Phosphate Control

[Pistol]

I have been dosing LaCl3 for @ 1 year now and thought I would share my results and observations. I started dosing LaCl3 because HC GFO was so expensive and my attempts at regenerating it with the method I found on Advanced Aquarist wasn't working http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/10/chemistry, and actually was making matters worse as I was basically dosing PO4 back into my system instead of removing it, my PO4 had crept up over 1.2 ppm before I noticed what was happening. So I started dosing LaCl3, I was diluting 10ml LaCl3 in 1l rodi and dosing it hourly with a BRS pump into a 30 gal tank that drained back into my sump through a 5uM sock,I quickly saw a reduction and kept it slow as not to stress my system by removing it too quickly. After @ a month I noticed I was not getting below .08ppm which I figured was due to the rocks leaching as fast as I was removing it, so I increased the dose strength to 20ml in 1l rodi and continued at the same rate. It took another month or so before I notice more reduction in my PO4 but it was too slow going so I increased dose strength again to 50ml LaCl3 in 1l rodi and continued at the same rate. I knew I was removing lots of PO4 by the amount of flocculent I was collecting in my sock, after a while I got the PO4 down to the .04 range which was good but it wasn't getting any lower so again I thought that the rocks were still leaching so I kept it at the same rate for the next couple months but wasn't getting any reduction from the .04 range. I then increased the strength to 100ml LaCl3 in 1l rodi. I continued at this rate for another month or so and although I was still clogging up the sock at the same rate the PO4 wasn't dropping, in the meantime I had purchased new reagents foe my checker and was pretty confident my readings were accurate, however I was now noticing a white film on the glass and on my skimmer so I reduced the dose strength and the white film stopped appearing on the glass and my PO4 would not drop below .04ppm. At this point I dosed 25 ml undiluted LaCl3 and did get a reading of 0ppm but was right back to .04ppm the next day.
Now I started revisiting regenerating HC GFO, because I'm too cheap to pay big bucks for rust, and I came across a new method that used the same chemicals but a different procedure that is much simpler and more effective, here is the link, it is post#9, http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2571980
So I regenerated 500ml HC GFO, put it in the reactor and took the LaCl3 offline. I noticed a slight reduction the next day so I was pretty confident the regen worked, 2 weeks later I'm at .01ppm.

So in conclusion I found that LaCl3 is great at lowering high levels of PO4 but not so good once the levels reach the .05 ppm range and the new method of regenerating HC GFO works great.
Also I saw no ill effects from the LaCl3 that I dosed over the year even though I was obviously overdosing it at times.

P.S I hope I didn't bore the hell out of you with the long post Glenn

 

[TORX]

I have read the same about it. It will not completely remove it making it a better option as you can not strip your water clean. This is spot on to the testing results I have found previously. It is great to get locally tested tank results. Great bit of info.

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

 

[AdInfinitum]

I have read the same about it. It will not completely remove it making it a better option as you can not strip your water clean. This is spot on to the testing results I have found previously. It is great to get locally tested tank results. Great bit of info.

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

+1
Versus no reliable method of phosphate control, GFO was/is a godsend. Running HC GFO got my system running at ultra low phosphate levels very nicely, happy SPS, crazy fast growth... (I was recharging regularly but found after about 4 recharges the GFO became too full of fines to be useful). The "problem" was that once everything was going well I would become lax with my maintenance including GFO changes and once it was a couple of weeks overdue, my SPS colours became richer and deeper and Chalice and Z&P growth took off, but it was a fine line because shortly after that algae growth would start to accelerate and I would be forced to freshen the GFO and the resulting swing and shock stalled growth for a bit and made things generally unhappy. So the holy grail for me then became finding a way to consistently maintain that slightly elevated phosphate level. The Lanthanum Chloride may be a bit more effective in my case since I keep my Alk lower to accommodate my carbon dosing and it is competition to form and precipitate Lanthanum Carbonate that limits the the Lanthanum Phosphate reaction at lower concentrations so at higher Alk levels the Lanthanum starts to precipitate much more Alk.

I am admittedly as cheap as can be... but my use of Lanthanum was strictly motivated by the desire to achieve an even better result than GFO was giving me and honestly if I was a hardcore SPS only guy I would never have looked beyond HC GFO.

Now if only all FragTank members were discussing the merits of various methods of phosphate control rather than discussing how many Sea Hares and Emerald Crabs they need to consume all of the hair algae in a 30 gallon tank....

 

[Pistol]

+1
Versus no reliable method of phosphate control, GFO was/is a godsend. Running HC GFO got my system running at ultra low phosphate levels very nicely, happy SPS, crazy fast growth... (I was recharging regularly but found after about 4 recharges the GFO became too full of fines to be useful). The "problem" was that once everything was going well I would become lax with my maintenance including GFO changes and once it was a couple of weeks overdue, my SPS colours became richer and deeper and Chalice and Z&P growth took off, but it was a fine line because shortly after that algae growth would start to accelerate and I would be forced to freshen the GFO and the resulting swing and shock stalled growth for a bit and made things generally unhappy. So the holy grail for me then became finding a way to consistently maintain that slightly elevated phosphate level. The Lanthanum Chloride may be a bit more effective in my case since I keep my Alk lower to accommodate my carbon dosing and it is competition to form and precipitate Lanthanum Carbonate that limits the the Lanthanum Phosphate reaction at lower concentrations so at higher Alk levels the Lanthanum starts to precipitate much more Alk.

I am admittedly as cheap as can be... but my use of Lanthanum was strictly motivated by the desire to achieve an even better result than GFO was giving me and honestly if I was a hardcore SPS only guy I would never have looked beyond HC GFO.

Now if only all FragTank members were discussing the merits of various methods of phosphate control rather than discussing how many Sea Hares and Emerald Crabs they need to consume all of the hair algae in a 30 gallon tank....

Yes, that was one thing I forgot to mention, LaCl3 eats alkalinity!