What's the word on phosphate removers?

Acro · Apr 6, 2014

I'm not a person who uses it, but I have in the past.

I was at the aquarium today and I got to talking with one of the people who work there about how they keep the nutrient levels low besides the huge skimmers they use.

His exact words, "we dose lanthanum chloride into our skimmers". Now I'm not an expert on it by any means, and I'm not looking to start a huge debate about it. I'm just curious on other peoples experience and opinions, as I've heard (once again I'm not an expert) that it causes calcium to become unusable to corals and gets into the gills of fish causing them to die as well as not actually get rid of the phosphates in the tank.

Id love to hear what some of the more knowledgeable ones in here have to say, because if a huge aquarium that has a vast amount of money in the systems use it why can't we?

ethridge78 · Apr 6, 2014

I just use gfo

FL_Reefer · Apr 6, 2014

I use it

ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1396826649.729318.jpg

Works great. If there's any phosphate showing up on my test I dose it and change my sock filters and clean my skimmer the next day. It will bind with the phosphate, changing it to a ''solid'' and get caught in the skimmer and socks so if not changed out, will re enter the system in a matter of time. I find it a really easy way to control phosphate levels but dose exactly how the directions say to.

Acro · Apr 6, 2014

FL_Reefer said:
I use it

Works great. If there's any phosphate showing up on my test I dose it and change my sock filters and clean my skimmer the next day. It will bind with the phosphate, changing it to a ''solid'' and get caught in the skimmer and socks so if not changed out, will re enter the system in a matter of time. I find it a really easy way to control phosphate levels but dose exactly how the directions say to.

Thanks for the reply, so you've seen no negative side affects? Do you keep sps?

Downu · Apr 7, 2014

I use Lath, $20 per liter compared to heaps for gfo.

Dont dose into skimmer but dilute & drip into weir.

Make sure to have a filter sock.

I use the pool P04 remover HY-CLOR

beaslbob · Apr 7, 2014

IMHO the best phosphate remover is macro (and other) algaes.

Same for ammonia/nitrate and carbon dioxide as well.

All of which are recycled into fish food and oxygen

my .02

Downu · Apr 7, 2014

Macro? Nitrates yeah. But P04, to a certain extent yes.
But the source of the P04 should be found before it gets out of hand.

My problem started from over feeding & a poorly set up remote DSB.

My P04 is now over 2.50 ppm slowly comming down using Lath.

Downu · Apr 7, 2014

Beaslbob, no algae will remove ammonia. In fact it will kill it.

FL_Reefer · Apr 7, 2014

Acro said:
Thanks for the reply, so you've seen no negative side affects? Do you keep sps?

Yes some SPS, no side effects ever seen and I have been using this product for a year now. Makes water alittle cloudy but that's about it and clears up rather quickly.

Browncoat · Apr 7, 2014

I just bought some myself. Best way i have read is to slowly drip it into a 5 micron filter sock and then change it in a few hours. If it's high in lanthanum chloride then buffer it with rodi water. Make sure to use it slowly and always start with a lot less then what you need. A big drop in phosphates can harm livestock also don't want to keep phosphate at 0 corals and fish need some to live.

StikHedRon · Apr 7, 2014

I use the brightwell phosphate-E on a heavily stocked SPS tank. I dose 1.5-2 ml per week and I have not seen any negative effects on any of my Acros or millis. I also run phosguard on the system and use this just as an added helper to keep them really low. My tank has never looked better honestly. My tank size is a 125, a full dose to drop po4 1ppm would be 31ml for me. It would only take 3.1 ml to drop it .1ppm and my po4 usually never gets above .04-.05 so that is why I dose the ammount I do.

Browncoat · Apr 7, 2014

Fyi there's a spa treatment that's called seaklear that is 35%-65% lanithum. Make sure it says phosphate remover on the bottle. Anything else is usually buffered pretty heavily and costs more.

SantaMonica · Apr 7, 2014

no algae will remove ammonia

Yes, actually ammonia is the favorite food of algae. If algae cannot get enough ammonia, it turns to Nitrite, then to Nitrate.

JSaquatics · Apr 7, 2014

I also use gfo and I also have a old school turf scrubber that works great

Downu · Apr 8, 2014

SantaMonica said:
Yes, actually ammonia is the favorite food of algae. If algae cannot get enough ammonia, it turns to Nitrite, then to Nitrate.

Really? Learn something every day.

tmg1286 · Apr 8, 2014

My vote goes to GFO. Awesome product.

FL_Reefer · Apr 8, 2014

Downu said:
Really? Learn something every day.

Really? Has anyone ever heard of the nitrogen cycle?? If your tank has properly cycled you have built up enough bacteria in your system to take care of ammonia, nitrite with an end result of nitrate, and then there's nitrifying bacteria to take care of that. Most algae feeds off of phosphate. Witch most of us add to our system by food and rodi water.