Phosphate Removal
- Thread starter Kewlworm
- Start date
Red slime isn't always a sign of high phosphates.
1. Get a good phosphate test kit, like Salifert or Deltec. If your phosphates are high try Eco-Phos by the folks at Ecosystem. You can either bag it and put it in your sump or put it in a phos-reactor. Not reccomended for canister filter as it will rapidly break down the media.
2. If the phosphates are lower than .025 then excess organics, low flow, and old bulbs are also known contributors to red slime.
I would probably, check to see how old my bulbs were and change them if they are more than (PC 8 mos.) (Halide & VHO more than 10 Mos.) old. Add a powerhead, one that will move the volume of your tank at least 7 times an hour and an organics sponge like SeaLabs DOS 15 and watch it clear up.
It's a bacteria not an algae and it requires a fairly high CO2 level to thrive. Old lights I don't know why probably the shift in spectrum towards red which contributes to algae and other undesirable growths, causes accellerated growth.
Hope this helps.
Pat
1. Get a good phosphate test kit, like Salifert or Deltec. If your phosphates are high try Eco-Phos by the folks at Ecosystem. You can either bag it and put it in your sump or put it in a phos-reactor. Not reccomended for canister filter as it will rapidly break down the media.
2. If the phosphates are lower than .025 then excess organics, low flow, and old bulbs are also known contributors to red slime.
I would probably, check to see how old my bulbs were and change them if they are more than (PC 8 mos.) (Halide & VHO more than 10 Mos.) old. Add a powerhead, one that will move the volume of your tank at least 7 times an hour and an organics sponge like SeaLabs DOS 15 and watch it clear up.
It's a bacteria not an algae and it requires a fairly high CO2 level to thrive. Old lights I don't know why probably the shift in spectrum towards red which contributes to algae and other undesirable growths, causes accellerated growth.
Hope this helps.
Pat
jdieck
New member
Mixing the media may work but using only GFO media will be an issue IMO.
Also I prefer to keep carbon and GFO separate as having the flexibility to use one or the other or both.
When using GFO media alone I prefer to keep it fluidized to reduce the chances of it becoming clumped by the carbonate precipitation. When mixed with carbon that might not be an issue.
jdieck
New member
Just convinience and flexibility.
One usually gets exhausted faster than the other. During certain tratments if required you need to use extra carbon which will be cheaper to replace than the mix. In any case if the system use is not large it is less of a problem. In my case I use four pounds of media and about three pounds of carbon. The phosphate media lasts about three to four months but the carbon about a month and a half. For me using mixed will be possible but I prefer to run carbon in a bag in the sump rather than a good sized carbon reactor while I use the phosphate media in a reactor.
By the way I also use PHOsR, I think the shape of the media does wonders flow wise.
I also use a phosban reactor but packed with Purigen to remove additional Organics
Rogger Castells
New member
Jdieck is correct, carbon does exhaust faster than the GFO but the biggest issue is that if you don’t change it and wait for the GFO to exhaust, carbon will start releasing back the organics to the water and/or because of the extreme porous surface it will start nitrifying, either way is bad, the GFO is way more expensive than carbon and you will be dumping your money to the can.
I use to large fluidize filters with each one of the medias.
Jdieck what does that Purigen suppose to take out, also, do you run it all the time?
I use to large fluidize filters with each one of the medias.
Jdieck what does that Purigen suppose to take out, also, do you run it all the time?
jdieck
New member
Although there are somehow good reliable ways to measure the aquarium chemistry (some with difficulty like iodine, silicates and phosphates) there is no afordable means to measure dissolved Organics.
As organics can be of so many kinds and types and they are in part accountable for many issues like water discoloration, coral browning, cyano and algae promotion I try different means to get rid of as much of them as possible basically using the three most popular means.
Skimming which takes care of the hydrophobic organics, Carbon which takes care of most TOCs, Hydrocarbons and Tanins, Ozone to break down refractory organics for the skimmer to be able to remove or for them to become digested by bacteria, and finally I use the Purigen which takes care of many other organics specially Nitrogenous compounds.
As you can see from the picutre the media changes to a brown color as it adsorbs the stuff, once the browning reaches the top of the reactor, I take the media out and regenerate it with bleach after which it can be re-used. Basically I use it as a safegard (say it polishing) for any remining organics that the other methods may miss.
As organics can be of so many kinds and types and they are in part accountable for many issues like water discoloration, coral browning, cyano and algae promotion I try different means to get rid of as much of them as possible basically using the three most popular means.
Skimming which takes care of the hydrophobic organics, Carbon which takes care of most TOCs, Hydrocarbons and Tanins, Ozone to break down refractory organics for the skimmer to be able to remove or for them to become digested by bacteria, and finally I use the Purigen which takes care of many other organics specially Nitrogenous compounds.
As you can see from the picutre the media changes to a brown color as it adsorbs the stuff, once the browning reaches the top of the reactor, I take the media out and regenerate it with bleach after which it can be re-used. Basically I use it as a safegard (say it polishing) for any remining organics that the other methods may miss.
