So I have seaklear and the 10 mic bags (with the metal rings). I have a 170 gallon tank with a 40 gallon sump. My last reading of .44 for phosphates (officially done at ABC in Fairport) was actually low. Has been .6 before. Too much feeding in the early years has lead to a constant battle of trying to get the phosphate number down. A reactor plus passive GFO has not helped. I have a heavy bioload. MY LC PLAN-I am going to mix 1ml of seaklear in 1 gallon of RO water and pour into the 10 mic bag ( in sump) approx 1 cup at a time every half hour or so until gone. Make sure bag doesnt get clogged and over flow. Replace bag if necessary. Wait a couple weeks and do it again. Does this sound right? Just double checking before I start.
Lanthanum chloride
- Thread starter Gary Majchrzak
- Start date
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
Paul
Paul
do you use your skimmer to remove water during a water change? Dosing LaCl3 while doing a wet skim water change enhances the treatment IMO/IME.
In any case, your proposed dosage plan sounds fine but I think you can get more bang for your buck if you couple it with a wet skim water change.
Remember to check alkalinity after any LaCl3 treatment.
Paul
do you use your skimmer to remove water during a water change? Dosing LaCl3 while doing a wet skim water change enhances the treatment IMO/IME.
In any case, your proposed dosage plan sounds fine but I think you can get more bang for your buck if you couple it with a wet skim water change.
Remember to check alkalinity after any LaCl3 treatment.
Conesus_Kid
Premium Member
Paul, you realize that's 8 hours out of your day. Do you want to borrow my drip setup?
Scott (Conesus Kid) and I have the same skimmers. He told me to adjust mine to get more skimate. I am getting about one cup every 2 days. Is that enough? I was only about one cup per 8-10 days before. I will check the alk too.
Scott, Thanks for reminding me. I will build one. Have the stuff already.
Scott, Thanks for reminding me. I will build one. Have the stuff already.
If I dont get alot of phosphate residue in the bag by tomorrow should I do another dose earlier than 2 weeks? Is the residue in the bag the determinator of how much phosphate was removed? I don't want to be impatient as that usually causes more problems. Does wet skimming remove any salt? I'm skimming alot more now.
Conesus_Kid
Premium Member
I've never seen the residue per se, but the sock clogs. I would do the treatment before your water change. If you hook up a tube to the collection cup, run the skimmer so its overflowing into the cup, and collect the skimmate in a bucket, that's the wet skim water change Gary was referring to. You're basically removing water with your skimmer instead of siphoning it out. If youre able to do this easily, I recommend it.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I wet skim to remove water from a system in order to do a water change. The type of wet skimming I use with a LaCl3 / water change typically takes about 3 - 6 hours to remove 30 gallons via wet skimmate. This method doesn't remove a significant amount of salt from the system. Now.. if you wet skim 24/7 you WILL remove a significant amount of salts from the water. Personally, I don't recommend a 24/7 wet skim.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
patience with this method is well advised but you should be okay dosing the LaCl3 slowly until just before the entire bag clogs or water starts to get cloudy... whatever occurs first.
I will wait until tomorrow and see how much the bag gets clogged. If it is not very clogged, should I use another 1 ml in a gallon again. Is this a very low dose for approx 200 gallons? It took a long time to get the phosphates this high, so I don't have to get crazy with the removal.
jh2pizza
New member
OK, I have read this entire Thread over the past 3 days. Tried to take some of the best practices out and I think I have a full understanding of this.
I have a 180Gal with roughly 100 sump. I use a 48" GEO Beckett skimmer. If I start with a liter of diluted LaCI3 and dose it slowly with a pump directly into the input of the PS200 pump, with a 10 Micron bag on the output of the skimmer, this should be effective.
Am I missing anything?
With the throughput on the skimmer being around 1200GPH, will the filter sock plug up too quickly?
I have a 180Gal with roughly 100 sump. I use a 48" GEO Beckett skimmer. If I start with a liter of diluted LaCI3 and dose it slowly with a pump directly into the input of the PS200 pump, with a 10 Micron bag on the output of the skimmer, this should be effective.
Am I missing anything?
