PO4 in Calcium Reactor Media

[JDTimko]

I started using a calcium reactor on my tank about 6 weeks ago. I used Reborn reactor media from TLF. Foolishly, I did not test the media for phosphate before using it. Before running the reactor I was dosing two part and feeding heavily. I always tested PO4 with Hannah Checker and got undetectable reading 0.00ppm. After setting up the calcium reactor with Reborn media, I started seeing the negative effects of too much PO4 on my corals, loss of polyp extension, loss of color and a modest GHA bloom to boot. Tested and found the tank water was 0.03, I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but I think the corals disagreed, besides I think the levels of PO4 where higher than was available for testing in the water column because I was also running GFO, macro algae and weekly water changes of 15%, not to mention the GHA that was using available PO4. So I tested the reactor effluent and it was pumping out .09ppm of PO4. I then tested a sample of Reborn media that I let disolve in rodi water for a few days and it tested at
.08ppm with hanna checker.
So I am looking for any personal experience with CaRx media where the effluent has been tested for PO4 levels and found to be much lower than 0.09ppm.
For now I have my dosers back online, but I would like to find a reactor media that I can use with out PO4 issues.
Any suggestions for media to test out?

 

[sirreal63]

PO4 finds it's way into our tanks in numerous ways. The vast majority comes from food but can also come from other things, such as dry rock and sand and even CaRx media. The reason you found some in your media is PO4 is a requirement for living creatures and is contained in tissue and skeletal mass. If that .09 from the media were an accurate number (it isn't) then the addition of that to the TWV would be so far diluted as to be mostly irrelevant.

I have used just about every media there is over the years and have not had PO4 issues. One thing I always do is pick out any snail shells from the media before putting it in the reactor. It has been reported over the years that snail shells have a higher quantity of PO4, which may or may not be true but it is just a habit now to remove them. You cannot draw accurate conclusions from the tests you performed. The RO/DI water test is one of the worst ways to test for PO4 as anything in the air like pollen, algae spores and dust will skew the results. You can take a vial of RO/DI and leave it uncovered with nothing in it for a week and it will show PO4 just from what has collected on it in a week.

The PO4 increase will come from a number of sources, mostly from the food we feed but also from other sources. Did you start the tank with dry rock such as Pukani?

 

[jda]

The Aqua Medic man-made media is phosphate free in my testing. So is ARM.

The Aqua Medic media needs lower PH to melt than the ARM. The ARM will help with some magnesium, but the AquaMedic stuff has none, but you can use some dolomite if you need mag help.

I use the coarse arm and have no issues with it.

 

[FlyPenFly]

I think the margin of error if you're perfect with the Hanna checker is .07. I would look to something else other than po4 as the problem with your tank.

From what I've noticed, for a mature healthy tank (4+ months) even running phosphates at .15 doesn't really cause a noticeable problem with the tank other than a bit more glass cleaning.

 

[sirreal63]

The margin of error is .04ppm

 

[machodik]

happened to come acrross this thread. as I am just about to set up my calcium reactor, I mean all the relevant equipment needed is already on hand. just thinking what kind of media i need to use. here in my lovely country, we dont have much choices like yours that you can select, its easier for you to buy ARM, Reborn etc. but here, only few traders sells some aragonite, they claim its brightwell, schuaran etc. but no ARM no Reborn....thats sucks! so, I have to keep checking or buying what media availabel here and just will give me low PO4. I never knew that for clacium reactor, Po4 is one of the major issue aside from of coarse the chances of lower PH or causing too much Co2 in your tank.

cheers,