Advice on lanthanum chloride use

[crazyfishmom]

Hello all,

I have been struggling to get phosphates down in my tank. As background, I’ve been over feeding a wide variety of foods along with using polyp labs medic and UV to manage ich. I haven’t lost a single member of the fish family to ich but my blue hippo still shows a few dispersed spots every now and then so I will continue dosing Medic until she’s been spot free for at least 10 days. It may be snake oil, I do not know. I have read all the posts both positive and negative, quarantined prior to adding may new fish and still ich managed to break through. At any rate, I respect people’s thoughts on quarantine but moving forward I will be going through observational quarantine only to make sure something more nefarious than ich does not go into my DTs but will be managing ich otherwise.

Given the overfeeding, my phosphate levels have been trending up and despite using GFO I am not making a dent. They used to sit between 0.08-0.2 which I was perfectly happy with in my tank to now being at 0.7 which doesn’t seem to be bothering most of my corals but I do have a few acro frags that were coloring up nicely that have started to brown so I want to address it. I carbon dose; have been using elimi NP (was using bacto balance before when everything was where I wanted it to be).

I have been reading and reading and, you guessed it, reading some more and there are so many options that I am just utterly overwhelmed. I am considering using low doses of lanthanum chloride over the course of several days to bring down the phosphate levels to around 0.1-0.2 and then hoping to maintain them there since I think this would be more manageable.

Any experience using lanthanum chloride? How did you do it? How did your corals do? What kind of water volume were you treating? How did you approach it all?

Thanks for any thoughts/wisdom. Also if you have any recommendations on long term phosphate management please drop them in the comments as well. I must confess my brain is starting to go into shut down mode on this. My nitrates are at 18 so not worried there (I target 10-20 for nitrates usually staying around 16-19) but will watch them closely since I know that phosphate drops can impact nitrate levels as well.

 

[exnisstech]

despite using GFO I am not making a dent.

How are you running the GFO and how are you testing. I have never heard of GFO not removing PO4. I run it in a reactor and do so sparingly because it strips PO4 too quickly if I use anything near the recommended amount. Testing is done with Hanna. Its easiest for me to use not saying it's the best test.

 

[crazyfishmom]

How are you running the GFO and how are you testing. I have never heard of GFO not removing PO4. I run it in a reactor and do so sparingly because it strips PO4 too quickly if I use anything near the recommended amount. Testing is done with Hanna. Its easiest for me to use not saying it's the best test.

Using Hanna as well. I don’t use it in a reactor. I use it in a media bag. I don’t have enough space in my sump for a reactor so I can’t have one in there. It’s not that GFO is not removing phosphate. I am sure that to some extent it is, I just have a large tank and trying to passively remove is likely not working.

 

[exnisstech]

Using Hanna as well. I don’t use it in a reactor. I use it in a media bag. I don’t have enough space in my sump for a reactor so I can’t have one in there. It’s not that GFO is not removing phosphate. I am sure that to some extent it is, I just have a large tank and trying to passively remove is likely not working.

Gotcha. GFO doesn't work well in a bag IME. At least not in larger tanks. I run it every now and then in my 180g when my Hanna ulr flashes 0.9 at me even though corals don't seem to mind.
EDIT: sorry I don't have experience with lanthanum chloride.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Gotcha. GFO doesn't work well in a bag IME. At least not in larger tanks. I run it every now and then in my 180g when my Hanna ulr flashes 0.9 at me even though corals don't seem to mind.
EDIT: sorry I don't have experience with lanthanum chloride.

Thanks for the response either way! Maybe I need to start thinking about a small reactor. I’ll give it some more thought!

 

[DCR]

I dilute 5 ml of Seaklear in 1-2 liters of RODI and use a hygro dripper to drip into a temporary 5 micron sock & holder in my sump with a Sicce 1.0 pumping into the 5 micron sock at the same time. Set the dripper at about 200-250 ml/hr and target for a drip time of about 8 hours. I do have tangs in my display and have never observed any adverse effects, but I recognize that others have seen issues. I don't think anyone knows why. I initially tried GFO but is takes a lot of it on a large tank and I was not getting anywhere with it.

 

[exnisstech]

Thanks for the response either way! Maybe I need to start thinking about a small reactor. I’ll give it some more thought!

The two Little fishes 150 work decent and aren't too big and not very expensive. Premium aquatics used to offer a kit with reactor and pump.

EDIT: I was able to drop my 225g total system from a flashing 0.9 to 0.3 using 1 cup in a reactor. Not sure why it doesn't work well for some. It works so well for me I do it in phases so I don't strip PO4 too quickly. Lananthan kind of scares me because I have tangs that have been with me for years so I'm cautious.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I dilute 5 ml of Seaklear in 1-2 liters of RODI and use a hygro dripper to drip into a temporary 5 ml sock & holder in my sump with a Sicce 1.0 pumping into the 5 micron sock at the same time. Set the dripper at about 200-250 ml/hr and target for a drip time of about 8 hours. I do have tangs in my display and have never observed any adverse effects, but I recognize that others have seen issues. I don't think anyone knows why. I initially tried GFO but is takes a lot of it on a large tank and I was not getting anywhere with it.

