and your system will tell you if more is needed and increasing run time a little bit is no big deal. Crashing the tank because you’re pulling too much out of the water is a much bigger concern.