Phosphate Reactor and Hair Algae

[newenglandreef]

So I had a horrible hair algae outbreak. B set me up with a phosphate reactor, and within two weeks, it has literally cut my hair algae in half. It's literally starving it and dying off. Just figured I would pass that info along. Using Ferric Oxide in the reactor.

Stan

 

[ro_nicu]

Got any chatoe in the sump?

 

[newenglandreef]

Got any chatoe in the sump?

None!

 

[ro_nicu]

I was curious if one could still grow chatoe when running a phosphate reactor.

 

[jazzsam]

I am trying the GFO but it doesn't seem to work for me..... It seems to get clogged or something. Shouldn't it tumble in the reactor? Mine doesn't tumble. Any thoughts?

 

[sutton6989]

More gph...increase flow a little

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[wrassefan]

I am trying the GFO but it doesn't seem to work for me..... It seems to get clogged or something. Shouldn't it tumble in the reactor? Mine doesn't tumble. Any thoughts?

it has to tumble inside the reactor...you need a little bigger pump feeding the reactor

 

[Shawnburg]

Jazzsam I had the same problem, get a bit bigger pump that does more gph. What kind of reactor is it? If it's a two little fishes one there is a modification you can do that will also help it to tumble better.

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[jazzsam]

I got the 2 chamber BRS one. I got what the fish store recommended to me for it... maybe i should upgrade! or maybe i did something wrong....

 

[Shawnburg]

I'm not familiar with that one. I would still think that you should get a bigger pump.

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[newenglandreef]

I am trying the GFO but it doesn't seem to work for me..... It seems to get clogged or something. Shouldn't it tumble in the reactor? Mine doesn't tumble. Any thoughts?

Definitely needs to tumble, but only about half way up the column per B. Also, he recommended, after washing it, running the FO overnight through disposable RO water, because he said it can mess with you ALK a little.

Telling you, I'm amazed how it's just falling off rocks. I'm worried it's going to clog my drains.

 

[Moe_K]

The Phosban bottle says not to tumble it, because that will lead to it breaking into dust and getting out into the water - escaping the reactor.

 

[jazzsam]

I figured it out! I had the GFO packed too tight. I played with it tonight and it started to tumble as i expected.

 

[rschroeter]

Anyone experience a negative reaction to the new GFO after starting? I just started GFO with a TLF, and a few corals are pretty clammed up. I did do a pretty big water change at the same time though - might just go back to normal after a few days. LPS (sun coral, or dendro as some call it) is holding it's heads in - acans seem ok, leathers seem ok.

 

[Shawnburg]

I had a similar problem but it happened slowly. The issue I was trying to fix was Phosphate and Nitrates. All my corals had great polyp extension and everything was growing like weeds. I even had some yellow sponge that started grow out of the blue. I started loosing some eagle eyes, my blue hornets were closed and a couple other zoas weren't opening, my frog spawn the was doing great a couple heads closed. I also have 3 different chalices and they have all acted different. One it's flesh wasn't expanding and the other two started loosing flesh and showed some skeleton. After doing some reading other peoples posts I took the reactor off the tank last night. I'm hoping that the corals that were acting up come back to health. My tank was doing awesome before starting the reactor. After using the reactor I noticed that the sponge was dying off a bit. My phos is now at 0 and my nitrates are .5 ppm after running the NPX Biopellets.

 

[sutton6989]

GFO has the capability to strip nutrients to quickly and harming corals. I run GFO when needed and only use half of the recomended dose and only half the day. Water changes are the best thing to do and figuring out the balance between feeding and cuc so that no food gets left on the bottom to decay... I also feed a lot for a small tank but I shut off all flow and only feed small increments throughout the day to ensure the fish eat most if not all the food that I'm feeding.

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[Shawnburg]

GFO has the capability to strip nutrients to quickly and harming corals. I run GFO when needed and only use half of the recomended dose and only half the day. Water changes are the best thing to do and figuring out the balance between feeding and cuc so that no food gets left on the bottom to decay... I also feed a lot for a small tank but I shut off all flow and only feed small increments throughout the day to ensure the fish eat most if not all the food that I'm feeding.

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I was using half the dose required. I was also running it all day everyday maybe that was too much. When you say you run it as needed and for only half the day. Does the meda stick together when you turn it back on? How do you know when it's needed or not needed?

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[sutton6989]

If I can't drop my po4 with waterchanges I switch out my carbon with gfo. When I run gfo I run it until I get the po4 to acceotable levels and then take the reactor off line. I have a brs reactor plumbed into mt return piping with a ball valve so I can adjust flow as needed and also close down The reactor as needed to take it offline. I'm not a big fan of running gfo and or carbon 24/7. It works for some systems. Also everytime I out new media in the reactor

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