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Trevor40 
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 Topic: SPS and GFO
Posted: November 14 2013 at 4:18pm |
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I wanted to mention that since I took my GFO reactor offline I have seen much better color in all of my corals. I am thinking that my corals were starving with the GFO online even with moderate feeding. I had PO4 around .04(Hanna) and felt that this was a good level as it seems that a lot of sps dominant tanks run PO4 at this level.
A word to the newbs like me. Don't starve your corals with GFO!! Keep up on water changes and get a good protein skimmer and you will be fine in most cases. I'm sure some of you have has success with GFO but maybe my protein skimmer by EA is too good for my tank and in combination with GFO its just too much for my tank:)
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: November 14 2013 at 5:06pm |
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I run half the recommended amount of gfo in my tank to try and prevent that from happening but the risk is real. I have bleached corals by running to much gfo before.
I think you will find over and over again in these forums that those who run ULN systems feed their systems heavily and frequently.
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Trevor40
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Posted: November 14 2013 at 6:30pm |
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True, I guess I never fed enough even when I was running 1/4 the recommended amount.
That stuff is super strong and should be used with caution.
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: November 14 2013 at 6:44pm |
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Just out of curiosity where you using the regular GFO or the High Capacity GFO?
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ReefdUp
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Posted: November 14 2013 at 6:48pm |
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I've bleached my corals with GFO before, but I still run it. I start with about 1/2 the recommended amount then slowly increase (maybe a TBSP per month on a 200g system). Plus, I still am old school with my feedings (following the BLU Coral Method.) I've managed to keep my phosphates around 0.03 with good color on SPS (and LPS/softies).
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www.reefdup.com
Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: November 14 2013 at 6:51pm |
For the record, ReefdUp can keep anything alive! 
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ReefdUp
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Posted: November 14 2013 at 7:03pm |
LOL, ok, ok...fair enough. 
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www.reefdup.com
Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987
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Trevor40
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Posted: November 16 2013 at 3:22pm |
 Krazie4Acans wrote:
Just out of curiosity where you using the regular GFO or the High Capacity GFO?
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I used the regular granular GFO, not high capacity. I think with my regular water change schedule and protein skimmer it was pulling too much nutrients out for all my SPS corals that need to feed.
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: November 16 2013 at 3:28pm |
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I think you're right. I skim pretty dry, only use 1/2 the recommended amount of gfo and feed in the medium range and it works good for me. I think if I didn't like to feed that I would have problems as well.
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My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water Tank Thread:
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Trevor40
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Posted: November 21 2013 at 10:30am |
Krazie4Acans wrote:
I think you're right. I skim pretty dry, only use 1/2 the recommended amount of gfo and feed in the medium range and it works good for me. I think if I didn't like to feed that I would have problems as well. |
For the record it wasn't that I wasn't feeding heavy. I was feeding a couple cubes of frozen/ day and still had pale sps. I noticed a trend when I would see others tanks that really looked colorful and none of them used GFO but would use other PO4 removers if any.
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Ann_A
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Posted: November 21 2013 at 10:36am |
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I ran gfo for a couple months and had coral growth slow down and diminished color. Now I run biopellets and have increased growth and vibrant colors in all of my sps.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: November 21 2013 at 11:30pm |
Whether using Granulated Ferric Oxide or Activated Alumina, it's not good to continually strip all the PO4 out of the water. Algae cannot grow without it. That includes symbiotic zooxanthellae algae.  Aloha, Mark 
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