Lanthanum chloride

hi Gary, yes, i dripped it really slow. i mixed the solution with 3 ml with 1 liter of RO. i ran a maxi jet through the 5 micron sock, i have to replace the sock within 1 hr. The skimmer has been running non stop during the whole process. i check the tank about 4 hrs later after done with the drip and remove the sock. i saw the tank walls cover with white powdery looking particals like dusts. what should i do now? should i shut down everything and wash everything before set up the tank again? is it safe to leave the powder like that? i dont have any livestock in there now. only couple pieces of liverocks with feather dusters (they are doing ok). Thanks.
 
hi John, wow you were from Fairbanks. haha, you miss the best time right now up here. i just recently move to Fairbanks in 07 those. so i am still a newbie in town.
 
So you've survived a few seasons of "Termination dust" :lol2:

Then you're a Newbie maybe but not a Cheechako :lmao:

I lived there during grade school for me, 1st to 6th grade. Anchorage was my high school, with Jr High being Pullman Washington.

Now we live in SoCal. I do speed skating (roller blading) but I miss snow skiing. Crashing on asphalt hurts a lot more than snow :headwallblue: I miss snow :(

Back to Lanthum: I'm not an expert, but I would scrape it off and do a water change. I'm surprised you had that much phosphorus in what sounds like a fairly new tank. Check your water, you might need RO/DI. But let's see what the experts say.

== John ==​

P.S. To all others - "Termination Dust" is the white stuff on mountains (snow). It means people that can't handle the cold see the snow coming and leave the state.
 
haha, John, snow will be here in no time. as for the tank, i just recently restart with dead rocks from another tank (someone gave them to me). the rocks are packs with mego phosphate, haha, that is why i try to use lanthanum chloride. i have them soaking in water for the past 2 months already and still have a reading of 0.15. i started with 1.3 so i can't complain too much. should have try new dryrocks from other supply but they want more money for shipping than the rocks.
 
so if i was to take some old established rock that i am having algae problems with and toss it into a bucket of just r/o water no salt, would this method work in the r/o water as well i was thinking of doing it this way to get the phosphate out of my rocks without wasting salt.
 
I happen to have all the stuff to drip the lanthanum, if this would work i wouldnt mind trying it on a small amount of rocks, so would it work in fresh water?
 
Chloroquin Phosphate will kill all macro and micro algae without effecting the bacteria in the rock, you will have to soak it in clean seawater with carbon to get rid of it before introducing the rock back in your reef, but it will definitely do the job
 
I have a full unopened bottle of this if anyone is interested. I have taken my tanks down. I also have several of the large micron socks with plastic rings on them.
 
tmz said:
I should add that lanthanum chloride disasscociates in water to lanthanum and chloride. The lanthanum binds up with PO4 or CO3( more with CO3 when PO4 is very low) and can thus deplete alkalinity. So it may be less effective as a phosphate remover at low levels of PO4 than gfo . In either case it forms small precipitant particles that can be harmful to small fish and filter feeders; thus, the need to filter carefully. Lanthanum is used in human phosphate control medications,btw.
Click to expand...

I have been manually dripping for a while now, and I still have a very hard time of getting the PO4 to less around .07, and I think that it may be binding instead with CO3.
 
ari5736 said:
I have been manually dripping for a while now, and I still have a very hard time of getting the PO4 to less around .07, and I think that it may be binding instead with CO3.
Click to expand...

I switch over to GFO at that point. Its not worth the risk of causing possible side affects to get that last little bit of Po4 out with Lanthanum Chloride.
 
so if i was to take some old established rock that i am having algae problems with and toss it into a bucket of just r/o water no salt, would this method work in the r/o water as well i was thinking of doing it this way to get the phosphate out of my rocks without wasting salt.

The fresh water would kill the organisms on /in on the rock leaving decaying orgaincs.
 
I must say, I just started using Brightwell Phosphat-E, and it's been a positive experience. I wouldn't say it's for everyone, but the way my skimmer is set up (two chambers with areas for precipitate to settle) it seems to work very well. My PO4 went from .15 to .08 with regular conservative dosing over the course of the past 5 days.

I decided to try the LaCl route after reading Mike Cao's TOTM article, about how he doses it in a two chambered BRS reactor (smart) and I liked that idea. My frankenskimmer (that's another story) is set up in a similar way, schematically.

No fish fatalities or coral issues thus far.
 
Banker,
Please share your skimmer and the BRS settling chambers! Do you not use socks and simply allow the precipitate to settle then vacuum it?

Along those lines, this is an LC reactor/ filter I made for a friends 800g tank.

It has a small pump that feeds the reaction chamber, for a detention time of about 2 minutes. LC is diluted with DI and dosed directly to the same chamber.
The water then flows over to a tray with 2 large 10micron socks. There is a float switch that turns off both the feed pump and the dosing pump once the filters get clogged. That will trigger the red light to let the owner know to clean the filters and reset.
It has worked flawlessly for months and really helped rid the tank of built up phosphates. Surprisingly, the socks last for several weeks before clogging.

LC_006.jpg


LC_014.jpg


LC_018.jpg
 
wow - what a topic... i was sweating spending 200-300 on a good gfo system. I think I'll give this a try first.
 
Hey H2OEng: very nice setup indeed. From all of my lurking around here, I would say that your design works great because your filter sock is only employed to pick up the occasional floaters. The vast majority of the precipitate will collect at the bottom of your slow-flow reaction chamber.

I'm currently in the process of rigging up a DIY LaCl reactor using an IO salt pail for settling. I just glued it up last night, and will likely install it in place over the next couple of days depending on my schedule.... this will be my first go at a Lanthanum Chloride system. I'll take some pics if I find time today and will explain how it works.

I'm pretty amped to try the LaCl system as this aquarium I'm working on has old tank syndrome in that I've been able to drop extreme nitrates down to 0ppm using biopellets, but the pellets are just not aggressive enough on the phosphate side - so I've been bleeding $$ on gfo with only temporary results (on a 500g system); and as soon as I slow down on the gfo, the PO4 immediately climbs back up to extreme levels (++0.78 ppm)...

From all that I've been following, I'm anticipating the LaCl will finally get me down to trace levels. I'll follow up with some pics of my DIY reactor design.

Sheldon
 
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