rowaphos help

[makana]

I have a phosban reactor coming with some rowaphos. Can anyone tell me what is a safe amount to start off with in a system that is about 25g? I don't want to shock anything by dropping the phosphate too fast.

[NIVLEM09]

for my 33 gallon sps tank.i use 100 ml of rowaphos.

[makana]

Any other suggestions/advice?

[FitoPharmer]

I suggest if you are really interested or worried, buy a PO4 colorimeter, test, and add media based on those results. If your PO4 is really high start with a 1/10 of the suggested amount for your tank and slowly move up from there. You are correct in thinking using to much GFO or phosrowa at the beginning has the potential to shock your system. But that is based upon how high or low your current phosphate levels are. Or just play it safe and slowly add more to your reactor until you reach the recommended amount without testing. Do you have bad algae problems now? or is your tank relatively algae free?

[xenon]

We had success with 250ml on our 150g SPS system before switching to Fauna Marin Ultra Phos.

I would agree with FitoPharmer. Get yourself a Hanna Phosphorus meter to keep an eye on things. If it drops PO4 too fast, you can always unplug the reactor or run it every 12hrs on a timer.

[Xadieu]

If you had read the instructions and made a simple calculation you would have gotten your answer.

Rowaphos instructions clearly states that you use 100 grams for every 100 gallons of saltwater.

1 grams = 1 ml
15 ml = 1 tbps

your tank would require 2 tablespoon of rowaphos

[makana]

Xadieu, I DID READ the instructions and don't appreciate such an un-called for response. There is really no need at all for that. The instructions DO NOT state that 100 grams is what you use for 100g of water, they state that is the amount that will remove 3ppm from that volume of water. Yes I can do the math to figure out how much that is for my volume of water, but that does not tell me what level to start out with to not shock the corals by dropping PO4 too fast.

FitoPharmer, xenon, thank you for your help. I do have algea issues that I have been fighting with for way too long. I'm not sure a hanna checker would help find a starting point as the po4 is probably being used up. I am working off the assumption that stored po4 is being leached. I'm hoping to slowly reduce po4 without shocking anything and over time remove the stored po4. I think I will do what you have suggested and just start slow and increase over time to see how it goes.

I read an article by Myka that suggested starting at 1 gram / gallon. Since that is the only suggested starting point I have been able to find I will give it a shot.

[Treebeard]

Is Ultra Phos "better" than Rowaphos?

Originally Posted by xenon

We had success with 250ml on our 150g SPS system before switching to Fauna Marin Ultra Phos.

I would agree with FitoPharmer. Get yourself a Hanna Phosphorus meter to keep an eye on things. If it drops PO4 too fast, you can always unplug the reactor or run it every 12hrs on a timer.

[Xadieu]

Originally Posted by makana

Xadieu, I DID READ the instructions and don't appreciate such an un-called for response. There is really no need at all for that. The instructions DO NOT state that 100 grams is what you use for 100g of water, they state that is the amount that will remove 3ppm from that volume of water. Yes I can do the math to figure out how much that is for my volume of water, but that does not tell me what level to start out with to not shock the corals by dropping PO4 too fast.

Sorry if you feel that I was being straight forward, I did not mean to insult you in anyway. But the instruction does clearly state that 100g for 100g of salt-water. If your phosphate levels are high you got to find out the source of the problem such as using tap water, live rocks leaching phosphate into the water or over feeding. Using GFO is only a temporarily solution and will not solve your problem, plus in order to starve out your algae it will take time.

According to the description it does indicate that if your tank has high phosphate you should be using 2-4 times less the amount they recommend. Since GFO needs a slight tumble, the flow to push 30 grams of rowaphos is very low so it's not going to cycle all your water volume so fast in a short period of time. Like Xenon said you could always turn off your reactor if you feel it's dropping down too fast but IMO with that much return rate your corals woudln't come into a shock plus lps/softies are hardy corals.

Another tip is maybe you should use HC GFO, it is much cheaper since rowaphos is over priced for the amount they give you plus rowa is damped so the weight is slightly heavier than indicated. If you use HC GFO you can use BRS GFO calculator to calculate how much volume you need to use for the size of your tank.

Good luck with your tank and let us know if you have any problems!

[makana]

Thank you! That was very helpful. The instructions I had said 3ppm is what that amount removed. That was all it said, nothing about reducing the amount. I got that from their website. I have it on order so don't have the instructions it comes with yet. I figured their website would have the same instructions. I wanted to have it figured out by the time it all arrives.