Your opinion and experience

[Chela101]

How recently were your phosphates at an "acceptable" level? When did you test the water? (How long after feeding and/or stirring up the sand)

just posted my results

 

[Chela101]

I’m curious as to what phosphate level you are trying to maintain.

I just posted my recent results from yesterday

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

just posted my results

Yes, those are what I was replying to.

 

[Chela101]

How recently were your phosphates at an "acceptable" level? When did you test the water? (How long after feeding and/or stirring up the sand)

That was mid day, I only feed early morning and late at night. So the water wasn’t cloudy or anything…

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

That was mid day, I only feed early morning and late at night. So the water wasn’t cloudy or anything…

And how long ago were your phosphates at a "good" level?

The reason I ask is that it's possible that simply cutting back on your feeding might help. But proceeding with using GFO or another remover is fine too - you just don't want to lower it to much or too quickly.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

That was mid day, I only feed early morning and late at night. So the water wasn’t cloudy or anything…

I was just looking for the size of your tank. It could be something as simple as a few 20% water changes and you would be good.

 

[Chela101]

I was just looking for the size of your tank. It could be something as simple as a few 20% water changes and you would be good.

Oh sorry my tank is a 25 gallons and is a all in one tank so I don’t got a sump or anything or that sort. And I do 10 gallons water change every week with RODI water from my LFS, so I do the water changes to keep my nutrients up that my corals are using but my nitrates and phos went up because I did over feed when I got my new laffy taffy Goni and I wanted to see it eat and I would feed it reef roids every day for almost 5 days straight. After I saw what I have caused I did almost 90 percent water change and I added the small bag to keep those perimeters to what I had them before since it’s a small bag and not that much water flows through it. Because it’s not in a media reactor it’s just sitting in the back chambers of my AIO tank. And my last chamber where the water gets pushed out to the main tank has a crack on the back acrylic, that separate the main tank and the back chambers. So I know my filtration isn’t all that good so I though putting that small bag would help the filtration a bit more since I got a crack and water isn’t pushing through the bag like a media reactor

 

[Pod_01]

+1 quality product; has more than standard gfo. Likely exhausted before 4mos but doesn’t leech either.

What does “more than standard GFO” mean?
GFO is Granular Ferric Oxide (aka GFO) or iron oxide hydroxide and the chemical formula is:

There is no more to it, there is iron, oxygen and hydrogen. Another way to look at it is GFO is rust…
Also the company only states that:

Hence GFO was added.

They do make some odd claims on pH like:

They really need to expand on the pH claim and how GAC or GFO maintains pH?

Leaching I am not sure about, but generally when these things do get used up and PO4 is still being added to the tank the levels will increase, or additional PO4 can leach from rocks and substrate.
I had bad results with GFO, too aggressive so I did not use it long.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Oh sorry my tank is a 25 gallons and is a all in one tank so I don’t got a sump or anything or that sort. And I do 10 gallons water change every week with RODI water from my LFS, so I do the water changes to keep my nutrients up that my corals are using but my nitrates and phos went up because I did over feed when I got my new laffy taffy Goni and I wanted to see it eat and I would feed it reef roids every day for almost 5 days straight. After I saw what I have caused I did almost 90 percent water change and I added the small bag to keep those perimeters to what I had them before since it’s a small bag and not that much water flows through it. Because it’s not in a media reactor it’s just sitting in the back chambers of my AIO tank. And my last chamber where the water gets pushed out to the main tank has a crack on the back acrylic, that separate the main tank and the back chambers. So I know my filtration isn’t all that good so I though putting that small bag would help the filtration a bit more since I got a crack and water isn’t pushing through the bag like a media reactor

You could certainly just do more water changes with that size tank and bring them down rather quickly without relying on outside treatment. It's not going to hurt to use what the LFS sold you but you would be just as good if you just kept up with 5 gallon water changes ever couple days until it come back down.

 

[Chela101]

You could certainly just do more water changes with that size tank and bring them down rather quickly without relying on outside treatment. It's not going to hurt to use what the LFS sold you but you would be just as good if you just kept up with 5 gallon water changes ever couple days until it come back down.

Yea but I wanted something that I don’t have to change much because I don’t have much money. I can do weekly water changes but every day will cost me more. I have to help out my parents in their bills so I wanted a low cost but efficient

 

[Pod_01]

What checker is that from Hanna?
My states Marine on it.

Also if you check after feeding you will get elevated value. Best to check before anything is added to the tank or late at night.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Yea but I wanted something that I don’t have to change much because I don’t have much money. I can do weekly water changes but every day will cost me more. I have to help out my parents in their bills so I wanted a low cost but efficient

I get that but often the easy or cheaper way is not the best way in this hobby.

 

[Chela101]

What checker is that from Hanna?
My states Marine on it.

Also if you check after feeding you will get elevated value. Best to check before anything is added to the tank or late at night.

Mine doesn’t say marine…. Can It be that I got the WRONG ONE!! OMG don’t tell me that

 

[paragrouper]

I use Chemipure Elite when needed. It works fine. Just monitor your phosphate levels as you proceed.

 

[exnisstech]

What checker is that from Hanna?
My states Marine on it.

Also if you check after feeding you will get elevated value. Best to check before anything is added to the tank or late at night.

Looks to be the low range . The ULR (which is more popular and what I use) says marine on it the LR does not.

 

[DJF]

What does “more than standard GFO” mean?

Well does gfo remove aluminum and other metals? Chemipure does- (as proven from my past icp tests) also I do know it has activated carbon… I’m not a spokesman for the company and I am out of it at the moment so I can’t read the container.

If I recall correctly the diff between the standard and elite version is gfo

 

[Pod_01]

Well does gfo remove aluminum and other metals? Chemipure does- (as proven from my past icp tests) also I do know it has activated carbon… I’m not a spokesman for the company and I am out of it at the moment so I can’t read the container.

If I recall correctly the diff between the standard and elite version is gfo

Actually GFO can remove aluminum and few other things from reef aquarium. That is why over reliance on GFO can be detrimental and one needs to observe the corals and fish.
Water change removes elevated Al levels as well. Did you do those?

Regular chemi-pure is GAC as per company website:

I just don’t believe that they were the first to use activated carbon for water purifixation.

 

[Pod_01]

Looks to be the low range . The ULR (which is more popular and what I use) says marine on it the LR does not.

The reason I asked is that Hanna has few and some are for fresh water. Hopefully correct one is used etc… I am not up to speed on all the Hanna tools.
Saltwater has more things in it so greater chance for interference and I like to make sure I have the correct value before fixing things.

 

[Troylee]

Your po4 isn’t terribly high in my opinion… is there something wrong with your tank? Are the corals showing any ill signs? I wouldn’t chase a number because everyone says it’s gotta be less than .1 blah blah… if your tank is happy I’d leave it and see what root cause is of the po4 and Eliminate that before adding chemicals or gfo. I used to be a huge fan of gfo but it’s caused more damage than anything once I took a step back and looked at my tank over all..

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Your po4 isn’t terribly high in my opinion… is there something wrong with your tank? Are the corals showing any ill signs? I wouldn’t chase a number because everyone says it’s gotta be less than .1 blah blah… if your tank is happy I’d leave it and see what root cause is of the po4 and Eliminate that before adding chemicals or gfo. I used to be a huge fan of gfo but it’s caused more damage than anything once I took a step back and looked at my tank over all..