? on PhosBan

I had an outbreak of GHA and it is almost gone. I was told to get PhosBan or Rowaphos. LFS only had PhosBan.

So I don't know how much 50 grams is. It says to use 50g to 50 gal. I only have a 12 gal so I only need like 12 grams. It does say you can use 5x the recommended dosage, but it could raise your ALK.

But I still don't know how to figure grams.

 

a level leaspoon has about 5 grammes in it , Sadie

and yes adding to much at one time could result in Alk drop and could also result in zooxanthellia (symbiotic algae in coral) vacating the coral so it bleaches

as you have no corals you dont need to worry about second aspect at this stage

how are you going to run it? do you have reactor or are you running in pouch in filter?

Steve

 

I don't have a reactor, but the jug came with a media bag so I was going to put it in that and put it where I usually keep my purigen bag. They were out of the purigen bags so I got the stuff to recharge it. I will start that tonight.

 

So should I put abput 3-4 level teaspoons in the bag? Or just use more where I don't have any coral.

I did just put my clown fish back in there, should I move him back to my 6 gal?

 

the GFO wont bother the fish IME

yes I think 3 - 4 teaspoons would be a good start on that sized tank
do you have a phosphate test kit?

I would then throw away that GFO after 2 weeks and replace with another 3 - 4 teaspoons
I would repeat that every 2 weeks until the GFO was starved out , showed signs of fading and dying back

thereafter once you have acheived 0 phosphates in the water column, you could run the Phosban for up to 1 month between changes
and longer if you used a bit more

the danger in exceeding QTY aside from Alk drop is rapid reduction of nutrient
once they are at 0 , you cant reduce further anyway, so having a bit extra GFO is generally safe once you reach that stage IME

but those test Kits, mag, calc and alk will be a positive investment for when you start adding corals
testing each week, will certainly give you a heads up if you are developing any issues with Alk and the qty of GFO being used

Steve

 

I don't have a phosphate kit, but I have all the others you mention. I brought my water to my LFS to make sure MY kits were still acurate. I asked them to check for phosphates and they were at 0, but they would be anyway because of my GHA, right? Doesn't having the GHA mean I have phosphates, but they eat it or something causing my test to read 0, even though I have them.

 

you have that correct Sadie

the phosphate they are using now - some of it was trapped in the rock
hence GHA thrives on rockwork as its roots can extract the GHA from there ( it also does well on acrylic and plastics so as you state there must be some in the water that they are utilising as quick as its being generated)

as the GHA dies off, some of the Phosphates get released into the water
and the Phosban hopefully absorbs it at a faster rate than the algae can utilise it - hence the need for frequent changes when you start using it, as with Phoban and all other GFO products, you cant tell when they are exhuasted and this can happen quickly with a small QTY, hence changing often, means you always have Phosphate absorbing capacity left in the Phosban being used

if you leave it to long, then the GHA takes advantage of the fact there are surplus phosphates in the water again

if the GHA starts to grow back more rapidly, then increasing the frequency of changing can help to compensate IME

Steve

 

ahh, I see. Thanks.

I'm going to manualy remove what I can and I'm hoping the PhosBan will keep it from growing back.

 

Start with 1/2 the recommended dosage or 5 grams per 10 gallons of water to begin with so you don't shock your system. TLF Phosban also recommends this and I though it was included in the directions that come with the reactor. Use half the dosage and change it more often at first then work up to the full 10 grams per 10 gallons over several weeks.

 

AZDesertrat

there are no corals in system as yet?
do you still think the half dose is required?

I figured as I knew she had no corals, that she could tidy it up quicker before corals where in?

Steve