Opinion

[AdInfinitum]

BTW hate to tell you this but at 1.0 your rocks are not leaching...they will still be absorbing... Since your source water is clean, this is all about the amount that is being put into the tank on a daily basis...feeding.

 

[heath]

thank you so much for the advise on the gfo, never thought of it that way.. I have heard from others (I know every tank is different) that their gfo has lasted for a very long time.. but, it makes sense to me...today I will be changing it out...good to know that its not my rock or totally the rock..
Yes, I do tend to maybe over feed a bit, I will cut back a bit and hopefully it helps...
thanks for keeping it simple, I'm kind of a simple person...lol...

 

[AdInfinitum]

thank you so much for the advise on the gfo, never thought of it that way.. I have heard from others (I know every tank is different) that their gfo has lasted for a very long time.. but, it makes sense to me...today I will be changing it out...good to know that its not my rock or totally the rock..
Yes, I do tend to maybe over feed a bit, I will cut back a bit and hopefully it helps...
thanks for keeping it simple, I'm kind of a simple person...lol...

No problem...the rock will start to release what it has absorbed once the level in the water is consistently low, so this process will take patience...

 

[heath]

thank you, I am in this for the long haul...

 

[Salty Cracker]

I swap out GFO once a month, and when things are going south I switch to hi-cap. It is correct to say that rocks will either store or release, depending on PO4 levels. GFO nor carbon lasts more than 2-3 weeks on a relatively low nutrient system I would have to guess, much less on a high PO4 system. When I was bringing my tank back from the dead I used 1/4 of a phosban tube of hi-cap and swapped every 2 weeks.

I've never liked leathers, so I would say "good show" if you lost some. Run carbon, leathers can go toxic when they die!

I've recently taken to doing a 5 gallon water change a day, every day. I'm hopefully leading up to the "big move" so I want the corals ready for an influx of "fresh" saltwater. I'll be running carbon on the tank as of day 1 and GFO within a month.

 

[heath]

thanks for all of the great advise guys.. this really is a learning curve..so now the debate which is better phosban or gfo....or are they pretty much the same thing..I have some gfo but need to order more.. might as well get the best..

 

[heath]

I've never liked leathers, so I would say "good show" if you lost some. Run carbon, leathers can go toxic when they die!

no, they were really nice ones...I did pull the dead ones as soon as I saw them fading/melting so hopefully no damage was done..

 

[AdInfinitum]

The stuff branded as phosban is GFO but I believe it is the Rowa type material that is sold damp not dry?? A user may be able to answer...there are only a few producers of the various types of GFO at the bulk industrial level that supply real industry and as an offshoot the aquarium trade...the aquarium trade are mostly just packagers and reseller.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Rowa is a damp version of GFO, still iron based. People should really just avoid aluminum based products:
1) Aluminum won't do anything good for a reef system
2) Aluminum can leech once it has reached capacity
3) Aluminum works too quickly and can "shock" as system really badly.