Who runs GFO or other phosphate binding media

[SPSEMPIRE]

Who all is running GFO or other phosphate binding media?

 

[sjfishguy]

who doesn't? unless you are dosing vodka

 

[MammothReefer]

I do, even when I did dose vodka & use pellets.

 

[flyyyguy]

who doesn't? unless you are dosing vodka

I dont on any of my systems

Nor do I run a fuge of any kind, I dont use sand, dont dose any carbon sources, and I use very little rock. I feed large fish all they can eat and I dose aminos daily to boot

I do not believe a truly efficient system needs gfo. I am in no means "against" it, and have used it at times in the past but its been years

 

[sjfishguy]

I dont on any of my systems

Nor do I run a fuge of any kind, I dont use sand, dont dose any carbon sources, and I use very little rock. I feed large fish all they can eat and I dose aminos daily to boot

I do not believe a truly efficient system needs gfo. I am in no means "against" it, and have used it at times in the past but its been years

Sounds like you are pretty lucky. So you just do water changes?

 

[Brian Chong]

is gfo safe to use? Is the gfo reactor set and forget? I hear too many horror stories with bio pellets and dosing vodka everyday sounds like it'd be a pain in the rear.

 

[BuckeyeTodd]

I dont on any of my systems

Nor do I run a fuge of any kind, I dont use sand, dont dose any carbon sources, and I use very little rock. I feed large fish all they can eat and I dose aminos daily to boot

I do not believe a truly efficient system needs gfo. I am in no means "against" it, and have used it at times in the past but its been years

I'm running a similar system, barebottom feeding heavily...wondering what your nitrate and po4 are testing at? My corals have never looked happier since I took GFO offline, but my po4 is up to .06 and nitrates at 25. Tank is looking great, just wondering if I'm near the edge of the cliff or if I shouldn't worry

 

[BuckeyeTodd]

is gfo safe to use? Is the gfo reactor set and forget? I hear too many horror stories with bio pellets and dosing vodka everyday sounds like it'd be a pain in the rear.

It is safe, it just strips po4...but at 0.00 po4 sps look pale IMO

 

[celamb89]

I use GFO and dose vodka, which means I have to change the GFO less often

 

[Brian Chong]

my phosphate is at .08 I'm wondering if i would get better results from using gfo

 

[flyyyguy]

I'm running a similar system, barebottom feeding heavily...wondering what your nitrate and po4 are testing at? My corals have never looked happier since I took GFO offline, but my po4 is up to .06 and nitrates at 25. Tank is looking great, just wondering if I'm near the edge of the cliff or if I shouldn't worry

I havent tested nitrate since the first year I started this hobby so I couldnt tell you

phosphates are .04 via hannah. I can skim wetter and/or stop dosing aminos and get them lower, but I dont like them any lower than that. To be honest Im not convinced aminos are anything more than snake oil. Snake oil that adds phosphates in a precisely controllable way which works for me

There is nothing at all wrong with .06 if you are pleased with whats going on in the system

having a goal of truly zero phosphates is great, until you actually achieve it

 

[llewoh05]

i use a little GFO in a brs reactor with a complete change every 3 weeks. my po4 bounce between 0 and .025 on the chart when i test every week or its just the wife reading the colors wrong, who knows.

 

[MammothReefer]

is gfo safe to use? Is the gfo reactor set and forget? I hear too many horror stories with bio pellets and dosing vodka everyday sounds like it'd be a pain in the rear.

Yes, you only need to compensate for the extra alkalinity that gets depleted due to the usage of GFO. Depending on the amount of phosphates in your system you can typically get away with changing it out anywhere between 2months-6months in my experience.

my phosphate is at .08 I'm wondering if i would get better results from using gfo

Yes you would. Mine seems to hover between .04-08 I just replaced it and it dropped it down to .02. In terms of "stripping" it 0.00 and having your corals go pale.. eh if that's a problem feed a little more your fish will appreciate it, or you can just feed your corals more. I like it because it gives me the opportunity to be a little heavy handed now and then without worry about my phophsates going off the charts.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

Yes, you only need to compensate for the extra alkalinity that gets depleted due to the usage of GFO. Depending on the amount of phosphates in your system you can typically get away with changing it out anywhere between 2months-6months in my experience.

Never really thought about GFO depleting alkalinity but that makes perfect sense to me. That's really good to know.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

Sorry about the grammar in the pole

Use to........not used to

 

[preef]

Phosphate is at 0.00 on a Hanna without GFO or carbon dosing and a small remora skimmer. Not sure why. I do have a fuge with a DSB and cheato.

To those of you that use GFO. If you didn't use it what would your phosphate level be?

 

[MammothReefer]

Phosphate is at 0.00 on a Hanna without GFO or carbon dosing and a small remora skimmer. Not sure why. I do have a fuge with a DSB and cheato.

To those of you that use GFO. If you didn't use it what would your phosphate level be?

Tough to say, I started running it when my phosphates were at .58 I haven't taken it offline since so I don't know what they would go back up to.

 

[MammothReefer]

Phosphate is at 0.00 on a Hanna without GFO or carbon dosing and a small remora skimmer. Not sure why. I do have a fuge with a DSB and cheato.

To those of you that use GFO. If you didn't use it what would your phosphate level be?

Tough to say, I started running it when my phosphates were at .58 I haven't taken it offline since so I don't know what they would go back up to.

In the past I used to have to use it just to keep my phosphates under 1. Sometime within the first couple years of being into the hobby I came under the impression that "mature live rock" was the way to go.. So I would buy rock from other peoples tear downs and put it in my tank.. Sadly most of the time it was sooo saturated with phosphates it was just a NITEMARE keeping my levels in check. Luckily back then I was only really into LPS, but I remember when ROWA first hit the market man was it a life saver.

 

[Brian Chong]

That was very helpful Mammoth Reefer, thanks. I'm psyched now about this gfo thing because i have a few stubborn acros that just wont color up and my red polyped milleporas are brownish in color. I use tropic marine reg and it has a lot of alk compared to other salts but how much more alk does gfo consume?

 

[wdt2000]

I have not used any in months. It seems to cause more problems in my system in terms of algae/bacteria growth. I also don't dose any carbon source such as vodka.