Thanks Mark!
Yes, I have been watching your LC experiments closely!
Ed got me scared again though..
I think if/when I were to use it, it would be after I have done whatever else I can do to pull p as low as possible..
Then I'd use LC just to tweak the last few points of reduction. That way as little product is used as possible..
Mark, your tank is SO READY for a few new pieces!!
Looks at your tank! It is calling out.. shouting at you to add new pieces!!! Wait maybe that's me shouting.. anyways.. yes, add some more!!
I apologize if my comments on Mark's thread were to scare you off. I think LC is fine to use. I just wanted to make sure people use it in a safe manner. That's why I linked the thread..........Gary M. has been using it for a long time and he's an Sps keeper I highly respect. I would focus on his comments as well a Tom's (tmz) in that thread.
It seems to be as simple as dosing LC into a 5 micron sock. I haven't read the whole thread, but the main points are that the precipitate doesn't go away. It can build up over time or be taken up by the animals/corals.
Here is an excerpt from Mike Paletta on another forum and why I just put two and two together that maybe if the precipitate is contained, it may stop the random unexplained acro problems when most corals are thriving---
"For example, one old European magazine I read through had a long discussion on the use of lanthanum chloride as a means of reducing phosphate levels. Having been a believer in the 0 phosphate rule up until recently, I had used this compound on several occasions with good results at reducing the phosphate levels in my tanks.
However, what I did not know and what was pointed out in this article is that lanthanum chloride, while being great at reducing phosphate, should only be used so that the resultant precipitate does not come into contact with sps corals.
Paraphrasing what the article said, if the precipitate is allowed to come into contact with the corals it may be taken up and mimics calcium in the coral’s structure. However, once it is taken up it will prevent or reduce further calcification and the coral will show reduced growth or even possible loss of tissue over time.
Now unless you had used lanthanum chloride, as I had, and let the precipitate flow all around the tank, and then had slow tissue necrosis from the base of some of your corals for seemingly no reason, which I also had, this article probably would not have meant much. But having the ability to go back and learn from an old article taught me that if I wanted to use this compound again, I needed to keep it in a reactor of some type away from my sps corals. Which has been written about but never explained. While this has been discussed in numerous ways over the years, until I read this old article, it never clicked for me as to why I was having this problem, since this occurred some time after I had used the lanthanum. Again this is another example of my learning from my own mistakes and then having it explained to my why it happened."
