What am I doing wrong? lanthanum chloride solutions to control PO4

[tgrick]

I like to keep my PO4 in check. We all do. When I run GFO life is good. But I'm restless and like to try new things. Enter Phosban or Phosphate E. I do my research and off I go. I buy not one but a few 1 micron filter socks. I go to my local fish store in the cloud and buy my IV drip bag. I find a nice calculator online to figure out how much LC I need to drip to control my levels. I use this online calculator:

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

I set up a micron sock in the sump. My Phosphate is higher than I like at .10, so according to the calculator (100 gallon tank) if I want to bring it down to .03 I need to dose .9 ML. I fill my IV bag with RODI water, about 500ml. Then I add the .9 ML of Phosphate E with the RODI water in the IV bag. I then drip this solution INTO the 1 micron filter sock. I have a submersible pump in the sump adding water into the same filter sock I am dripping the solution. I drip slowly over hours. Now the exciting part. I test my PO4 (Hanna) and the phosphate test shows PO4 is higher, say .12! Did I remove the GFO from the system. Yes, no GFO or carbon is running. The skimmer is running as is my roller mat.

What am I doing wrong? Why is my phosphate not lower?

 

[Sean Clark]

You said .9ml phosphate e, .9ml being the half dose correct? Which should put you around .07 not .12

Just making sure I have your numbers correct.

Was the water cloudy at all? My guess is that the Lanthanum was contained to the filtersock and was not able to bind with the phosphate in outside of the sock.

Dose the next other .9ml into the display or sump. I'll bet you get the results that you should.

 

[tgrick]

Yes, typing quickly and not thinking it all through is not a good combination. So yes, .9 was 50%. You are correct. Interesting idea to dose directly. I'll give that a try in a few weeks and see what happens. I'm running GFO now and don't see the need to remove it until it's exhausted. At least based on what I have read, you should not run GFO and liquid phosphate remover at the same time.

 

[Sean Clark]

I just dose it straight into sump by the return pump. I've been doing it for years without issue. No dilution, no drops. Knocks the po4 right down where it is supposed to. I also use my regular 100 micron socks and they work fine. Hopefully your next attempt goes better in a few weeks. Good luck.

 

[jassermd]

I dose directly into the chamber that my socks are in, but not in the sock... full dose and it works well. If socks don't catch the precipitate, the skimmer in the next section will...

 

[brmc1985]

I like to keep my PO4 in check. We all do. When I run GFO life is good. But I'm restless and like to try new things. Enter Phosban or Phosphate E. I do my research and off I go. I buy not one but a few 1 micron filter socks. I go to my local fish store in the cloud and buy my IV drip bag. I find a nice calculator online to figure out how much LC I need to drip to control my levels. I use this online calculator:

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

I set up a micron sock in the sump. My Phosphate is higher than I like at .10, so according to the calculator (100 gallon tank) if I want to bring it down to .03 I need to dose .9 ML. I fill my IV bag with RODI water, about 500ml. Then I add the .9 ML of Phosphate E with the RODI water in the IV bag. I then drip this solution INTO the 1 micron filter sock. I have a submersible pump in the sump adding water into the same filter sock I am dripping the solution. I drip slowly over hours. Now the exciting part. I test my PO4 (Hanna) and the phosphate test shows PO4 is higher, say .12! Did I remove the GFO from the system. Yes, no GFO or carbon is running. The skimmer is running as is my roller mat.

What am I doing wrong? Why is my phosphate not lower?

Accuracy of the tester is +- .04. Test again and see what it says. When I test mine I run the same sample and test 3 times and just average it out. The results can vary between the exact same samples.