Phosguard ?

fishnugget

Active member
I am trying to lower my phosphates. Had heard good things about Phosguard. Tried for 5 days in bag in high flow area. I see no change. I am using a Merck test kit and my phosphates are deep blue over .43.

Would phosguard do better in a reactor?

I have done numerous water changes. Phosphates must be leeching from rocks.
 
1. It will take a number of dosages to get it down. And what ever you do, do not use more than the std dosage.

2. Phosguard will be long dead and will have adsorbed all it can before 5 days if those levels are real. It is only good for about 24 hrs. before it is exhausted at those levels


3. It may be a testing error have you tried to test water elsewhere and compare to another kit reading ?

You may be better off with a GFO, there are more more efficient at removing PO4
 
GFO is more effective and less likely to irritate corals than the aluminum oxide in Phosguard, but Phosguard can work. Yes, a reactor may help drive the water through it.

The rocks may have absorbed phosphate, but foods are another big source.

How high is it?

These articles have more:


Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

Aluminum and aluminum-based phosphate binders
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/july2003/chem.htm

Iron Oxide Hydroxide (GFO) Phosphate Binders
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.htm
 
Yes, I believe they can be more effective and less potentially irritating to corals. But if the issue is that the water is not getting through it, then that factor applies to all of them.
 
If PhosGaurd is only good for 24 hours, how long does GFO work? I was told by the LFS for a couple months in the case of my Rowa Phos media.
 
At high phosphate levels, all binders deplete quite rapidly as they have a fixed number of binding sites that fill up, and the higher the phosphate in the tank water, the faster they fill up. It is capacity you should consider, not time. it is generally believed that GFO has considerably more capacity than aluminum oxide, but there are relatively few comparative studies as they are very hard to do in a really good way (I've tried myself, and it just took way way too much time).

If you really have 0.4 ppm phosphate (are you reporting phosphorus or phosphate?), and are doing a good job passing the water through the binder, they are all probably depleted in a few days, maybe less.
 
I've not tested any nor seen any data on them, but I do not think they will be very effective at binding inorganic phosphate from seawater.

I coinvented one of the better phosphate binding polymer resins used commercially (Renagel/Renvela), and while we sell many hundreds of millions of dollars worth for binding phosphate in the GI tract of kidney disease patients, such materials don't work worth a crap in the high chloride and sulfate and relatively low phosphate setting of seawater. I expect that applies to an even greater extent all such products sold by hobby companies, since they are just reselling off the shelf materials and not specially made polymers.

They should be quite good at binding organic materials, and may bind some phosphorus that way. :)
 
I cannot tell exactly what that is. If it is GFO in a polymer matrix, as some companies sell, it may be fine. If it is a pure white polymer resin, then I'd recommend using some brand of GFO instead. :)
 
OK, that will deplete the media quite fast. Previously, folks using the Merck kit reported values as phosphorus, and so needed to be multiplied by 3 to get phosphate, but they may have changed that in new versions of the kit. :)
 
That could be. Mine says High Sensitivity Phosphate Test Kit on it.

Mine says mg/l P .14 underneath it it says mg/l PO 3-4 .43
 
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