GFO Reactors

[bertoni]

That's true. Live rock, for example, seems to be able to adsorb and then release a lot of phosphate.

 

[spinsonic]

tank is coming up on 5 months old so I didnt have much of a phosphate problem until all the fish went in. I'll keep a close watch next couple weeks to see what im dealing with.

Appreciate everyones inputs!

 

[Mavrk]

That's true. Live rock, for example, seems to be able to adsorb and then release a lot of phosphate.

Tell me about it You get all happy about your phosphates being gone only to see stuff growing on the rocks and sand as it tries to reach equilibrium with the surrounding water and slowly leaches out the stuff. As far as carbon dosing, remember that you still have nitrates to deal with :headwallblue:

 

[kissman]

tank is coming up on 5 months old so I didnt have much of a phosphate problem until all the fish went in. I'll keep a close watch next couple weeks to see what im dealing with.

Appreciate everyones inputs!

most of the phosphates are added to the tank through feeding thats why you started having an issue after they were in.

 

[kissman]

WOW! this stuff is amazing! from .36 to .08 in two days. I'm wondering why people bother with carbon dosing. :spin2:

Yes, i did some research and only used half the dosage. Will test again tomorrow and see where we stand on the 3rd day. Cant wait to see how my lps and sps like the low phosphates. and ohh the algae!

Carbon dosing is more for removing nitrates rather tahn phosphates. However carbon dosing will cause the skimmer to skim more and actually reduce the phosphates a little but its not enough top be an effective way to reduce them. It will help to keep them low once you have achieved LN

 

[Eric45]

I agree that the GFO might be exhausted rapidly, possibly within hours. I'd be careful about dropping the level too rapidly, since some people have reported problems with that.

This has been my experience as well -- the PO/gfo rapid exhaustion I mean. In my efforts to get rid of GHA, I realized that I had to change the gfo out every 3-4 days over several weeks to finally beat the PO down low enough to starve the HA. But I suspect the gfo maxes out its effectiveness very quickly - hours to a few days - at least when you have high PO to begin with. I'm sure that over time, gfo needs to be replaced less often.

 

[reeksreef]

Once you have it under control you won't have a problem with phosphates. I got into that relax mode and waste keeping up with the maintenance on the tank. When I started picking back up into the hobby that's when it want to show its ugly face. But I'm taking care of it, need to order some high capacity GFO from BRS.