Did I unlock all the phosphate from 100#s of live rock?

[excell007]

Still leaching, but the jump when I skip a day is becoming less and less. When I skipped last week it jumped up by .35ppm, but today it only jumped by .20ppm and after skipping a day. I think in a couple of weeks my phosphate will be low enough (including bound) that I can switch to maintenance mode.

 

[Daddy-o]

Still leaching, but the jump when I skip a day is becoming less and less. When I skipped last week it jumped up by .35ppm, but today it only jumped by .20ppm and after skipping a day. I think in a couple of weeks my phosphate will be low enough (including bound) that I can switch to maintenance mode.

Nice! I thought I was making good progress when I was at .06 this morning. Added todays dose and tonight it was .12

 

[jccaclimber]

Yea they said things will be scarce til after the pandemic. Just ordered 100 Astraea from https://www.mysaltwaterfishstore.com will see how they do.
Cheers! Mark

Let me know how those come in, I might do the same if they arrive well.

 

[Daddy-o]

Let me know how those come in, I might do the same if they arrive well.

Will do. The price wasnt bad, $60 plus $29 shipping and then a 15% discount for first time buyer. For 100 snails

 

[piranhaman00]

I just spray it with a garden hose with nozzle. I insert it on a length of 3 inch PVC pipe and spray the outside. I think it can get most of the precipitate because the water which I collect on a salt bucket is really cloudy on the first pass. When the water becomes clear, I assume it's clean, then air dry it.

It’s been a while since I used or washed filter socks, but I would turn them inside out and put them on the normal cycle in my (front loading) washer. The pilled a bit, but nothing notable otherwise. Why do you think your sock is destroyed?

I turn them inside out and run a couple times in the washer without soap. No dryer, its just gonna get wet again.

I put them in the wash with bleach. Then rinsed again without bleach and dried. They got full of lint from the fish towels I washed at the same time and still smells bleachy. IDK seems sketchy.

 

[Daddy-o]

I put them in the wash with bleach. Then rinsed again without bleach and dried. They got full of lint from the fish towels I washed at the same time and still smells bleachy. IDK seems sketchy.

I dont use any bleach. Does it help them get cleaner? I mean besides getting whiter.

 

[piranhaman00]

I dont use any bleach. Does it help them get cleaner? I mean besides getting whiter.

Not sure, you wash with no cleaner at all? Just water?

 

[Daddy-o]

Not sure, you wash with no cleaner at all? Just water?

No soap/bleacher or any chemical. Inside out and the hot, hot water. no dryer either. I try to set the washer to the most aggressive cycle. And I throw in my reef towels so there is more than a couple sox

 

[piranhaman00]

No soap/bleacher or any chemical. Inside out and the hot, hot water. no dryer either. I try to set the washer to the most aggressive cycle. And I throw in my reef towels so there is more than a couple sox

Ok thanks, Ill try that next time. The sock was caked full of white precipitant!

My Po4 only rose to about 0.5ppm this last time. I dosed again this weekend to 0ppm. Carefully this time with fresh socks

 

[jccaclimber]

Unsure on the lint (I'm not hugely concerned), but the bleach is a definite no. Another rinse cycle, or simply some time in a bucket of water with dechlor will solve that. When using the dechlor you know you have enough (might be a bunch) when the bleach smell suddenly vanishes. Leaven them out in the sun might resolve that as well, but I haven't tried. When I've washed socks they were the only thing in the load.

 

[piranhaman00]

Unsure on the lint (I'm not hugely concerned), but the bleach is a definite no. Another rinse cycle, or simply some time in a bucket of water with dechlor will solve that. When using the dechlor you know you have enough (might be a bunch) when the bleach smell suddenly vanishes. Leaven them out in the sun might resolve that as well, but I haven't tried. When I've washed socks they were the only thing in the load.

Im gonna toss the sock and wash with just water from now on, thanks!

