GFO hard as a rock

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Chris:

What color is the Brightwell Phospahte-R?

I do not believe that a pure organic polymer can bind much phosphate from seawater. Such a material would be clear or whitish.

But some companies now sell GFO contained in a resin, which would look much darker, redish or brownish or even black. Which likely works similar to the GFO it contains.

For example, polyplab sells such a product:

http://www.polyplab.com/optiphos.html

and, fwiw, stole my phosphate picture from an article for their product label. :lol:

Opti-Phoss.jpg




Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

Good thinking, The Brightwell media is bright white little balls...BTW, as I look closer at the image, Phosporous in the middle with 4 oxygen atoms...so my college Chem Prof was right, I will actually use that stuff at some point in my life! I think he would have a heart attack if he overheard me say that.
 
Chirs

Thanks for the update :D

On another note, in case you did not really catch Randy's comment, look at Randy's Avatar it is PO4 :). His specialty is phosphate chemistry;)
 
Chris

Just to be sure, since Chris, not you, likes to be a tricky guy, does this Brightwell stuff look or feel anything like SeaChems Phosguard ? I say this for a reason. Chris use to work for Kent and they sell Phosphate Sponge, which is Activated Alumina, man-made Corundum, Al2O3 and Kent also use to say it was regenerable.
 
Boomer said:
Chris

Just to be sure, since Chris, not you, likes to be a tricky guy, does this Brightwell stuff look or feel anything like SeaChems Phosguard ? I say this for a reason. Chris use to work for Kent and they sell Phosphate Sponge, which is Activated Alumina, man-made Corundum, Al2O3 and Kent also use to say it was regenerable.
Click to expand...

It's shaped much like Seachem, and according to his data sheet, it's a synthetic absorption resin. The MSDS makes no mention of aluminum or Ferric oxide.
 
OK, thanks.

Assuming it is a pure organic polymer, I'm skeptical of its ability to bind much inorganic phosphate from seawater, so I think I'll get some and test it. :)
 
Well Chris for the finally test other than Randy's

1. Take a ball and hit with a hammer to see how hard it is. It will break-up like a piece of Granite.

2. Find a sharp edge of the media and see if it scratches glass. If it does it is Alumina, as it has a Mohs Hardness of 9, just below a Diamond. Resins are soft, like those in your DI unit.

3. Activated Alumina is a synthetic absorbent and I can see him having no issue calling it a resin even though it is not, to mislead one :) I mean he tries to tell us that Iodine in seawater is mostly all Iodide, when it fact it is Iodate. Just like Boyd's Chemi-Clean saying "contains no Erythromycin succinate" to throw you off, when in fact it is the sister drug Erythromycin cetyl sulfate.
 
I have my Rowaphos in a Fluidized Reactor. I have a valve on it's input to regulate how hard it's fluidized. About once a week, I crack the valve wide open for about 2 seconds and then close it completely. Placing it wide open tumbles all the GFO for an instant. Closing it stops any from getting to the output, and allows it to settle back down. Then, I re-open it to my standard flow rate.

Doing this tumbles all the GFO which:
1. Helps keep it separated.
2. Re-arranges any channeling (if I had any).
3. If any part of the sponge below the GFO is clogged (causing any channeling), this moves the GFO to a new spot.

It seems to work well.
 
I realize that when my Ca was through the roof, It did the same thing to my Carbon, and the carbon actually took on a white/Grey appearance.
 
there are 2 answers to why GFO gets hard in your reactor and they are
1 two little flow ,it then gets hard in the lower part of the reactor
2 to much flow ,it pushes all of the GFO to the top of the reactor and gets hard in the upper part of the reactor answer you must adujest the flow for the amount of GFO you are useing
 
i was using the GFO reactor the BRS sells used the required pump (MJ1200) and still had problems with the media turning into a rock, it seemed that afer a while the filter in the canister would get plugged very easilly, finally got tired of cleaning it every week and stopped using it. if any other ideas help that would be great!
 
What about blending carbon in with the GFO? That's what I'm doing and haven't had an issue. I'm using the GFO in a sock in a intank filter box.
 
For the two posters above me, I posted this on the previous page. This may help you too.

sjm817 said:
I've always had problems with GFO caking/clumping and being difficult to keep fluidized. I currently run a BRS dual reactor. On my recent GFO/GAC change, I did it differently. I mixed the GFO and GAC together in both cartridges. The GFO wont cake up this way.
Click to expand...
 
What color is the Brightwell Phospahte-R?

I do not believe that a pure organic polymer can bind much phosphate from seawater. Such a material would be clear or whitish.

But some companies now sell GFO contained in a resin, which would look much darker, redish or brownish or even black. Which likely works similar to the GFO it contains.

OK, the results are in.

Actually, I've not even bothered to measure anything.

Chris Brightwell strikes again with a misleading product description. :(

The Brightwell media is bright white little balls...BTW, as I look closer at the image,

Seems as if you must have seem a different product. ???

I got some today and the product is not a pure organic polymer. It is little beads that look exactly the color of GFO. So it is obviously a prduct like the Polyplab product: GFO inside of a polymer.

It should work similar to GFO.
 
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