Best way to remove phosphate with a clam in the system

[ThaBeast]

My new phosphate test showed up today and I tested .25 3 times. I've read that gfo is thought to contribute to pm in clams. Is seachem's phosguard or brightwell aquatics extrax phos ok to use? I've also heard that these are aluminum based and can cause other issues, beginning to think I read too much I have the double reactor from BRS, po4 remover goes in the first chamber followed by carbon in the second. I use kalk in my top off, have read that kalk will help precipitate po4 as well. I change 15 percent of my water weekly. I feed pe mysis and nls pellets daily as I have wrasses, anthias, and a copperbanded butterfly. All other parameters are rock solid.

 

[laskopyre]

I've been using GFO with my clam for almost 2 years. The clam has been fine. I think if you start out with to much GFO, it has a negative effect. Bulk Reef has a great explanation of how to use GFO. with the mysis, how are you thawing and adding? Are you thawing, then putting water and all into the tank? If so, strain the mysis before putting in the tank. That water isn't the best to add to your tank.

 

[Paul_N]

I used GFO with no negative impact on my clams in the past.

 

[ThaBeast]

i thaw the mysis in a brine shrimp net and rinse it with ro water before I feed to the tank

 

[ThaBeast]

Do you use the granular or pelletized gfo?

 

[laskopyre]

I've been using the pellets. For the clam, I don't think that phosphates are that huge of an issue. Even with the GFO, I have phosphate in my tank. I have macro algae, mangroves, and a gfo reactor. The clam helps with the nitrates, and does process phosphates. The mantle absorbs the nutrients from the water. The zooxanthellae in the mantle takes in ammonia, nitrate, and phosphate from the water and uses them to make amino acids. Clams actually help to lower nitrates, ammonia, and phosphates in the water. The PM happens when the GFO reactor is started. If to much GFO is used, it causes a shock to the clam. This is the reason to start slow.

 

[Lt Nos]

I'll be the noob here, what's pm?

 

[ThaBeast]

Lt Nos--pm stands for pinched mantle. I am fairly new to clams, but I don't believe many clams recover from this (someone with more experience correct me if I am wrong)

Laskopyre--Thank you, many searches and I never found the that bit of data about starting slow with gfo. I am wanting to reduce phosphate as I am slowly adding sps to my reef

 

[Oiseau Reefer]

I've used gfo, vod/mb7 and bio pellets all with my clams with no Ill effects actually my clams have been looking better the last month or so!

 

[laskopyre]

Hopefully this helps on the GFO thing. It's from the Bulk Reef website: Granular-Ferric-Oxide-(GFO)-Instructions

 

[Triggerman77]

Lt Nos--pm stands for pinched mantle. I am fairly new to clams, but I don't believe many clams recover from this (someone with more experience correct me if I am wrong)

Laskopyre--Thank you, many searches and I never found the that bit of data about starting slow with gfo. I am wanting to reduce phosphate as I am slowly adding sps to my reef

I believe if u catch it quick and do a series of FW dip u have a lot better chance at survival


O and i run phos guard and a 37g fuge with a mass of cheato and honestly i have never owned a Phos Test LOL I been this long without so why bother LOL

 

[reefer916]

You may also want to test your water source. I know that I was using the LFS's RODI water and was wondering why I couldn't get my phosphates down, so my buddy decided to test the RO water for me with his TDS meter. That was my source of additional phosphates. I currently run GFO and Carbon in a Phosban reactor in my 95 gallon and Chemi-pure Elite in my 24 gallon. I also decided to buy my own RODI system with a TDS meter, so I don't have to depend on others to get me clean water. I'm not sure how clams react to GFO though, but all of my corals and fish are doing fine.

 

[ThaBeast]

Reefer916-- thank you for the tip. I currently run a 100gpd ro/di unit. My tds out of the ro is 2ppm and out of my di is 0, as soon as it goes to 1ppm I change one of the two di cartridges

 

[Paul_N]

Do you use the granular or pelletized gfo?

Oops I missed the follow up....:bigsmile:

I used Pellets when I used GFO in the past. I have had clams with the use of GFO, Vodka dosing, Ecobak pellets, liquid phosphate remover(LaCl) and never had any issues with my clams.

 

[Paul_N]

The PM happens when the GFO reactor is started. If to much GFO is used, it causes a shock to the clam. This is the reason to start slow.

+1
This will cause stress the clams and coral. I feed my tank very heavily and maybe the reason I never had issues.

 

[beaslbob]

best way to remove phosphates?

Algae.

 

[ThaBeast]

algae.

lol!

 

[beaslbob]

lol!

well we can all have a good laugh but I do hope that most realize how serious I was.

Although now taken down I had 55g and 29g tanks both with fish and corals and unmeasureable phosphates (salifert kit).

Both were balanced out with macro algaes in refugium

No water changes, un treated tap water, no phosphate filters, and the 55g used crushed oyster shells in a diy wet dry.

the 55g had ran for 8 years the 29g for 3 years.

so I just threw out the word algae to make a point but was serious.

The single largest phosphate sink in our tanks is algae.

my .02