I have a friend who used LC every day in his reef. It is a very tiny amount and he is planning on lowering his phosphate over many months up to a year. He does NOT use any socks. His fish have not been bothered by this method... I am talking like one or two drops a day.
If you want to go faster than this, I would strongly suggest that you use filter socks to catch the flocculant. There seems to be plenty of evidence that the LC flocculant can harm fish, but the harmful concentration is not really know. All that is known is that too much can fill fish and very small amounts are usually safe, so if you are in the middle, just buy a handful of socks and use them to be safe.
GFO is fine. It can get expensive. For it to work well, I would use it in very small amounts and change it every day. The stuff can bind-up very quickly. For a larger tank with a large amount of po4, an entire 5 gallon bucket might be needed.
if you do not already have one, please get a good tool like a Hannah Ultra Low if you want to chase phosphate.
Lastly, understand how phosphate binds and releases with aragonite. As you remove po4 from the water, the rock and sand will release some - this can take a few hours to a few days, depending. Your rock and sand can be HUGE reservoir for po4. You want to remove the po4 from the water at about the same rate that the sand and rock releases it so that you don't end up with a water-borne po4 chart that looks like an EKG as you strip down to nothing then the rock/sand bounces it right back up again. Lowering po4 is fine. Lowering it too quickly and having the amounts bounce up and down is usually a bad idea for most people. This is why I recommend a super small amount of GFO changed every day... just low and slow on the removal.
If you want to go faster than this, I would strongly suggest that you use filter socks to catch the flocculant. There seems to be plenty of evidence that the LC flocculant can harm fish, but the harmful concentration is not really know. All that is known is that too much can fill fish and very small amounts are usually safe, so if you are in the middle, just buy a handful of socks and use them to be safe.
GFO is fine. It can get expensive. For it to work well, I would use it in very small amounts and change it every day. The stuff can bind-up very quickly. For a larger tank with a large amount of po4, an entire 5 gallon bucket might be needed.
if you do not already have one, please get a good tool like a Hannah Ultra Low if you want to chase phosphate.
Lastly, understand how phosphate binds and releases with aragonite. As you remove po4 from the water, the rock and sand will release some - this can take a few hours to a few days, depending. Your rock and sand can be HUGE reservoir for po4. You want to remove the po4 from the water at about the same rate that the sand and rock releases it so that you don't end up with a water-borne po4 chart that looks like an EKG as you strip down to nothing then the rock/sand bounces it right back up again. Lowering po4 is fine. Lowering it too quickly and having the amounts bounce up and down is usually a bad idea for most people. This is why I recommend a super small amount of GFO changed every day... just low and slow on the removal.
