Phosphate reduction...

[Macscale]

In reality, the products can have different affects on your system. Maybe one works for someone, or is just to difficult for another. It takes a long time to truly learn your tank, so you really have to see.

 

[Sniperhank]

In a hob filter, which is lower flow rate than say a reactor or even a canister, phosguard would be your best bet. The stuff works well, but doesn't have the longevity that gfo does in my experiences.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I had the opposite experience (as usual) in that GFO clumped up and never lasted for me. I did a simple test using a reactor Carey recommended. 500 gallons of water, P4 was at .3ppm when I started, alk was 11. I added 500ml of high quality BRS GFO and started tumbling it. In 48 hours, no visible change to P4 but alkalinity went down to 8. 48 hours later, P4 was .25ppm and alk had fallen to 7. That's when I stopped and slowly raised alk back to 10.

I then replaced the GFO with Phosgard. No other changes. In 48 hours alk was still 10 and P4 was .1ppm. 48 hours later alk was still stable and P4 was .03ppm. It has held steady there for the past three months. No clumping which is what reduced the usability of GFO.

This is just what happened to me, your results may be different. I feed daily and have some messy eaters, so I needed to do something. This has worked brilliantly for me so far.


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[carey]

Hey Greg, did you like that reactor I had mentioned to you? You say above that you had clumping with gfo....was just curious.

ALso, in an ac70 my choice would be phosguard. It wont escape into the tank as easy and it really does work for reducing phosphates. I'm sooo over gfo, all it does is clump and it ends up turning my tank water brown no matter what I use. lol

 

[Gregcoyote]

Yes, that bio pellet reactor worked fine for both products. Unfortunately the GFO still eventually clumps and stops tumbling long before it's exhausted in my system. And it IS a mess to work with. Phosguard worked better for me. Although it took P4 down low enough my mushrooms suffered. My hard corals love it.


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[Flaxon-Waxon]

Thanks for everyone's help. I ended up buying some Phosguard and am actually running both that and GFO in my AC70, as well as a sponge, Purigen, and some Matrix. Quite a packed little filter basket... On a better note, the brown algae on my sandbed is finally subsiding. Now keep your fingers crossed on the GHA!


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