High phosphates looking to buy a reactor

[Spaws]

Hi I have very high phosphates 2.49ppm I am currently looking for the issue but Also would like to look into a cheap reactor what would b the best bang for my buck if anyone knows of a cheap one? My tank is glass 80g, Thanks in advanced

[Sk8r]

They don't cost much: I use a Phosban one, and because I have a 100 gallon tank, I use a double-volume reactor. F&S offers them paired with a pump (they have to have one) and a valve that will drive the thing properly and let you dial it until the whole fluid bed contents are in gentle motion, which is the way to run one well.

[Spaws]

I ended up buying a Bulk Reef Supply dual chamber reactor for carbon/gfo i installed in on Thursday I had 3ppm & by Sunday morning my phosphates were .30ppm im exited im hoping i can get it lower by the end of the week! I want some corals my other levels are also showing good signs. they suggest the maxijet 1200 pump but im using a maxijet 600 w/no problems i figured i had one lying around why not use it, it moves the media just fine actaully the valve is about half turned down. if anyone needs a reactor this is the one i suggest for phosphate removal since it worked for me again i had over 3ppm due to neglet & now im @.25 as of Monday night

[Reef Frog]

You will spend the money on the media, GFO. Buy it in larger quantities on line for best savings. Two Little Fishies phosban 150 is a good inexpensive unit. A very small pump like a Marineland 404 or 606 is all you need to drive it, the specifications are on line in a pdf file. You will slso need tubing.

[Spaws]

actually the BRS dual chamber comes w/everything you need other than the pump. so when i bought I was surprised that it had everything the valves the extension for the hose & all the plumbing, i had a maxijet 600 & it's working perfect. I will be testing the phosphate level today hopefully it is still going down (crossing my fingers) but yes I think i will have to buy large quantities of GFO untill i find the main source of the problem & attempt to remove it, i think i will make sure by most likely cooking the rock for a bit to get everything out then restart to make it live rock again

[pdiehm]

With phosphates that high, it's my understanding that you will go through GFO like it's going out of style.

My Pukani rock at one time had a PO4 level of 1.29ppm. It's since dropped to 0.00 in one bin and 0.03 in another just by dosing SeaKlear. If you have filter socks, you could actually run a drip line of seaklear into the sock and it wil crystalize and remove the phosphates from the water column. You will need to remove the sock likely once a day, but with phosphates that high, it's an option, if taking out the rock isn't.

[pdiehm]

With phosphates that high, it's my understanding that you will go through GFO like it's going out of style.

My Pukani rock at one time had a PO4 level of 1.29ppm. It's since dropped to 0.00 in one bin and 0.03 in another just by dosing SeaKlear. If you have filter socks, you could actually run a drip line of seaklear into the sock and it wil crystalize and remove the phosphates from the water column. You will need to remove the sock likely once a day, but with phosphates that high, it's an option, if taking out the rock isn't.

[Greg 45]

Check to see if your po 4 is coming from your make up water
Also dosing lanthium is easier and more affective
look it up here on reef central

[formsix]

Originally Posted by pdiehm

With phosphates that high, it's my understanding that you will go through GFO like it's going out of style.

My Pukani rock at one time had a PO4 level of 1.29ppm. It's since dropped to 0.00 in one bin and 0.03 in another just by dosing SeaKlear. If you have filter socks, you could actually run a drip line of seaklear into the sock and it wil crystalize and remove the phosphates from the water column. You will need to remove the sock likely once a day, but with phosphates that high, it's an option, if taking out the rock isn't.

I think for high phosphates it really matters whether your rock is still leaching them or not. My tank was running for 6 months before I checked phosphates and found they were at ~3.0. I bought the BRS dual reactor and ran the high capacity GFO in one reactor and carbon in the other. After a week (the next time I checked it) the phosphates had dropped to .40. I changed the media, and a week later they had dropped to .08. Changed it once more and the phosphates are now down about .04 and haven't started to creep back up 3 weeks later. So that was 2 "batches" of media used to get the levels down, but I'm pretty sure that nothing in my tank is leaking crazy amounts of phosphates, and I think I'm in maintenance mode at this point. I'm pretty sure my phosphates got that high from overfeeding and not attending to them for 6 months, plus maybe a small amount of leaching from various items in the tank. I used RODI from the start, so I didn't put them in that way. Anyway, long response to just say that it might not be that crazy or GOF-intensive to get high phosphates down if you're not also adding them into your tank in some way!!

[firemountain]

I have the Spectrapure Dual reactor and love it. The best part is that it has independent flow controls for each chamber, and has a down flow for Carbon, and an up flow for GFO.

I know a lot of guys recommend the BRS dual reactor. The only flaw that I have heard is the lack of independent flow controls, and the mounting bracket is not stiff enough. While you can modIfy the BRS to run the Spectrapure, the additional cost will put you right at the same pricepoint. I run a maxijet 1200 and it's perfect for the job.

[pdiehm]

I'll be getting the spectrapure dual reactor at some point.

[Spaws]

Pdiehm I'm not excited over my levels but it was my fault for neglecting my tank as of now I am in clean up mode & lowering my levels to manageable then take measures into figuring out what the problem will be. The tank is very well established over 6 yrs now so I have too much rock in there I am going to remove rock slowly & cooking it then reinserting it into the sump then display tank after its live rock again. Btw the replacing the ice to clean everyday part sounds like a bad chore as it takes a bit to get through my setup which again it's my fault but if I can't lower them greatly more that may b an option on the future. Firemountain I didn't know spectra pure made one but I am very happy w/BRS as of right now. & yes it was myself putting tds' back in since I was never using ro/di & feeding about 3x's a day. Now only once. Sorry for the long reply I was trying to answer everyone

[DaveRaz]

I tried the dual brs one but went with independent one for both gfo and carbon. That is my suggestion as its hard to control the flow individually. I refused to try both gfo and carbon in the same reactor.

[tommyboynj]

Be careful dropping them fast especially they have been hight that long.

[Spaws]

Tommyboynj I only have fish atm so they will be fine as they are not affected by phosphates. The nitrates I had on the other hand in taking it slow on that. They were over 160! Now approx 20-30 depending on when I test it's been a month and a half I'm doing it as slow as my patience has allowed me. Believe me it's hard to stay patient as I wanna throw in some softies now!

[explorer07]

If buying gfo gets expensive try phosguard by seachem. It's aluminum based but if used properly you should have no ill effects.

[tommyboynj]

Originally Posted by Spaws

Tommyboynj I only have fish atm so they will be fine as they are not affected by phosphates. The nitrates I had on the other hand in taking it slow on that. They were over 160! Now approx 20-30 depending on when I test it's been a month and a half I'm doing it as slow as my patience has allowed me. Believe me it's hard to stay patient as I wanna throw in some softies now!

Stay the course my friend. It's worth in in the long run.

[TonyHNYC]

Your GFO will get saturated very quickly ....(ie, control the source or water changes). Can you try to grow some macro algae?

[Spaws]

TONYHNYC idk how to grow macro algae