Question Regarding Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO).

[JaysLittleOcean]

Well my wife and I have finally decided that we will be looking for a new home in about 2 years time. She also has said that once we close on the new house that I can build the aquarium of my dreams! With that being said my current setup still requires a few pieces of equipment and I'm looking to purchase them once so I want to be able to size them accordingly to handle my new system. So my question is this. I'm going to purchase a GFO Reactor that will be able to handle a 1,000 gallon system. I was curious to know can I fill it with more GFO than is needed to decrease the amount of time required before changing when the media is exhausted?

 

[Clink51]

my personal input is put the desired amount or slightly more. that way it tumbles correctly. to much may prevent tumbling. but i could be wrong lol.

 

[Boomer]

GFO is NOT suppose to tumble, same with GAC. It causes fracturing of the grains and you will collect a lot fines, whic turn to almost like cement. It is fine to use more, just dont get carried away, often more does not mean better. The grains should be barley moving. Often mixing in a little GAC, acting as air space, can often stop the cement like process.

 

[greg 45]

Running gfo on a 1000 gallon system , depending on how high or what level you want to keep it at. This can run you a fortune. My system is 1200 gallons. I keep mine in check with lanthiumchloride sold at pool stores made by seakleer . There are many articles out there on this subject. Read them and pay attention to dosing and collect the effluent into a fine filter sock. Hope this helps.

 

[Mattl22]

Greg I get a film on top my water when I use it when my po4 gets high ill use it to knock it down then run Gfo to keep it steady it eventually goes up and ill repeat but I wonder if it messes with my sps

 

[greg 45]

These are my finding with lanthium . To start off with / to show you the bi-product of using this product. Take one of your test kit vile's and fill with water don't care about the amount . Put in one drop of seaklear and shake , let it sit oh 1/2 to 1 hour you will find very fine powder on the bottom of test solution. This is what you are trying to keep out of your tank. If tank clouds or any other strange reactions you are dosing to much or to fast. Any other questions please ask. I have helped more than a hand full of people using this with no problems to anemones or sps fish. What ever you are trying to keep.

 

[Boomer]

Lanthanum chloride works fine as Greg pointed out. Joe has been using it at the Long Island 20,000 Aquarium for over a decade.

It is best not to add it to the tank per- say but the sump. Add at least a 5 micro sock to the sump effluent to collect the fines. The skimmer should also help out at removing fines that make it past the sock. Let it run for a few hrs and then pull the sock and take note what it has collect. Lanthanum phosphate appears as a whitish precip. Also check your Alk when done, as Lanthanium also binds of carbonate and borate.

 

[bklynreef]

I Think i might be the only one that lets it tumble and use a vibration mechanism for 1 minute every hour to move the GFO around. IME i found the GFO just sits and there are air canals that they pass through not really being able to use the GFO you have in the reactor. Now yes they do get ground up a little by having contact but those particles dont reach the sump since i have it passing through a 100 micron sock once and then through my main set of 100 micron socks. It needs to be cleaned every 3-4 days but i noticed my PO4 is more stable and im changing the media a lot less also. Im not advocating this method but it has worked for me. Like everyone said you dont want the particles in your tank so regardless i would think to have it pass through a sock, my carbon reactor also goes through this sock as well in case any carbon granules get through. just my 2 cents fwiw

 

[ducati335i]

I run seperate bags full of it in my sump.. 10 cups added slowly over 10 days every two months.. I hated the reactor.. I also dose vodka, bac7 and vinegar. This is what works on my 700 g total system, I feed heavy and have close to 30 fish, mixed reef