Lanthanum Chloride Started

[TORX]

Started dosing lanthanum chloride today directly into my skimmer via the ozone port on the skimmer intake.

I have it set to 5 ml a day over 6 doses of 1liter with 5ml lanthanum chloride mixture. I would like to hear from others who use this and what they are doing. My current gfo is about exhausted, so taking it offline shortly.

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[Pistol]

I found that dosing smaller amounts more often was not as good as dosing larger amounts less often, I also found it was leaving a residue inside the skimmer so I went back to the 5uM sock. I also found that once you get the po4 down to less than .05 it was less effective so I started regenerating my GFO again and started using it to maintain.
I just built an algae scrubber so my GFO is offline to see if the scrubber can maintain my po4.

 

[heath]

I hear ppl talk about the algae scrubbers, I am stupid but, what do they look like and what is the advantage...

 

[Pistol]

There are many variations, you grow algae in a controlled manner to remove nutrients. Here's a good link
https://www.algaescrubbing.com/

 

[AdInfinitum]

I agree with pistol...the precipitate that forms is very "sticky" and tends to coat things. I am still working on a dedicated lanthanum chloride reactor design that I like...but it will use socks as the primary removal method.

IMO the fact that it becomes less effective as PO4 concentration drops (a larger percentage of the lanthanum reacts with carbonate) is one of the most attractive features as it never strips the phosphate too low or too quickly as especially HC GFO can. I have personally found that my growth and colours were always at their best as my GFO was getting exhausted although I have had no problem going well below .05 ppm. At this point however I am only experimenting on a very small scale so I am far from swearing by it...just hopeful...

 

[TORX]

All great advice. I will keep it up for a short while until I stock up on GFO and use it once a month or so if needed. Too many other things coming up at home draining my funds right now and grossly cutting into my hobby funds. I like the idea of regen on the gfo. I have seen it done and I think I will start that up in the future. It is a lot of work though.

I understand that lanthanum will not get it ultra low on its own. That is one plus is that it will not strip it to UL levels on its own like HC GFO will.