GFO from the group buy

[stevenp]

Has anyone been running the GFO from the group buy? I finally picked up a Phosban reactor today and plan to get it online this weekend.

I'm curious to know what kind of results people are getting. How are you running it? Have you had any problems with it breaking up? Have you noticed a drop in Alk?

 

[snick1734]

We would be interested in this info as well as we plan on getting a phosban reactor as well! Nicole and Steve

 

[ReeferMedic]

I've been using the GFO from Greg. Been using it in 2 reactors with very slow flow going through them. No problems as of yet with alk. You do have to rinse this stuff quite a bit. I ran water from my tank through the reactor and into a bucket. Wound up doing about a 30 gallon water change before it ran clear. I slowly added enough for about 100 gallons at a time over the course of 5-6 weeks along with wet skimming when ever I'm home. My phosphates were crazy high before I started running it(.26 if that's even possible! ). After a month or so, phosphate is testing at .03 and the colors on my sps are really popping. I know this is still high, but a far cry from .26. I have about 500 gallons total water volume with a lot o' fish.

 

[stevenp]

Would there be any downside to running tap water through the GFO to initally rinse it, followed by a brief rinse in tank water? That way you wouldn't have to use as much tank water?

 

[Greg Hiller]

I've been running it on my big tank for a while now. I don't have a phosphate tester that's any good in the low range, but I can say that I've not had any problems with low alk.

 

[ReeferMedic]

Would there be any downside to running tap water through the GFO to initally rinse it, followed by a brief rinse in tank water? That way you wouldn't have to use as much tank water?

That's what I did. I needed a water change any way, so I didn't rinse it very long. I suppose you could just rinse it more.

 

[reefkeeper2]

It's been working well for me. I rinse with R/O water because the town water is sky high with phosphate.

 

[Michael Mota]

I've been using it for about a month now with no problems. The tanks alk is OK did not see a difference in alk additions. All I do is put the gfo in a filter bag then rinse it with tap water and then it goes into a make shift holder I made and the returning water from the frag tank runs over it. Works for me.