Thank you! I will look up Seaklear right away and read up some more on it. I also have tangs so it’s good to have a first hand account on use!

 

[crazyfishmom]

The two Little fishes 150 work decent and aren't too big and not very expensive. Premium aquatics used to offer a kit with reactor and pump.

Thank you!

 

[eenoo]

You could also look into some phosphate removal options that do better in a bag before going for a reactor. Stuff like phosphree from maxspect or extrax phos from brightwell would work in a bag.

 

[crazyfishmom]

You could also look into some phosphate removal options that do better in a bag before going for a reactor. Stuff like phosphree from maxspect or extrax phos from brightwell would work in a bag.

Thanks for the brands and product names. That’s very very helpful. I’ve tried Phosguard and it did very very little and fouled within 24 hrs. It’s just about 250 gallons of water at 0.7 is a lot for any resin to handle. I also don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on resins which I should probably have made part of the post. Will research these recommendations though. This is what I love about this forum, so many people have so much great experience and advice!

 

[eenoo]

Thanks for the brands and product names. That’s very very helpful. I’ve tried Phosguard and it did very very little and fouled within 24 hrs. It’s just about 250 gallons of water at 0.7 is a lot for any resin to handle. I also don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on resins which I should probably have made part of the post. Will research these recommendations though. This is what I love about this forum, so many people have so much great experience and advice!

Well in that case I can save you a bit of time and let you know both of the ones i mentioned are quite expensive per gallon to treat.

A reactor would be my first choice if you can find one to fit!

 

[crazyfishmom]

Well in that case I can save you a bit of time and let you know both of the ones i mentioned are quite expensive per gallon to treat.

A reactor would be my first choice if you can find one to fit!

Thank you!

 

[Pistondog]

Hello all,

I have been struggling to get phosphates down in my tank. As background, I’ve been over feeding a wide variety of foods along with using polyp labs medic and UV to manage ich. I haven’t lost a single member of the fish family to ich but my blue hippo still shows a few dispersed spots every now and then so I will continue dosing Medic until she’s been spot free for at least 10 days. It may be snake oil, I do not know. I have read all the posts both positive and negative, quarantined prior to adding may new fish and still ich managed to break through. At any rate, I respect people’s thoughts on quarantine but moving forward I will be going through observational quarantine only to make sure something more nefarious than ich does not go into my DTs but will be managing ich otherwise.

Given the overfeeding, my phosphate levels have been trending up and despite using GFO I am not making a dent. They used to sit between 0.08-0.2 which I was perfectly happy with in my tank to now being at 0.7 which doesn’t seem to be bothering most of my corals but I do have a few acro frags that were coloring up nicely that have started to brown so I want to address it. I carbon dose; have been using elimi NP (was using bacto balance before when everything was where I wanted it to be).

I have been reading and reading and, you guessed it, reading some more and there are so many options that I am just utterly overwhelmed. I am considering using low doses of lanthanum chloride over the course of several days to bring down the phosphate levels to around 0.1-0.2 and then hoping to maintain them there since I think this would be more manageable.

Any experience using lanthanum chloride? How did you do it? How did your corals do? What kind of water volume were you treating? How did you approach it all?

Thanks for any thoughts/wisdom. Also if you have any recommendations on long term phosphate management please drop them in the comments as well. I must confess my brain is starting to go into shut down mode on this. My nitrates are at 18 so not worried there (I target 10-20 for nitrates usually staying around 16-19) but will watch them closely since I know that phosphate drops can impact nitrate levels as well.

Heres a thread about using lanthanum
Thread 'IV bag to drip Brightwell PhosphateE' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/iv-bag-to-drip-brightwell-phosphatee.1040585/

 

[Lavey29]

I've been using phosphate rx on and off for over a year with no issues. I just half dose it dropping a few drops in my sock.

 

[kenchilada]

I’m treating my 250G with lanthanum now. I’ve found a lot of advice being given is incorrect so watch out.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I’m treating my 250G with lanthanum now. I’ve found a lot of advice being given is incorrect so watch out.

Can you please speak a little more on this. I appreciate any advice or thoughts.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Heres a thread about using lanthanum
Thread 'IV bag to drip Brightwell PhosphateE' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/iv-bag-to-drip-brightwell-phosphatee.1040585/

Thanks! I like that I wouldn’t have to put this on a doser!

 

[areefer01]

Using Hanna as well. I don’t use it in a reactor. I use it in a media bag. I don’t have enough space in my sump for a reactor so I can’t have one in there. It’s not that GFO is not removing phosphate. I am sure that to some extent it is, I just have a large tank and trying to passively remove is likely not working.

Not pushing any product here but if you have space for a small hob reactor (hang on back) you could check out two little fishes phosban reactor. Works well and reasonable price. I used it for a spell when lowering phosphates using GFO.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Not pushing any product here but if you have space for a small hob reactor (hang on back) you could check out two little fishes phosban reactor. Works well and reasonable price. I used it for a spell when lowering phosphates using GFO.

Thank you! Definitely checking out small reactors now based on some of the great advice (like yours) that I’ve been getting.