Bastray
Active Member
I swore off GFO over a year ago in my tank. I was seeing corals go pale and likely dying due to stripped nutrients. My tank went well for almost 6 months to 9 months. Awesome growth, increased Alk use, colors were back, etc.
Fast forward to now. For the last 3-6 months I have been battling high levels of PO4, .2-.4ppm using a Hanna checker. I had a mini “crash” about 2 months back and a ton of my corals suffered. I am getting the tank back on track, but PO4 remains pretty high. It was .36 last week. I’ve had 2 bouts of cyano over the last year, bubble algae, but fortunately no hair algae.
I do weekly 20% water changes, and have rarely missed a week. I do them every Thursday. I have tried growing a fuge with an AI Fuge light and my chaeto always dies. I dosed lanthanum chloride, bit feel that my tank doesn’t respond great to it when I use it often. I don’t feed super heavy, but do have some larger fish, but not too many. In fact I would like to add another 5-8 fish over time.
fast forward to this week. I put GFO in a media bag in my filter sock cup and PO4 went from .36 to .06 in 2 days. No negative results in the tank, just lower po4 with less effort on my end.
My question is, do you think I gave up on GFO to early? Was my tank just too new to be using GFO, which caused negative results? If I hook up a GFO reactor now, will I just see immediate results and then regret it later? Or, if used the right way do you think this will finally resolve my issues and help lead to long term progress? My nitrates have never been an issue, they are usually around 10 or so.
I appreciate anyone commenting who has had a similar experience, both good or bad.
Fast forward to now. For the last 3-6 months I have been battling high levels of PO4, .2-.4ppm using a Hanna checker. I had a mini “crash” about 2 months back and a ton of my corals suffered. I am getting the tank back on track, but PO4 remains pretty high. It was .36 last week. I’ve had 2 bouts of cyano over the last year, bubble algae, but fortunately no hair algae.
I do weekly 20% water changes, and have rarely missed a week. I do them every Thursday. I have tried growing a fuge with an AI Fuge light and my chaeto always dies. I dosed lanthanum chloride, bit feel that my tank doesn’t respond great to it when I use it often. I don’t feed super heavy, but do have some larger fish, but not too many. In fact I would like to add another 5-8 fish over time.
fast forward to this week. I put GFO in a media bag in my filter sock cup and PO4 went from .36 to .06 in 2 days. No negative results in the tank, just lower po4 with less effort on my end.
My question is, do you think I gave up on GFO to early? Was my tank just too new to be using GFO, which caused negative results? If I hook up a GFO reactor now, will I just see immediate results and then regret it later? Or, if used the right way do you think this will finally resolve my issues and help lead to long term progress? My nitrates have never been an issue, they are usually around 10 or so.
I appreciate anyone commenting who has had a similar experience, both good or bad.
