YES ecoBAK removes PHOSPHATES!!!!

Discussion in 'Warner Marine' started by Jon Warner, Sep 17, 2012.

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  1. reef fan

    reef fan Plankton

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2013
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    hi there!

    My first post here in 3 reef.
    I have a 100 gallon total water volume tank. at the moment only fish inside but I am desperately trying to lower my water params inorder for me to go for corals.

    In the begining, my No3 was 20 ppm and MY pO4 was 0.25 ppm. have successfully lowered my No3 to 1~2.5 ppm steadily for almost 8 months by sulfur denitrator. have also lower my PO4 to 0.12 to 0.16 by ROWA GFO. now I am desperate with my P04 as it stay there for also many many months. habe recently added Biopellet from ecobak with reef octopus BR110 REACTOR. its the 3rd week and have just added the 2nd 1/4 qty as per the instructions. now my questions, can I keep all these 3 system (sulfur denitrator, Rowa GFO and Biopellet) all together to help me reduce faster my No3 and Po4? is there any pros and cons by keeping all sustem togehter? I know that Sulfur Denitrator eaten up my alkalinity but I am worried if I stop it then it will tooks so long to culture the bacteria inside the reactor to reduced my No3 (in case ECOBAK biopellet dont work with my tank)
     
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  3. reef fan

    reef fan Plankton

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    p04 the most difficult to solve

    Dear ALL,

    Since no one here have respon ded to my earlier mail. I am really desperate with PO4, now my system have all 3 different mode : sulfur denitrator, Rowa GFO and Ecobak Pellet. I am trying so hard to reduced my PO4 at least to the acceptable level. my po4 now still jumping betweent he range 0.12 to 0.26 ppm. getting me feel so desperate.

    Hope ECOBAK pellet will help this time.

    Cheers,
     
  4. oldfishkeeper

    oldfishkeeper Giant Squid

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    hopefully jon will respond to your posts! Here's a bump for u!
     
  5. Pickupman66

    Pickupman66 Tassled File Fish

    Joined:
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    Ecobak will reduce phosphates and nitrates in a +-10:1 ratio. It needs nitrates to pull phosphates. Your sulfur denitrator is working against it. Take that offline so you give the Ecobak a chance to remove the nitrates.

    I have the opposite now. Nitrates are 30ppm yet phosphate is .02. I'm using a coil denitrator to pull them down. I may put in a turf scrubber.
     
  6. Pickupman66

    Pickupman66 Tassled File Fish

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    You may want to try some lantham chloride.
     
  7. Jon Warner

    Jon Warner 3reef Sponsor

    Joined:
    May 11, 2010
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    Location:
    Southern California
    Absolutely correct...

    Running a PO4 remover starves bacteria of PO4 needed to consume NO3 and NO3 removal starves bacteria of NO3 needed to consume PO4.

    Run ecoBAK by itself. Then if you still have PO4 or NO3 present when the other is ZERO you can use GFO or a DN.

    What is your NO3 reading? If your NO3 is quite low, use GFO to lower PO4. When PO4 and NO3 are balanced use ecoBAK only to keep them low.
     
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  9. Rotknee

    Rotknee Plankton

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2011
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    Location:
    Simi Valley, CA
    I have been running ecoBAK pellets for the past 2+ years and both my nitrates and phosphates have tested at 0 for the vast majority of that time. I use a Hanna P04 tester and API for the N03 (and compare against newly mixed salt water). Anyway, to my dismay I stopped testing as frequently for phosphates and started noticing a LOT more algae on the glass. To make a long story shorter, my RODI filters had not been changed and my top off and mixing water was cranking out 84PPM water. I pushed the panic button an ordered GFO, dusted off my old reactor and waited over the weekend for my supplies to arrive.

    Here is the interesting part of the story. Based on my calculations the tank had been topped off and water changes had been made with the bad RODI water for at least 45-60 days (note this is a 200g system with 30 gal water changes bi-weekly). Over the past 5 days my phosphate tests revealed the following:

    Thursday: .17ppm (30g water change with new 0PPM RODI water)
    Friday: .20ppm (ordered GFO from Marine Depot)
    Saturday: .13ppm
    Sunday: Did not test
    Monday: Tested .08ppm;D (Decided NOT to use GFO. Going to feed a bit more in an attempt to keep phosphates low ~.05-.01ppm)

    I would also like to add that I am using about 750ml of ecoBAK with a s-l-o-w tumble. Normally I run about 900-1100ml of pellets and fight to keep my SPS from looking pale by feeding more. I also realize that there could have been a host of things in play that could have helped lower my phosphates. What is amazing to me is that my phosphates were not higher given the fact that I was using bad RODI water for the last two months.