Anyone ever try this?

[russ13]

Helping a friend with his tank, he was using tap water to top off and now his phosphate is through the roof. It is a very big tank(300 gal) so doing a massive water change would be costly and labor intensive. I'm just wondering if anyone have any experience with it.

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[nereefpat]

Is it lanthanum chloride?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Yes it is --
DO NOT DOSE INTO TANK.
Read up on this before using, when phosphate gets low GFO will be a better option.

 

[mcgyvr]

Define through the roof...??
Lanthanum Chloride is typically used (properly) when levels are high and problems occur because of it...gfo can also be used but is often more costly for large problems..

Is he experiencing problems from it?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Actual po4 reading would be helpful.

 

[russ13]

He ordered a Hanna checker and will be here at the end of the week. I will look at a few different options and decide what the best corse of action will be and post the results over the next few weeks.

 

[Uncle99]

Use LC all the time to make large changes in high phosphate tanks.
Once I get it down to .1, I use a GFO to mop up the rest.

Also marketed as phosphate RX and Agent Green, never had any issues

 

[nereefpat]

You mentioned that his phosphates were "through the roof." What were they?

 

[russ13]

A friend recommended this. Running it for 24-48 hours to knock them down. Gonna test first then test after(when the checker finally gets here) and see how it worked. After that going to use a dual reactor with carbon and GFO. He has a cyano outbreak in the tank witch I'm sure came from the phosphate in the tap water. He used a chemical remove that took care of it but it came back In a few days. I'm guessing Because there is still so much phosphate the tank.


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[Uncle99]

Just a GFO
Will exhaust quickly

 

[mcgyvr]

So you just "think" phosphate is through the roof because of a cyano problem yet you have never tested the phosphate level?
Thats what I'm getting from this post so far..

 

[herostar]

You could try a Phosphate reactor. There's a ton of info on them around the web so a quick search should get you started with research.

I used to run a filter sock with phosban in it when I had a smaller tank just to keep things in line. Now I dose my top-off water with Kalk so it precipitates most of the lingering phosphorus prior to topping-off my water.

 

[russ13]

So you just "think" phosphate is through the roof because of a cyano problem yet you have never tested the phosphate level?
Thats what I'm getting from this post so far..

This is very true. I won't do anything until I get the numbers from testing.

 

[Toolmaker]

Phosphate. Does your friend have an algae bloom?

 

[russ13]

Phosphate. Does your friend have an algae bloom?

Surprisingly no. There is very little green algae in the tank at all. It’s a 300 gallon tank with one small wrasse in it right now. He had test strips(don’t like them pretty hard to read)and the nitrate was so low in the tank it didn’t even change color on the strip. So there isn’t a lot of nutrients going into the tank and very little fish waste being produced. He had a stingray and some grouper in the tank that both died about a year ago. He kinda gave up on the tank, he saw my 60 gallon reef tank and wanted to turn his tank into a reef. He went and got 4 Chinese boxes, a Wavemaker and some more live rock. That’s the status of the tank now. He has had a big outbreak of red slime for about two months. He would put in the red slime remover and it would go away but return in a few days. I’m thinking this is because of the tap water he is using to top off. When he first came to me I suggested a total tear down of the tank and start fresh but he didn’t want to do that. So now we will test, treat and water change to get his parameters in line.

 

[russ13]

This is the tank. The shadowing on the sand is the red slime.


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[Uncle99]

Most cities put phosphates in water to slow corrosion of the piping network.
So it is likely he has phosphate in his water. Phosphate is added by foods we feed.

of course he needs RODI with 0 TDS for all waters used. That will stop the increase.
Now measure and use an LC and 10 micron sock to catch the resulting flockulent until phosphate is .1 to .2

Then use a GFO to polish to 0.03 to 0.07

Looks really new.

 

[droog]

Most cities put phosphates in water to slow corrosion of the piping network.
So it is likely he has phosphate in his water. Phosphate is added by foods we feed.

of course he needs RODI with 0 TDS for all waters used. That will stop the increase.
Now measure and use an LC and 10 micron sock to catch the resulting flockulent until phosphate is .1 to .2

Then use a GFO to polish to 0.03 to 0.07

Looks really new.

+1

Note that rocks will "buffer" phosphate and reach an equilibrium over time.

You can use LC into a filter sock as a one-time level correction, and you may need to do this 2-3 times about a month apart. For a tank that size, I think it's best to run a GFO reactor with media changed monthly or automated carbon dosing (e.g. vodka and/or vinegar)

-droog