brs gfo question

[richardhao]

I started to used the bulk reef supply gfo, i think i didn't wash the gfo properly before using it. Now my tank is cloudy. Is the cloudy thing bad for the ls? any way to clear up the water besides water changes?

 

[swanny]

A filter sock on your return will do the job. You can rinse gfo in ro water before use to clear it up. Some folks use tapwater to rinse and have had no problems. Your tank should be fine in a few days.

 

[Yogre]

I agree with swanny. If you can put some sort of mechanical filtration in your water flow for a day or two, that will help clear it up faster. Long term, you should see no harmful effects.

I find the BRS granular GFO to be particularly dusty. I used to use the pellet GFO, but BRS says it's no longer being made. I've resorted to rubber-banding a piece of filter pad to the output of my GFO reactor for a day or so, and that has helped catch the fines I was unable to rinse away prior to loading the reactor.

 

[chuckdallas]

I had been using GFO in mesh bags. I used to dip/soak them in fresh RO before inserting them into the sump for 30-40 minutes. I bought a really nice NextReef Solid Media Reactor and now I insert the BRS GFO into the reactor with a funnel. I didn't see a good way to "rinse" the GFO like I used to do when I dipped the mesh bags in RO water, so what I do is run the pump on the reactor and I direct the output hose into a waste bin I use for holding messy, wet things from the aquarium, until the water turns almost clear (about 30-45 seconds).

Overall, the cloudiness won't hurt the tank; it just doesn't look good for a while. Also, I found that after the pellets of GFO broke down and slipped through the tiny holes in the reactor, they would exit the reactor and were dumped at the base of the skimmer, so the skimmer was sucking them up and collecting them in the bottom of the skimmer. This really degraded the skimmer performance, so I placed a thin, 100 micron filter sock over the outlet tube of the reactor and replace that every 2 weeks or so.

 

[richardhao]

Thank you very much for your replies, I'll try to get a filter sock, that way it can trap the fines. :lmao::lmao::lmao:

 

[dublo8]

Try to change that media when your doing your water changes. That way you can run the output to a bucket and clear the media while at the same time changing out water. Makes it easy killing 2 birds with one stone.