Lanthanum chloride for PO4 regulation

For those unfamiliar with the chemical, it is used in the pool industry to lower phosphates.
Large aquariums such as the Georgia aquarium and Joe Y. At Atlantis as well as others use this product for phosphate control.

Hobbyists have documented small doses in home aquaria with very positive results with none to very minimal stress on organisms. The method is a small monthly dose to control phosphates. These hobbyists have eradicated or severely reduced their gfo use additionally. I would like to try this also so I am looking for any input to see if any of you guys have used this?

 

I think filtering out the precipitate is the reason it hasn't become popular. How were you thinking if doing this?


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I've used it for years. You wouldn't believe how bad some people let their tanks get. Then they are going to have a holiday party or some other event at their house and they want their tank looking awesome in 3 weeks.

I don't dose into the tank. If I have the ability to dial back the return flow, I'll really slow down the flow in the sump and I'll dose there. If I can't slow the flow from the tank, I'll put it into the overflows. I want to siphon out all precipitate, or as much as possible. (This is beyond the scope of this thread. If people want to discuss this, the reason I want the precipitate out is because bacteria are very capable of re-liberating these adsorbed phosphates).

I don't consider it as an either/or proposition. Proper use of this and GFO complement each other. For SPS keepers, it has similar rules as GFO. If you drop P too fast, they WILL get mad.....so start SLOW and PHASE IT IN.

EDIT: Rather than going to the pool/spa store, I recommend using products for our hobby (Blue Life Phosphate Control, Caribsea Phos-Buster Pro, etc). If you're not good at math/chemistry you will be in a much safer position than using LaCl3 and diluting yourself.

 

Very good info here! Thanks for tha awesome input curt

So after some research I am finding that the LaPO4 is between 10 and 50 microns. I am considering dosing a dilute solution in my overflow (probably half concentration as compared to what Joe Y uses) and having that run through a 10 micron filter sock and then into my skimmer chamber.
The thing is, I don't need to lower my levels by much because my GFO keeps them low already. I am looking to use it maybe once a month so that I can save a few dollars on my GFO expenses...

 

nice article from coral magazine here:
Foiling Phosphate | Coral Magazine

 

I have never read that article before but will tonight. I saw a couple of headlines indicating some of the things I mentioned so at least you are getting your info from two INDEPENDENT sources. I've never read Joe's formula before either. I just experimented and figured out what worked for me. I didn't come upon this product via anyone in the hobby/industry. I remembered when I house-sat for some friends while they were out of the country years ago. I called them up and said, "What's that stuff I used to knock the phosphates down in your pool and spa?". I then researched and then after that, did my own experimentation.

 

In most of my applications, I've dosed prior to doing a waterchange. For some of this water that I'm changing, I'm siphoning out the precipitate. One one really large tank, I set up a drip and I actually used a 1 micron filter bag from Aquatic Ecosystems. I had an employee who would change this out twice a day because the client was 1 mile from his house. (Using a 1 micron filter bag comes with it's own consequences so understand them before ever purchasing this item. Understand Lanthanum Chloride fully as well). I was only using it as A TEMPORARY MEASURE.

Again, I'm offering a warning. Make sure you understand what you are doing with this chemical. You CAN nuke your tank. I don't ever want someone who has been doing this hobby for six months ever coming back to me saying, "Inwall said it was fine". It is NOT fine. If you don't understand it, don't use it.

 

I apologize if this is covered in the coral article, but I won't have a chance to read it until latter. Anyways, how do you fine tune GFO with lanthium? For example, our phosphate test kits are pretty limited. So, if you used lanthium to get the bulk of the PO4 and then used the GFO to mop up the rest, there shouldn't be any excess lanthanum. Right? And extra GFO just mens it will start removing other things, such as silicate, metals etc... So, no harm really I think. However, if you get the numbers low with GFO and then use lanthium, then it would seem that you'd risk overdosing as the test kit will not provide you with accurate enough results on the lower end of the range. So, what is he potential effect of the excess lanthium?


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I haven't read the article yet myself but will tonight.

I don't use hobbyist titration test kits. My attitude is that if you get a P reading on those, you're in for a world of hurt. I use a professional Hach Spectrophotometer.

 

I use the Hanna photometer. My phosphates have a large range but i use that to determine when to change out GFO. Typically i find my acros to slow down growth when my phosphates rise to around .20ppm so i always change when P levels approach that.
After a change I will ideally observe a drop to around .06ppm to .08ppm (which is still "acceptable") and i always see an elevation in growth rates the day or two following this drop... but i cannot achieve lower than that (probably because i am not running a fuge or sandbed anymore). I would want to use a very low concentration of LaCl to try and kick this number down to hopefully around .02ppm

my pool store has a test kit that goes down to ppb for phosphates but it comes out to a little over a dollar per test $$$. I may consider getting the kit just to try it tho

if this is successful then i would also consider trying doing a very small LaCl dose in the middle to see if it helps the GFO last longer or if i can reduce the amount of GFO used. not really sure on this last part, just thinking out loud