Lanthanum Chloride?

[jhildebrand]

Has anyone here experimented with it as a phosphate remover? It's in all the liquid phos removers available commercially for reef tanks as well as in bulk from pool stores.

Excellent article here from Coral mag:

http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/cont...ling-phosphate

and good thread here on RC:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hanum+chloride

It's a long read if you're interested.

I've been using the liquid remover from Blue Life whenever phos creeps up, but it's a tiny bottle and very expensive. GFO works well, but also not cheap on the volume of water I'm working with.

I've been dosing vodka for a year now and it does a fantastic job keeping nitrates down, but not quite as good with phos. I'm planning on running a slow and methodical experiment with Sea Klear pool phosphate remover to see the effectiveness and note any drawbacks. Aquatic Ecosystems actually sells it on their site for use in aquaculture and there is plenty of supporting documentation of it being safe. I'm always looking for ways to make this obsession more affordable. If anyone has tried this method of nutrient management please share...

[Fishcrazy06]

Very interesting...something I will need to read more on thats for sure. Especially if I plan on tying the 240 FOWLR into my main system! Thanks for the link John!

[Fishcrazy06]

Was this article in the last issue of Coral John? I still have mine in the plastic so I didn't get that far if it is!

[Fishcrazy06]

What was the cost of the Sea Klear John? Whats the bottle size? Etc etc......Give us some more info please...Thank You!

[jhildebrand]

No, this was a few issues back.

Here's the best I found on the Sea Klear, but I didn't spend too much time on it. If you want a bottle it should last for an eternity. Let me know and I add to my order.

http://www.spadepot.com/shop/Sea-Kle...P9233C635.aspx

I'm thinking of catching the floc in my 270 with filter pads in the media chamber of big blue.

[Fishcrazy06]

Did you check any of the local pool stores to see if they had anything like this? Another to check out would be called In the Swim....this is where my mom and Dad buy all their hot tub and pool chemicals from!

[Fishcrazy06]

Wow I just pulled up the RC thread...I have some reading to do......I will pass for now John.. I see Randy Holmes isn't a fan of it...Well at least not on the first page I read......

[jhildebrand]

Atlantis Aquarium in NY use it as well as a number of zoos and aquaculture facilities. It's no more dangerous than dosing vodka - you have to dose correctly and monitor conditions. Randy's not a big fan because there's no way to prove any long term issues. Then again, you can't prove that with much of anything we add to our tanks. This has been around for a couple of years and the few reported issues the problem was with the aquarist, not the chemical.

I know most people don't have this kind of water volume to deal with, but hopefully others will chime in if they've ever used or considered it. Either way I'll post my personal experience when I get to that point...

[Fishcrazy06]

I was by no way saying Randy is right or wrong....was just pointing out he is not a fan of it. With that being said Randy is not a fan of much that isn't well documented or in which can be tested to see where said levels are to be at...Thats the scientist in him. Although I don't have the water volume as you John I will be having other issues to deal with in the future. So if this does work and you do see positive results from it I will be considering using this!

[Fishcrazy06]

John do you plan to do a slow drip into a 10Micron Filtersock? Plan on doing this into your sump by your skimmer? Pretty interesting read so far..........

[jhildebrand]

Drip into the filter box on the 270. The box will be packed with filter floss in two of the chambers.

[Fishcrazy06]

Ah I see...I contemplated making a box out of a tupperware container of sort and basically doing the same thing. Have the bottom drilled with a bunch of holes and have it pass through there. My other thought was to hang a filter sock where my main line drains into the sump and dripping it there like the one guy did. The only thing I don't care for is how quickly the sock can become plugged!

[Fishcrazy06]

Wow do I have a headache now! Just read all 15 pages of the RC thread John. Needless to say I am a bit nervous about it. It seems like the thread kind of died until asked about it. I noticed some people stopped using it as well. Aren't you a bit nervous about your Tangs?

[jhildebrand]

Something that really annoys me about this hobby:



On the left you see Blue Life's liquid phosphate remover. On the right, SeaKlear's for pools. Same active ingredient.

Blue Life is one ounce watered down product for $18.99+ and treats maybe a couple hundred gallons.

SeaKlear is $29 for thirty two ounces and treats a whopping 160,000ish gallons.

When I've got all my research finished I'll detail the process and results.

[Fishcrazy06]

Its all about marketing and the name on the label!

[condiman]

That goes with alot of things in this industry I have seen it many many times with alot of the setups I have done. Its amazing if we just open our eyes and look we could save ourselves alot of money and headaches.

[Fishcrazy06]

Kind of goes hand in hand with Kalk as well. less than 2 dollars half the time for pickling lime and how much is Kalk??

[Hefton]

John,

Any updates?

[jlinzmaier]

Something that really annoys me about this hobby:



On the left you see Blue Life's liquid phosphate remover. On the right, SeaKlear's for pools. Same active ingredient.

Blue Life is one ounce watered down product for $18.99+ and treats maybe a couple hundred gallons.

SeaKlear is $29 for thirty two ounces and treats a whopping 160,000ish gallons.

When I've got all my research finished I'll detail the process and results.

Have you checked with any chemistry guru's to be sure the pool product doesn't contain any unwanted byproducts or addatives that would be undesireable in a reef tank?? Although the "active ingredient" may be the same, there may be mulitple misc elements added that would be good for a pool but not good for a reef tank. You should be able to obtain an MSDS on the pool product and I suspect that would contain a full list of contents.

Just a thought.

I hate reef aquarium product marketing as much as anyone!! I really hope this product is safe for a reef. Reefers get ripped off on way to many "well marketed" products that are used outside the aquarium industry then repackaged and relabeled for aquarium use. Biopellets are a perfect example.

Jeremy

[jlinzmaier]

Never mind. I guess if I would read the whole thread I would have known it seems you have looked into it's general safety in reef tanks. My bad!!

In all honesty, I'm going to stick with GFO for reef tank use until there is more experiences to share on the use of lanthanum in reefs. FWIW, GFO can be very cheap when regenerated. GFO, for that matter, also has it's own negative effects.

Jeremy

[jhildebrand]

Right on......I'd be lying though if I said it didn't make me nervous.

Any good info on regenerating GFO? Have you done it?

[jlinzmaier]

Right on......I'd be lying though if I said it didn't make me nervous.

Any good info on regenerating GFO? Have you done it?

LOL!! Of course I've got good info on regenerating GFO!! I also listed this link in the filtration article under the GFO section.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...t=gfo+recharge

Haven't tried it yet though. Just one week ago I started using GFO again for the first time in over two years. Tatuvaaj is a genious and I'd certainly trust the legitimacy of anything he experiments with.

Jeremy