can gfo precipitate something

[toothman]

I know this sounds rather vague. Recenty when I add new gfo or phosguard the tank really looks like ca or something is precipitating out. I am sure it is not from not rinsing the gfo. The only thing different in my tank is that I add a gallon of kalk daily, not really too much in 500 gallons minus rocks.


I origionally thought the phosguard was not rinsed well enough, but to my surprise the tank did the same thing when I added a mear 16 oz of gfo. I rinsed it 3 times in ro with new water each time.

The tank phosphate test 0.0 ppm with hanna 713 and 16ppb with hanna 713hi.
nitrate 5. kh7-8, ca 420, potassium 420. Almost bare bottom and some carbon dosing. I also do not think it is bacterial bloom because as soon as gfo is removed it clears in 3 hrs or so. When started next day it clouds again.


to ramble on just thought some facts might help.

 

[toothman]

WITH JUST ACTINIC LIGHT ON


<a href="http://s382.photobucket.com/user/eralff/media/photo14.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo268/eralff/photo14.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo photo14.jpg"/></a>

 

[bertoni]

I'm not sure what's happening. Is the media in a reactor? If so, it might be getting ground up. GFO can encourage the precipitation of calcium carbonate, but this cloudiness is occurring with PhosGuard, too.

 

[toothman]

go figure

7 pm tank clear as a bell, no reactor running.

 

[rvela]

I've experienced that too with my reactor/gfo. The reason it stops when you turn off the reactor is the tumbling rate is too high. You are basically grinding the gfo in your tank. A good sign is a rust colored haze/sediment in your sump.
The easy fix will be to adjust your tumbling rate to where just the top is barely moving. Because of detritus thats in the the water column, check after 3 days to adjust the tumbling rate- it will slow over time.

 

[JamesJR]

I've run into this problem before too and I agree with rvela. In my reef I have a gfo reactor and I let the the water pass through a filter sock for a few days to catch particulates from the reactor. This worked for me.