Recharging GAC and GFO

[joaocdestro]

Did anyone had sucess with GFO Renew? Do you have the step by step?

"Regeneration of GFO with sodium hydroxide: For every 500mL of GFO, add 8L of fresh water mixed with 320g of sodium hydroxide. Rinse for 72-96 hours and then drain"

I put a lot of NaOH + my used GFO + water, I let it for few days. but after rinse in tap water and returned to aquarium... no Po4 drop.

 

[mcgullen]

GFO? Yes, it appears that can be partly recharged with base and folks have posted methods.

Aquarium Chemistry: Regeneration of Granular Ferric Oxide Media with Sodium Hydroxide

For aquarists who keep non-photosynthetic corals that require massive feeding, have large tanks, or a dense fish population the costs of regular GFO replacement can be significant. With a few simple tools and techniques we can easily regenerate GFO so that it can be reused several times over.

reefs.com

Thank you, Randy! I knew I could find a post where you mentioned how to regenerate GFO.

A quick question. In the article, the author mentioned “320g of sodium hydroxide in 8L of water solution makes a 1M solution”. What does “1M” with the capital M mean?

Thank you

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thank you, Randy! I knew I could find a post where you mentioned how to regenerate GFO.

A quick question. In the article, the author mentioned “320g of sodium hydroxide in 8L of water solution makes a 1M solution”. What does “1M” with the capital M mean?

Thank you

It means 1 molar. It is a unit of measure based on numbers of things rather than the weight of things. 1M of anything contains 6.02 x 10^23 of them in a liter.

The Units of Measure of Reefkeeping by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

From it:

M (molar; moles/L)

Molar is a unit used by scientists to describe the concentration of chemical solutions. A one molar solution contains one mole (6.02 x 1023 molecules) of the chemical dissolved in 1 L of solution. To convert molar concentration into ppt (parts per thousand), multiply the molar concentration by the molecular weight of the chemical. To convert into ppm (parts per million), multiply the molar concentration by 1000 and by the molecular weight.