GFO "dust" on everthing please help!

[JMLewis]

I thought i rinsed out my gfo enough, i ran 5g of ro/di through it till the water was clear in the reactor. But i guess not, this morning i can see theres brown dust all over my powerheads, my waters cloudy and my skimmers pulling out tons of the stuff.

What should i do? And how do you rinse your gfo, dont want this to happen every time i change it out...

Thanks in advance

 

[flyhigh123]

high micron filter sock

 

[JMLewis]

Do you rinse it in just tap water from the sink?

 

[kissman]

do you have the proper tumble? you might be tumbling to hard GFO needs to be a slight tumble like a boil. What kind of GFO are you using some of the cheaper brands have more dust to them. I use High Capacity GFO I have very little dust from it.

 

[T Diddy]

not a big deal...I did the same thing when I furst used it. You can use a 100 micron or so filter sock as mentioned. Take a power head and blast as much as you can into the water column.

 

[JMLewis]

do you have the proper tumble? you might be tumbling to hard GFO needs to be a slight tumble like a boil. What kind of GFO are you using some of the cheaper brands have more dust to them. I use High Capacity GFO I have very little dust from it.

Yea i think i might have been tumbling it to hard, im using the stuff from BRS the smallest stuff.

None of the corals seem to be affected by it, so thats a good thing.

Is it ok to wash off with tap water? Mabey ill give the high capacity stuff a try.

 

[evsalty]

Yea i think i might have been tumbling it to hard, im using the stuff from BRS the smallest stuff.

None of the corals seem to be affected by it, so thats a good thing.

Is it ok to wash off with tap water? Mabey ill give the high capacity stuff a try.

There was a recent thread where the OP left out a sponge in the reactor and all the GFO went into the tank. The OP stated not loosing anything so you should be ok there.

Depending on how much Phosphates are in your tap water you could be reducing your GFO's capacity by rinsing it in tap water. The type of water has no effect on the dust level. That all is dependant on how well you rinse it. But like I stated, you could be using up a small amount of your GFO's capacity if your tap is high in phosphates.