Jestersix

Detritus

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TNTFishy

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cleared my 20 gallon sump of like an inch of detritus. Gonna start with phosguard and carbon bagged ssparately in a TLF 150. I’m lazy(as evidence of the detritus).

Should be helpful?

PS, I have 2 fish in 60 gallons. I don’t overfeed. Hair and glass algae has been a pain.
 
Do you ever use a filter sock into your sump? I generally don't - too lazy to change it properly because sometimes I have to adjust the pump flow afterward. I usually have so much detritus in there compared to people's sump pics. I think quite a bit of mine was actually 2-part that had precipitated and I didn't know it because it was light brown from the detritus. Could some of yours be additives?
I also have some hair algae in the DT, but get a reading of 0 phosphates and nitrates because it is being used, I think, or not in a measurable form.
Ugh. Carbon and Phosgard bags have been on my list, too, for like a month, but I haven't added any yet. Also plan to put on filter sock and storm the tank/sand. Hmm. When will that happen?
Weird. It sounds like we have the same sump and issues.
 
Last checked my nitrates were at .10. I’ll be honest and haven’t checked phosphate in a long while. Will soon though!
Just added some phosguard and carbon. And added a 200 micron Sock for the first time ever.

I may actually get a larger 100 micron to put as a secondary filter stage(sock in a sock). Kind of half A-ing it.
 
The organics have probably long since rotted out of the thick layer of detritus, so I would not expect a big difference.

Sounds like you have a good "settling tank" type filter. Yes, some people do that deliberately.
But it only works if you siphon it out weekly.
 
rygh said:
The organics have probably long since rotted out of the thick layer of detritus, so I would not expect a big difference.

Sounds like you have a good "settling tank" type filter. Yes, some people do that deliberately.
But it only works if you siphon it out weekly.
Click to expand...
It’s clean as an Irish Spring at the moment. Thanks.
 
yeah i occasionally clean out detritus in a sump, but would only worry if nitrates were rising.
i like filter floss nowadays since it really grabs everything and i am more inclined to tossing it, as opposed to socks, which i feel i can wash 236 times before replacing.
no corals right ? otherwise i'd steer clear of phosguard.
 
aquaticcentral said:
yeah i occasionally clean out detritus in a sump, but would only worry if nitrates were rising.
i like filter floss nowadays since it really grabs everything and i am more inclined to tossing it, as opposed to socks, which i feel i can wash 236 times before replacing.
no corals right ? otherwise i'd steer clear of phosguard.
Click to expand...
I used phosguard instead of gfo. Why do you say to steer clear of it if he’s got coral?
 
Coral reefer said:
I believe it lowers phosphate too quickly and can release something that’s possibly bad, maybe aluminum or something?
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When I researched it, it was less aggressive at lowering po4 than gfo (which I liked), and there was a rumor that it released aluminum, but from what I recall, it was unsubstantiated. Similar to the leaching of aluminum by marine pure blocks.
 
Phosguard is aluminum oxide. It lowers po4 faster than gfo (iron oxide) but is also exhausted faster.

It can leech aluminum into you system, especially if it's tumbling too hard and grinding into dust.

According to Triton, it absorbs iron as well and gfo absorbs aluminum so gfo and Phosguard absorb each other if one leaches.
 
This is what I had read off Seachem’s website.

https://www.seachem.com/phosguard.php

After rereading it, it does sound like its absorption is quite rapid. I think I got the impression that it was less than gfo because it doesn’t remove as much po4/lb. of media.

Their tests show that under normal reef conditions it does not leach aluminum.

They also recommend that you rinse it and not allow the media to tumble. I always used it in a media bag so it didn’t.

The big advantage to it over gfo was that you can renew it by soaking it in bleach.
 
Flagg37 said:
This is what I had read off Seachem’s website.

https://www.seachem.com/phosguard.php

After rereading it, it does sound like its absorption is quite rapid. I think I got the impression that it was less than gfo because it doesn’t remove as much po4/lb. of media.

Their tests show that under normal reef conditions it does not leach aluminum.

They also recommend that you rinse it and not allow the media to tumble. I always used it in a media bag so it didn’t.

The big advantage to it over gfo was that you can renew it by soaking it in bleach.
Click to expand...
I've never heard soaking it in bleach resets the media.

I've heard that cooking it in an over resets the media but it's not something I would bet on.

I use Brightwell Aquatics Phosphate - E. It's lanthanum chloride. I dose 1ml/day right in front of my Skimmer intake. With 24 fish in less than 200g, my phosphates are never higher than 0.08ppm.

My nitrates on the other hand....
 
You can recharge GFO, but with sodium hydroxide, not bleach.
Seems like a poor idea in general though.

Tumbling GFO definitely results in fine iron particles, which turn my skimmate dark colored,
and I can see it on the bottom of the cup.
Never seems to bother anything though.
 
rygh said:
You can recharge GFO, but with sodium hydroxide, not bleach.
Seems like a poor idea in general though.

Tumbling GFO definitely results in fine iron particles, which turn my skimmate dark colored,
and I can see it on the bottom of the cup.
Never seems to bother anything though.
Click to expand...

I always ran gfo with carbon mixed in. Nothing has to tumble then and the gfo won't clump.
 
grizfyrfyter said:
I've never heard soaking it in bleach resets the media.

I've heard that cooking it in an over resets the media but it's not something I would bet on.

I use Brightwell Aquatics Phosphate - E. It's lanthanum chloride. I dose 1ml/day right in front of my Skimmer intake. With 24 fish in less than 200g, my phosphates are never higher than 0.08ppm.

My nitrates on the other hand....
Click to expand...
Sorry, my mistake; it wasn’t phosguard it was purigen that could be renewed with bleach.
 
I started using phosguard and will just swap the small bag out. I got to lazy with GFO.

Thanks for all the opinions. Read that Potential leaching of aluminum would be in low PH or something...

We will see.
 
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