Dave & Monica
New member
Since I was taking pics, here's a FTS from this evening- no MH but to Sohal Tang Tim, you can have it all.
Living room view
Kitchen view
Living room view
Kitchen view
Regenerating GFO
- Thread starter tatuvaaj
- Start date
Dave & Monica
New member
But if 1000ml = 1 liter, that would be 100ml right? That seems to be a whole lot more than .8ml, and why I'm confused. I'll hold off a few days to see if someone one answers. If it's 100ml, that's fine, just want to know before I try this again. Thanks.
I don't use muriatic acid; just 50 50 vinegar and water. So that gives me .25% acetic acid since straight vinegar is only 5%.Muriatic acid is typically 33% hydrochloric acid, a stronger acid at a higher concentration. So 10 to 1 would work out to 3.3% of a stronger acid. I think the amount needed depends on the amount of precipitation the gfo. In my case it appears relatively low. Some folks skip the acid bath entirely. Some types of gfo may tolerate more acid and base treatment than others. I use the brs HC wihich is relatively dense and holds up well.
Dave and Monica. Nice tank.thanks for sharing it. Here are a few recent pictures of my puddle:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2079639
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2079639
fraggleRocks
New member
I found lye online its in "bead" form, is this ok? I havent seen the size of the beads so im not sure if it will work.
Where are you all ordering the lye from? I diddnt find the drain cleaner mentioned on here neither at my local home depot nor lowes. Thanks guys
Where are you all ordering the lye from? I diddnt find the drain cleaner mentioned on here neither at my local home depot nor lowes. Thanks guys
I found a bottle of "100 percent lye" in liquid form and have no idea how much to use Anyone have a guess as to the ratio of water to lye ought to be?
Also, in that description of the regneration process, they only said to use water to clean the gfo. It did not say ro/di water. Was that just an oversight? I know my tap water has lots of PO.
Also, in that description of the regneration process, they only said to use water to clean the gfo. It did not say ro/di water. Was that just an oversight? I know my tap water has lots of PO.
rob.mwpropane
New member
Hey all, so I finally got around to trying to recharge and all went well, however after 96 hours the solution that the reactor was sitting in smelled god awful??? Is that normal? I have since reused without issue, but don't remember reading anything about a smell. Any ideas? Thanks!
Dave & Monica
New member
Seems odd, did you soak it in vinegar (muric acid) first? I ask since I did and didn't notice any foul odor.
Just finished a batch. I took 3-4 cups of GFO, soaked it in 50/50 of vinegar for 1 day. Rinsed it 3 times with normal tap water - drained, than mixed with 1M solution (1L ro/di water with 4 heaping plastic tea spoons of Roebic). Let it sit for 4 days in a sealed plastic container, like a coffee can. The water was murky, but not a deep deep red like the last time. Rinsed it 5 times with ro/di water. I haven't tested it yet, but I noticed the GFO is really soft, and I can mush it with my fingers. Somewhere it was written to store it wet, so I'm going to let some of it dry out to see if it gets some rigidity back. If so, I'll store it wet, but not soaking wet... if that makes sense. The next time I do this I'll do a DIY write up with PICs.
Just finished a batch. I took 3-4 cups of GFO, soaked it in 50/50 of vinegar for 1 day. Rinsed it 3 times with normal tap water - drained, than mixed with 1M solution (1L ro/di water with 4 heaping plastic tea spoons of Roebic). Let it sit for 4 days in a sealed plastic container, like a coffee can. The water was murky, but not a deep deep red like the last time. Rinsed it 5 times with ro/di water. I haven't tested it yet, but I noticed the GFO is really soft, and I can mush it with my fingers. Somewhere it was written to store it wet, so I'm going to let some of it dry out to see if it gets some rigidity back. If so, I'll store it wet, but not soaking wet... if that makes sense. The next time I do this I'll do a DIY write up with PICs.
rob.mwpropane
New member
No vinegar, just lye for 96 hours and rinse. Not sure why it smelled bad. To be honest, I wasn't very precise with my measurements. I used the gfo and no ill will to corals. I need to try it again and have since gotten a digital scale. The smell was like rotten eggs, like under a poorly maintained sandbed.
where do you get strontium nitrate and how do you use it?
MGM_
New member
After reading through all of the above this would be recipe to regen 1 cup of GFO with 1M of NaOH solution? Can anyone confirm this to be correct? Trying to use units of measure that do not require a scale.
GFO = 1 cup
Naoh (LYE 100%) = 4.5 tsp or 0.09375 cups
Water = 0.30 Gallons or 4.75 cups
Let it sit for 96 hours with occasional stirring. Rinse with 6-8 times initial water volume. I am not using the BRS reactor as I have wrecked 3 maxijet 1200 impellars but looks like others have done it with success. Maybe a filter on pump intake would prevent impellar damage?
Many thanks to all who contributed to the wealth of info above.
GFO = 1 cup
Naoh (LYE 100%) = 4.5 tsp or 0.09375 cups
Water = 0.30 Gallons or 4.75 cups
Let it sit for 96 hours with occasional stirring. Rinse with 6-8 times initial water volume. I am not using the BRS reactor as I have wrecked 3 maxijet 1200 impellars but looks like others have done it with success. Maybe a filter on pump intake would prevent impellar damage?
Many thanks to all who contributed to the wealth of info above.
Dave & Monica
New member
Hey everyone, just wanted to make a general comment. The high capacity (HC) GFO from BFS holds up SO MUCH better to regeneration than the normal GFO. The difference is night and day. The normal GFO needs so much rinsing, and really turns the GFO a light rust color, and turns it soft. The HC GFO turns the water a bit - but after two rinses, it runs clear, is still hard, and holds most of it's size.
I'll need to order Lye here shortly, so will experiment with that.
I'll need to order Lye here shortly, so will experiment with that.
DeathWish302
Clown Hoarder
I tried 1M solution at 16 bed volumes (~2gallons solution) circulating through my own DIY 'RO Canister' type holder with a MJ pumping the solution through the GFO. After 96hrs I started the rinse process. I'm 30 gallons of RO/DI rinse water in at this point and still measure a pH of 10. Is anyone else rinsing this much and/or see a pH spike when placing the less rinsed media into the tank?
I figured if I still had a pH above the rinse water, there was still OH in solution with PO4 bound to these ions. Hence, no pH difference to RO water results in no PO4 in solution.
Am I missing something?
I figured if I still had a pH above the rinse water, there was still OH in solution with PO4 bound to these ions. Hence, no pH difference to RO water results in no PO4 in solution.
Am I missing something?
I don't think our hobby ph meters/test kits can measure ph accurately on rodi water. I read that on here somewhere. Run some tank water through and see what you get.
I just run a few gallons through and call it good. A little extra alkalnity for the tank doesn't seem like a bad thing.
I just run a few gallons through and call it good. A little extra alkalnity for the tank doesn't seem like a bad thing.
DeathWish302
Clown Hoarder
Unfortunately, I would agree except that if you throw a piece of MMLR in your tank you'll toast everything by a pH jump. That LR has sodium hxdroxide as the main component that drives up the pH and it takes months in the casting bin or in the soak tank to drop the pH. It's a little different since the NAOH in the rock is bound up internally, but still a concern for me.
Just my $0.02...
I'll try the tank water tonight though.
