Phosphates and CA Rx Media

[CAReefer]

Hey all you Zeo heads,
After having received my Hanna P04 tester, I have been testing everything in sight and had a quick question about Reactor Media.
I just got some of the large Schuran style media from Jeremy at PA, put a few lbs in a bucket and covered it with RO/DI water, swished it around pretty good and poured the water out. Refilled and then tested and got a reading of 0.17. I know the recommendation is to soak for a few days, changing out the water a couple times. Can I expect this level to go down? If I rinse away all of the "free floating" P04, it stands to reason that as the media dissolves, more will be released. I have A.R.M. in the reactor now, and haven't tested with the meter yet. However, with the Salifert, the effluent will actually make the sample change colors. Still too faint to discern the actuall ppm, but somewhere between .05 and .08. I will test that tommorrow.

Marshal

[Pikeman]

I had this problem as well. I kept getting a small residual PO4 reading in my tank and couldn't determine the source until I tested the outlet of my Ca Rx. At the time I was using Koralin media and have since switched to ARM. In addition to soaking/rinsing the media for a few days before use, I recently put about an inch of (well rinsed) Phosgard in the bottom of the Ca Rx to hopefully take up any small amounts of PO4 before they get into my system. This isn't a very sophisticated arrangement but it seems to be working so far...

Oh and by the way, the Koralin packaging noted that it was phosphate free!

[CAReefer]

With my limited experience with phosphate removers, it seems to me that the phosgaurd would be exhausted long before the media needed changing. I have tinkered using various types of P04 removers on the effluent of my reactor and found their efficiency lasts less than 2 weeks. But if it works,

[Heinz]

Edward uses a small PO4 reactor after his CA reactor, filled with biophos3 which takes care of his PO4 in his effluent, i was looking for the thread, but it looks like he never posted it on Z.com, only on the captive ocean's forum on RC, wich are no longer,
maybe he can post some picuters again in this thread,

[CAReefer]

I've spoke with madison about building one. He should be starting on it when he gets back from vacation. I have tried a couple DIY versions and didn't like the way they worked out.

[invincible569]

Here you go Heinz.

[Heinz]

thanx Edward

[Fins Reef]

Edward,
Who made that for you?
Thanks

[invincible569]

Brian,

Kevin, a local from Houston made it. His acrylic business is at a stop right now. Wish he was back already. I have so many other things I want him to do.

[Baboo]

It seems like the Biophos3 last much longer than Phosgard when use at the Ca Rx efluent. Also I noticed the smaller grain size Rx media will act like a DSB which sponges the PO4. The larger grain size with higher float circulation will have less PO4 reading in a longer period of time. JMO.