With the throughput on the skimmer being around 1200GPH, will the filter sock plug up too quickly?
As I understand it......You have to drip the solution into the bag. The LC will "coat" the inside of the bag. The water coming into the bag will have phosphates that will get "captured" inside the bag. If the LC gets in the tank the fish will get this "clumped phosphate" in their gills.
I had high phosphates (.44) and used a dilution of 1ml per gallon. The bag was 80% full after 24hrs. I dripped the LC solution in the bag over about 6 hrs. I'm not sure what the new phosphate level is, but I know this will be a long process as I'm sure my rocks are loaded. There weren't any noticeable changes with the fish or corals during the LC drip. I did heavy wet skim also.
I had high phosphates (.44) and used a dilution of 1ml per gallon. The bag was 80% full after 24hrs. I dripped the LC solution in the bag over about 6 hrs. I'm not sure what the new phosphate level is, but I know this will be a long process as I'm sure my rocks are loaded. There weren't any noticeable changes with the fish or corals during the LC drip. I did heavy wet skim also.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
A Geo Beckett skimmer is perfect for LaCl3 dosing. It's a high speed power skimmer. Like Paul already mentioned, drip the LaCl3 solution into a 10 micron sock IN FRONT OF THE SKIMMER INTAKE and preferably the sock will be mounted on the main drains discharging in your sump. There's no way of knowing how quickly one's sock will clog. It all depends on your own unique system's PO4 levels and dosing method.
jh2pizza
New member
ok, I was misunderstanding where the dosing takes place. I was thinking the dosing took place in high flow area such as the skimmer intake with the filter sock on the output of the device.
So, is your dripping into the filter sock, I would guess the sock would have to be submerged to an extent and my current sock holders hold the filter socks most of the way out of the water.
So, is your dripping into the filter sock, I would guess the sock would have to be submerged to an extent and my current sock holders hold the filter socks most of the way out of the water.
The sump bag is partially submerged and located before the skimmer intake. This is where the dripping takes place. There is plenty "mixing" of water going on in the bag. Can you modify the sock so it is partially submerged? The bag is the collection point of the "captured phosphate". The skimmer is just an extra exporter of smaller particles that the bag didn't get. Gary is the expert, but I know at least this part of it.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
as long as the sock holders are sturdy this is okay. other options: (obvious) lower the holder OR (not so obvious) raise water level in sump
Reefski's
Active member
death from dosing!
death from dosing!
i have dosed LaCl for a couple of years. into a 5 micron sock in the sump.
i have had a couple of episodes where the sock clogged and overflowed. the tank became cloudy with precipitate.
i have had some unexplained deaths of fish but i can't remember if they were around the time of one of these episodes of overdosing. also death of several clams that i did not correlate with the time of dosing but may have been related.
the most recent episode a few weeks ago i lost three urchins that i had had for years. after the dosing they became sluggish and died. the Diadema took a few weeks to die and along the way the shell kind of collapsed inward and it bacame much smaller. the others were within a few days of becoming sluggish. couldn't hold on to the the substrate to move about.
there has also been rather a derth of small crustaceans in the system.
have you had any thing similar happen?
Carl
death from dosing!
i have dosed LaCl for a couple of years. into a 5 micron sock in the sump.
i have had a couple of episodes where the sock clogged and overflowed. the tank became cloudy with precipitate.
i have had some unexplained deaths of fish but i can't remember if they were around the time of one of these episodes of overdosing. also death of several clams that i did not correlate with the time of dosing but may have been related.
the most recent episode a few weeks ago i lost three urchins that i had had for years. after the dosing they became sluggish and died. the Diadema took a few weeks to die and along the way the shell kind of collapsed inward and it bacame much smaller. the others were within a few days of becoming sluggish. couldn't hold on to the the substrate to move about.
there has also been rather a derth of small crustaceans in the system.
have you had any thing similar happen?
Carl
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I've never lost any livestock due to proper LaCl3 use but I know several people that have lost livestock to improper use. Your case sounds typical of an overdose, Carl.
herring_fish
Crazy Designer
I quickly lost a yellow tank after using a product that had lanthanum chloride in it. I used it as directed but without using a sock.
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