gfo alternatives
 

Thinking of dosing one of the commercially available lanthanum chloride products into a 10 micron sock. Anyone here do this and have a product they recommend? Or better yet a source for lanthanum chloride in concentrated form I can dilute? Products like seaklear for pools they recommend over on RC just can't be found here it seems. My goal is to make phosphate mgmt more wallet friendly. Thx!

Here ya go



And the msds

https://media.nat.cm/filer_public/90...sds_-_2017.pdf

I was at 19 islands in Edmonton a while back and they had it on there shelf.
Do your research some animals are very sensitive to the precipate. (Tangs ,clams ,filter feeders)
I like the idea but the process to remove the precipate screening and skimming had to be done right and the product needs to be added very slowly in the right amounts.
I haven’t tryed it gfo seems safer.

I think this is like the 5th time I've considered then abandoned the idea. Sorry to clog the forum lol. I read up again and recalled why I've decided against it before. It'll be gfo since it's safe. I always get excited then read lol.

I have used both GFO and FozDown products. The only difficulty I had was maintaining the phosphate at a low level and knowing how often to dose the product. It does make some clumps in the sand but if you skim - and water change it goes away. I have GFO running in my reactor atm but I am considering going away from gFo as well.

I know BRS did a video ok WWC and they control their phosphates with lanthium chloride as a primary means. For me it’s just figuring out how much and how often to dose to mirror the effects of the GFO which is always in place. I absolutely hate the $$$ associated to GFO and lanthium chloride definitely is cheaper for management.

Brett, I stopped using GFO back in the spring of - I think - 2016, and haven't looked back.
No GFO, no carbon. I dosed some liquid NO3 and PO4 for a month or so to balance stuff, then stopped using reactors for both.

Using GFO is like adding iron to your system - algae fuel.

I currently, and for the last 3 years, use nothing to combat nutrients.
I keep liquid NO3 and PO4 on hand just in case, but have used neither since Spring 2016.
My tank is a bit low on nutrients as I don't have enough fish, but my corals are doing OK.

Current params are;
Alk 8.3
Ca 420
Mag 1350
K 400
NO3 0 could be higher
PO4 0.013 could be higher

I really need more fish to feed my corals :smile:

I wonder if this is contributing to the brown dust algae on my sand and glass...interesting.

I still get algae on my sand and glass. But I no longer have issues with my rocks, nor do I have hair algae

There is always a more natural way of controlling nutrients using an ATS or chaeto in the sump.

Tim Tessier (on Canreef) sells Fozdown which is lanthanum chloride. He is a strong advocate of its use.

I have used each and every method I have mentioned above. I do not like adding chemicals or using GFO and I couldn't grow chaeto to save my life. My ATS works like a charm. I had to reduce the hours I run it to reduce the amount of nutrients it is removing from my tank.

Sounds like you have a very pure water source and a very good salt mix !👍👍