Well i ordered the BRS phosban reactor recently and should be here in a couple days. i am having one concern though. i dont have a phosphate test kit so i don't know the actual phosphates in my water but i figured it wouldn't hurt to start running one. but after a little research i saw that some people had positive effects and negative effects when it came to their coral. i just started putting sps in my tank and i don't want the phosban to bleach out the sps which i read on some articles that, that hasn't happened to people. i don't really have any algae other then this mat like green algae that grows on my sand. do you guys think i will be ok running the phosban reactor. should i just do half doses to start? or just wait it out until my tank really has a bad algae problem then start running it. thanks guys sorry for the long read lol.
Phosban Dilemma
- Thread starter Jarrett
- Start date
- Location
- Mt Sinai, NY
Use less than recommended until u get a test kit.
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Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk
- Location
- Mt Sinai, NY
If u set it up right, should be no problem. I use ROWAphos, seems to be more forgiving.
Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk
Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk
Jarrett, as I told you before. Start with a small amount, and increase it little by little once you get the kit. I told you that is the way I started out, because I didn't have a P04 kit for a few years.
From what I have read of the corals suffering has always been when people use way to much media. This will happen regardless of the media you choose.
BTW, not having algae does not mean that you do not have phosphates in your tank. I had pretty high P04 with no algae for a while. Now my P04 is at 0.03, and I just found some darn aiptasia in my overflows. Go figure.lol
From what I have read of the corals suffering has always been when people use way to much media. This will happen regardless of the media you choose.
BTW, not having algae does not mean that you do not have phosphates in your tank. I had pretty high P04 with no algae for a while. Now my P04 is at 0.03, and I just found some darn aiptasia in my overflows. Go figure.lol
- Location
- Franklin Square, NY
w/o a test I would start with about 1/4 the recommended amount and gradually increase it carefully watching your corals and alk levels...too much media will strip the water too fast and also will play havoc with the alk levels..
- Location
- Rocky Point, NY
I WOULDN'T ADD ANYTHING INCLUDING NEW EQUIPMENT WITHOUT TESTING FIRST. If you don't have any PO4 in ur tank, why would you add something to strip them out? IMO, only bad things come from NOT testing FIRST.
well every tank has PO4 and i am sure mine is no exception. and i will start light like you recommended AWI i was just doing some reading last night and read some bad stories about having negative effects with the reactor. but it makes sense if they used to much media so i am going to start very slowly with it, thanks everyone.
Hey, why you screaming my name?LOL:kidding:
Start with a really small amount, and keep an eye on your corals.
Get the P04 tester as soon as you can buddy. You'll be fine, some of us do tend to fret over everything. Better to be overly concerned, then not concerned at all.
Start with a really small amount, and keep an eye on your corals.
Get the P04 tester as soon as you can buddy. You'll be fine, some of us do tend to fret over everything. Better to be overly concerned, then not concerned at all.
- Location
- Middle Village, Queens
I thought corals hated phosphates and high levels usually led to algae problems...
How did you keep the algae at bay?
Yes, corals (mostly sps) hate high levels of phosphates, and yes you are correct on high levels of phosphates lead to to algae outbreaks.
I was, better said my tank was blessed that the algae choose my overflows to grow in.:shhh: Seriously I have no idea how my tank escaped the algae problems. I think that by it growing in the overflows it actually helped to clean up the phosphates. That, and my continuous weekly to bi-weekly water changes had something to do with it as well. A few months back I decided to start up my gfo & carbon reactors. At that point my P04 was at .14ppms, as of last night it is at .03ppms. I just found some aiptasia on the inside wall of one of my overflow. So as you can see I haven't totally escaped all the problems. Now I have to figure out a way of getting those pesky aiptasia out of my overflow.:scratchch
- Location
- Rocky Point, NY
Not so true...
Just did a PO4 test on my tank the other day using API PO4 test kit.
Results:
0ppm.
- Location
- Rocky Point, NY
I don't use carbon, gfo, or phosban. Let my macros take care of as much as possible. I have only added carbon when I had to move rock or anything that disturbed my sand bed (used to keep a 6" sand bed, now...i just have it bare bottom, for now).
- Location
- Mt Sinai, NY
API test don't mean 0...just means that your phosphates are low.
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- Location
- Rocky Point, NY
Low enough that it doesn't register. Back to the aft statement.
I just don't see a need to add equipment or chemicals when he doesn't even have a test kit to get an idea. Test first, add later. Don't know how anyone could say it's a good idea to start stripping something out of the water that may BARELY exist. At least to have an idea HOW SLOW to start. Just MO.
- Location
- Merrick, NY
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the concern of bleaching in corals in relation to removing elements from the water due to the clarity of the water allowing more light to penetrate down to the coral and shocking them? If you were to slowly remove the phosphates and other unwanted elements Nitrates you could avoid bleaching? This would mean taking out some of the phosban and adding amounts at a slower rate. This is from some reading I've done recently prior to adding purigen. If I'm wrong please someone feel free to jump in and correct me.
- Location
- Howell, NJ
:lol2:
PeteyboyNY, do you have anyone near you with a phosphate meter that would be willing to test your water? If you do, and they are willing to run 3 individual test to get a medium you may be very surprised..
The OP has his reasons for wanting to run some gfo.
The OP has his reasons for wanting to run some gfo.
ok so after some reasearch i think i am going to go with the rowaphos, it seems to be the most forgiving like mbg said. so i am going to give that a try. they all seem to do the same thing and dont cause issues unless like awi stated you put to much in which i deff will not do, so i think it will go smoothly i get the reactor today ill update you guys when i get it running.
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