Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
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.
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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