Serious PO4 problems. Help!

I'm wondering if it would make a difference if you were to only mix the amount of salt water that you need and let it mix for 24 hours and then use it all then. Leaving the container empty until you are ready to mix again for your next WC.

 

This is all making alot of sense.... I was thinking about the impact that GFO has on the bacterial biomass of my system and what you are saying really solidifies my thoughts. I am a strong believer in keeping things as natural as possible and the only reason why I was running so much GFO was because I absolutely had to! The addition of another refugium with lots of rubble rock in this system will be very helpful. This also makes perfect sense that Paul didnt encounter any problems! With 1500 healthy gallons in his basement his biomass was huge to say the least. There was enough bacteria waiting to metabolize the PO4. He also fed extremely heavily without even rinsing his frozen bloodworms and mysis. He didnt have to. As far as the snot bubbly stringy cyano, I have it in my 30. Right as I started to increase my GFO when my corals were becoming noticably damaged by the high PO4 levels I began noticing small patches of this cyano. Its the first time this tank has ever seen cyano so I attributed it to the decrease in PO4 due to the GFO usage... I think we have lots to talk about Trent. Haha.

 

Thanks for the offer Todd! I am already running a dual stage reactor thats filled with GFO. You will have to see some of my new toys that I set up when you are over next!

 

Hit me up after Monday. Then I will have results back from the iron assay and will hopefully be able to put this to rest.

 

I thought about this as well. Ill probably do this for my next water change after I strip the water already in my containers of PO4. Any thoughts on running carbon in the reactor as well? There will be a bit of space left over and I buy carbon in bulk so I could easily throw a bit in there. Im not sure what benefit it would have if any, but input is helpful.

 

Will do! Thanks!

 

I wouldnt run carbon. It has the ability to strip trace elements from your freshly mixed saltwater.

 

If this is true. Would it not remove those traces from our tanks?

 

I came to the same conclusion after talking to another reefer who encountered the same problem. I installed my GFO reactor today and will be testing first thing in the morning to see if the water is useable or atleast if there was a significant drop in PO4. Which I know there will be.

 

Yes it does. But in our tanks there are all kinds of things using those trace elements before the carbon can get to them all. Unlike if you just had water with carbon running.