 

[Daddy-o]

I am at a bit of a crossroads. My reef is in my detached garage (unheated). it was 36 degrees outside last night. While I do have insulating panels for the tanks, leaving the reef open so that I can run a sock, the tanks dropped 5 degrees last night and have not been able to recover the temp loss today. I really want to continue to get the phosphates down, but cannot have a 5 degree swing with all the acros we are growing. I think I am going to stop using the sock for now and go back to dripping into the overflow feeding the sump. This way I can have the reef all insulated and continue with LC. With the Phosphate hovering at approx. .1 , I think I will just do a maint. dose to remove .025 from the system twice a day for a while.
The 2 other issues I have with the sock is that I know it is catching pods, and since I carbon dose, I get a lot of bacteria living in my return lines. I like to flush them late every night to feed the corals but the sock blocks half the system and the snot clogs the sock.
Cheers! Mark

 

[Ls7corvete]

I am at a bit of a crossroads. My reef is in my detached garage (unheated). it was 36 degrees outside last night. While I do have insulating panels for the tanks, leaving the reef open so that I can run a sock, the tanks dropped 5 degrees last night and have not been able to recover the temp loss today. I really want to continue to get the phosphates down, but cannot have a 5 degree swing with all the acros we are growing. I think I am going to stop using the sock for now and go back to dripping into the overflow feeding the sump. This way I can have the reef all insulated and continue with LC. With the Phosphate hovering at approx. .1 , I think I will just do a maint. dose to remove .025 from the system twice a day for a while.
The 2 other issues I have with the sock is that I know it is catching pods, and since I carbon dose, I get a lot of bacteria living in my return lines. I like to flush them late every night to feed the corals but the sock blocks half the system and the snot clogs the sock.
Cheers! Mark

Been following the thread, though I admit I did not read it all.

Have you considered gfo/cheato/carbon dosing? Sounds like you have made a big difference, perhaps you don't need something as strong as the LaCl any longer.

 

[Daddy-o]

Been following the thread, though I admit I did not read it all.

Have you considered gfo/cheato/carbon dosing? Sounds like you have made a big difference, perhaps you don't need something as strong as the LaCl any longer.

I do carbon dose- about 150ml of vinegar a day (200g system). I tried several times to grow chaeto and it always died so I put skimmer #2 of 3 into the chaeto section of the sump. As for GFO, I have spent hundreds on GFO and PhosGuard and neither of them seemed to help as much as the LC. I would really like to get my phosphate to be at .05 or less with LC before using GFO again.
Cheers! Mark

 

[Ls7corvete]

I do carbon dose- about 150ml of vinegar a day (200g system). I tried several times to grow chaeto and it always died so I put skimmer #2 of 3 into the chaeto section of the sump. As for GFO, I have spent hundreds on GFO and PhosGuard and neither of them seemed to help as much as the LC. I would really like to get my phosphate to be at .05 or less with LC before using GFO again.
Cheers! Mark

Wow, keep up the good work! Don't give up on cheato

 

[Daddy-o]

Wow, keep up the good work! Don't give up on cheato

Thanks, dont think I will ever try chaeto again. My nitrates are at 7 and once I get the phosphates under control, I will be happy

 

[jccaclimber]

Can you wrap a plastic bag/towel around the perimeter of the sock to cut down airflow? I'm assuming the issue is that you have excess cooling due to not being able to run lids.
(Edit: Not that it gets much below 40°F in where I am in the city just north of you, but my apartment here had a heater that I had to leave turned off whenever I wasn't home, so it got pretty cold if I was gone for the weekend. I don't have lids that fit around my skimmer, so I just used a couple towels to cover the opening. It wasn't a perfect seal, but worked very well.)

 

[Daddy-o]

Can you wrap a plastic bag/towel around the perimeter of the sock to cut down airflow? I'm assuming the issue is that you have excess cooling due to not being able to run lids.
(Edit: Not that it gets much below 40°F in where I am in the city just north of you, but my apartment here had a heater that I had to leave turned off whenever I wasn't home, so it got pretty cold if I was gone for the weekend. I don't have lids that fit around my skimmer, so I just used a couple towels to cover the opening. It wasn't a perfect seal, but worked very well.)

Thats a great idea!

 

[Daddy-o]

This calculator was posted in another thread and I thought it would be handy

http://larryl.emailplus.org/fish/dosing-instructions-phosphate-removers.html

 

[George81]

I just followed the calculator and tried to drip 1.8ml of phosphate e mixed with 100ml of rodi water into the 5 micron filter sock and by drip I mean I knocked the bottle over so it all got added at once.....so far no cloudiness and my tangs look ok. I’m a bit nervous....I’m such a delinquent but good thing it all went into the filter sock. Hopefully I can see something below .1. The calculator said I should get down to 0.03 with a 1.8ml dose. I’ll test in a few hours...