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hydro phoenix 
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 Topic: Poly reactor
Posted: October 14 2015 at 6:54pm |
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SO I got one of these beauties yesterday from a friend of mine and I was wondering how much carbon and phosguard (ratio) should I put in there? I have a standard 55 with a 20 long sump in the back so probably about another 10, so a total of 65 gallons give or take.
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Reefer4Ever
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Posted: October 14 2015 at 7:07pm |
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I have approx 90 gals of water and use 1 cup gfo and 2 cups carbon. Mine lasts about 6 weeks depending on how heavy I feed which has been a ton lately. I am not sure what it would be for phosguard. I use a mj1200 full blast through my reactor as I use foam pads to make it tight so it can't tumble. Don't know if that helps or not but thought I would share.
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90 gal reef w/refugium
24 gal softie tank
11 gal nano anemone tank
5 gal fresh water
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hydro phoenix
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Posted: October 15 2015 at 11:14am |
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Is tumbling bad? I thought it was supposed to as to help with ion exchange.
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Marcoss
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Posted: October 15 2015 at 11:28am |
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Tumbling is good if its just GFO. It keeps it from hardening. If its mixed, I don't know if you'd want to tumble it since the carbon will crush it. I don't personally mix, so I cannot help with that.
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Reefer4Ever
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Posted: October 15 2015 at 11:56am |
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I have no problems with mixing mine. If you try and tumble the gfo and carbon, the gfo will pulverize the carbon to dust and cause blackness in your tank. If you tumble the gfo alone to strongly it will also cause it to break down into small pieces and get into your tank. That's why I use a foam pad and mix both 2:1 ratio and push the water through with a mj1200. I am able to maintain my po4 between .00 and .06, after approx 6 weeks when the gfo is exhausted the po4 starts to climb and I change out both parts.
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90 gal reef w/refugium
24 gal softie tank
11 gal nano anemone tank
5 gal fresh water
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hydro phoenix
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Posted: October 16 2015 at 11:06am |
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what is GFO? Is it better than Phosguard?If it is, where do I get it at?
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: October 16 2015 at 11:11am |
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GFO is granular ferrous oxide and is usually cheaper than phosguard. Most lfs have it for sale or you can get it from BRS directly with their new cheap shipping.
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My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water Tank Thread:
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Reefer4Ever
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Posted: October 16 2015 at 1:41pm |
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I have used both and prefer gfo due to cost and able to mix with carbon, seems far more consistent with maintaining a constant po4 number.
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90 gal reef w/refugium
24 gal softie tank
11 gal nano anemone tank
5 gal fresh water
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uteman58
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Posted: October 16 2015 at 6:11pm |
Faith, Here is a good article from Mark Callahan regarding the differences between GFO and Phosguard. Personally I have used Bulk Reef Supply GFO, and I have used SeaChem Phosguard. I personally think the BRS GFO held up better to tumbling. http://www.mrsaltwatertank.com/write-up-wednesday-3-phosphate-removing-medias-and-my-experiences-with-each/ Hope this helps  |
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Creating ocean puddles in an alkaline state.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: October 16 2015 at 8:45pm |
In my experience as a long time coral grower, Activated Alumina(phosguard) takes out more Phosphate faster than GFO. It also works without needing a Reactor unit, just placed in a media bag near good flow, like in the sump near the intake screen. It also changes color to indicate when it's saturated. Because it removes PO4 so well, the same amount of Activated Alumina lasts longer than GFO so less is needed. The Activated Alumina(AA) I'm talking about is some that I found from a specialty distributor in an effort to cut costs. Now that I'm not doing MarksReef Coral Farm anymore, I'll sell this AA for the same price I got it, $5/lb. That's a lot cheaper than GFO.
Aloha, Mark  |
Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks:www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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hydro phoenix
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Posted: October 17 2015 at 7:04am |
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Thank you everyone for your help, I'm going to try out a few different things and see which works for me. Thank you thank you thank you!
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badfinger
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Posted: October 17 2015 at 7:27am |
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Sorry to hi-jack...
Mark, do you have data backing up your theory? Did you or someone time how quickly phosphate was absorbed? Or what the same weight of gfo or activated alumina will be able to hold, phosphate wise?
It isn't better to have phosphate instantly stripped from the tank. But rather taken out slowly over a longer period of time as to not shock our corals. So if your theory is correct, GFO would be better.
But I would love to see the data, if there is some. And if the data is correct, I may switch to phosgard
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: October 17 2015 at 8:50am |
 badfinger wrote:
Sorry to hi-jack... |
Didn't Faith say that she was interested in the different ideas surrounding this topic? The findings are my own. I'm not suggesting anyone switch to using the two products sold at the LFS; SeaChem Phosguard or Kent Phosphate Sponge. I believe it was those products that, many years ago were discounted by Randy Holmes-Farley because they "seemed" to leach Aluminum into the water, which over time, bothered coral. No, the product I found is unlike those and may even come from a different manufacturer. It's been many years but, I checked into AA from two different manufacturing plants. One was excellent and the other seemed to cause coral stress.
The key is in deciding how much of a particular media to use for the volume of water and the concentration of bad chemicals in that water. For example, I use only ~1/2 cup of this acceptable AA for a 300 gal system in a media bag as mentioned previously. Under normal operation, feeding etc., it lasts for 3-4 months. I believe that may answer your concern about stripping PO4 too quickly or too much.
Realize though, that when a hobbyist comes along saying that they were having issues with nuisance algae or SPS not doing well and we find out their PO4 is sky high, it is important to get the PO4 down to acceptable levels ASAP. A proportionally larger amount of AA than used in normal operation is chosen for this purpose. When the PO4 levels out, depending on saturation(color change), much of the AA in the media bag should be removed.
Look, I realize that this may be hard for some people to understand and accept. I'm okay with that. I'm just saying that there is much more to the topic of PO4 control than is typically considered. Like my signature line alludes, to me, everything about this hobby is fascinating including it's technical aspects.
Aloha, Mark
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