GFO Question

fernalfer

New member
Ok my 120 gallon tank has been running for almost 8 months now. I have won a battle with cyano by just doing regular weekly water changes and feeding less and also cut back on the lights. I have since ramped the lighting back up and have alot of brown algae on the rocks and sand. It is not diatoms i went thru that bloom and know what it looks like.

So i had a BRS GFO reactor deluxe that i have never used so i figured i would hook it up. I used the BRS High Capacity GFO as well. It has been running for 5 days now. All corals are perky and nice and i do see the algae looking like it is starting to recede. What i don't understand is before the GFO was added i was cleaning off my glass of algae every 4-5 days. After running GFO i seem to have to clean it everyday. Shouldn't it be the other way around. Is this normal when first starting GFO up?
 
I don't know why you seem to be needing the clean the glass more often. Are you manually removing the gha as well? You may have excess light hitting the glass and that's simply a place for new algae to grow.
 
You need to manually remove as much algae as you can. Adding some chaetto to your sump will help outcompete the small amount you have left as well. Gfo only helps control phosphates too, how are your nitrates?
 
What you are cleaning off the glass may be small particles of GFO. It's known to break down if it tumbles too rough or if it's not rinsed before going into a reactor.
 
Let me piggy back on this question. I, too, have a 120-gal (plus 30-gal sump) mixed reef tank with lots of soft corals and fish, and I'm having a problem with GHA. My chemicals are 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrates, 0 Nitrites, ph 7.7.7. I've had the tank for a year, and last month upped my light from 45W LED to 140W LED. After slowly ramping the new light 1% each day, I'm getting lots more GHA (which I have been fighting from the start...but it quadrupled to a real problem after adding the stronger light. My phospates have been basically 0.25 from the start and aren't getting higher even though the GHA is. I have lots of healthy, growing Caulerpa in the sump. I bought and installed a BRS GFO combo unit, and put it in two days ago. My phospates are slightly lower, but not yet 0. My question is how do I know when to change the media in the GFO reactor?
 
The gha is growing means it is soaking up the phosphates before you are able to detect them (excess nutrients as well). Drop the light intensity down form the time being and replace GFO every three to four weeks until you see a dramatic reduction in gha. Manual removing of gha is a must as well. Use this three punch combo and keep in mind patience and persistence.

1 decreased light intensity/photo period
2 manual removal
3 GFO in a reactor (rinse first with RODI water, or distilled from the supermarket)

Best of luck.
 
Last edited:
3 GFO in a reactor (rinse first with RODI water, or distilled from the supermarket)

Best of luck.

I find it easy to rinse GFO in my BRS reactor buy simply running the output of the reactor into a bucket when doing a water change. The first 5gal is rinsing the GFO.
 
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