Dripping Lanthanum Chloride 24/7?

[Kairus]

I set up a second tank and took rock, sand, and water from my main tank to do it. My main tank tests < 0.05ppm phosphate and the tank I just set up was reading a little over 0.1 ppm. I'm guessing phosphate liberation from my sand bed.

Anyways there are no fish in that tank so I went ahead and dosed some lanthanum chloride. I dosed it into a 10 micron sock, so I should be able to pull out any precipitation. Now this got me thinking, why not drip lanthanum 24/7? Like 1 drop every 10 seconds into a 5 or 10 micron sock? People run GFO reactors 24/7, and I've heard that some of the large public aquariums use lanthanum regularly as well.

Aside from the alkalinity drop would there be any negatives?

 

[Cbsailor11]

I have been researching this idea. The public aquariums are running it through a sand filter, some of the precipitate has been known to get thru the socks. Also some have seen clams and sponges react poorly to LaCL use. A few people here are using Diatom filters to catch the particles.
I think the biggest hurdle is calculating the proper dosage since we need some PO4 in our tanks and LaCL can strip the water too clean in a short time.
Alkalinity can be dosed to replace loss, also one foe the products states that it using up Calcium also.

 

[Kairus]

I have been researching this idea. The public aquariums are running it through a sand filter, some of the precipitate has been known to get thru the socks. Also some have seen clams and sponges react poorly to LaCL use. A few people here are using Diatom filters to catch the particles.
I think the biggest hurdle is calculating the proper dosage since we need some PO4 in our tanks and LaCL can strip the water too clean in a short time.
Alkalinity can be dosed to replace loss, also one foe the products states that it using up Calcium also.

I was under the impression that lanthanum chloride was less efficient when PO4 levels are very low, so it's unlikely that they will strip phosphate down below 0.05. At that point it would just react with akk because it's way more abundant.

I don't use it on my main tank very often because I have heard that the precipitate can irritate tang's gills. In addition to sponges and clams as you said. That's the only thing that scares me about it.

I

 

[zoafarm]

If you do a search for "Lanthanum Chloride", you will find a huge thread on this. But I will say, the sock will get clogged up pretty quickly.

 

[tommyz44]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1474839