I've had it with GFO

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Gregcoyote

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Feb 12, 2011
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Location
Columbia, Missouri
I know, I know, it's a great phosphate remover. And it's fairly cheap and available everywhere.

But it is a freaking mess. Stains everything it touches, clumps up if calcium is high in days and can't be effectively tumbled. At least I cant get it to work for any length of time. It either clumps or grinds out brown colored rusty water over just a few days. In the sump it turns into a brick in little time. I am going to try to not use it. I used the BRS two chamber reactor and the GFO would stop tumbling after only a few days.

My system with the algae scrubber and skimmers keeps phosphates at about .5ppm. I now use a pair of Lifegard fluidized sand filters adapted to hold Purigen (nitrate) in one and now Phosgard (phoshate, silica) in the other to replace GFO, to reduce organics even more. The Purigen tumbles great and the Phosgard beads also tumble clean. I have particulate filters on the output to catch any tiny pieces shed. I shoot for phosphates to be under .05 ppm, so we will see.

Current levels are .04 ppm phosphate and .018 ppm nitrate or 18 ppb. Hanna measurements.
 
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no refugium greg? i have no issues with my PO4 but i test with a redsea max PO4 kit so i don't know how accurate those are
 
I've got 100 gallons in refugium and algae scrubber. I have a lot of well fed fish and a 110% coral coverage. Big bio load, so the system does its best. Threw away about 2 pounds of algae this afternoon. The reactors are to polish my water that last little bit that throws your water into coral nirvana. ;-)
 
I have to adjust mine every few days in my phosban reactor to keep it from clumping. I am not 100% positive but i dont think the purigen is supposed to tumble only the GFO. I like running separate reactors because they require different flow rates. I seem to have found my sweet spot on flow using the HC GFO it tumbles easier because you use less
 
I have to adjust mine every few days in my phosban reactor to keep it from clumping. I am not 100% positive but i dont think the purigen is supposed to tumble only the GFO. I like running separate reactors because they require different flow rates. I seem to have found my sweet spot on flow using the HC GFO it tumbles easier because you use less

Purigen tumbles fine.
 
I have a post filter that catches any fragments. It doesn't seem to cause any problems even if some gets out. None of my corals seem bothered by it when I tested this theory. The fluidized filter seems to be very gentle with the stuff.
 
I ditched the beads. The carbon source set off a round of cyano. I stopped running them and the cyano is dying back again. Trying Phosguard now. I feed heavily, so keeping phosphate below .1ppm is difficult.
 
I almost setup my BRS GFO Reactor after reading your complaints about it I am second thinking it now.
 
GFO works fine chemically, my problem is that with high calcium levels, the stuff turns into a brick no matter what I do. Any reactor I have used turns solid after a week or two. No amount of water flow will keep it moving.
 
Not yet. I stay around .1ppm. It's a bit of a trade off, fat healthy fish or colorful SPS growth. If I don't feed, I get to .05ppm with little effort. I need to start a fish only tank so I can get where I want to be on the reef. But a reef without any fish isn't what I like either.
 
You mentioned you have to keep your calcium up high what are you keeping it at? 420, 450 500??
 
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