Brightwell phosphate-E

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree, we can never know for sure, unless we have a controlled environment. But with filter sock I think there’s a lot of details people leave out, like did they change the sock out that day/ a few hours later or they leave it and the sock overflow and those particles return to into the tank, and do they have a skimmer to help with the removal as well. Personally I feel like if you dose it into the sock, you should remove the socks within a few hours to prevent all the particles that are trapped from escaping and returned into the tank. As for skimmer I could see that as soon as I dose it in there, the skimmer is trying to remove it asap into the collection cup, the skimmer is removing the particles and/or the chemical I don’t know. I think we need to test the skim mate to see what is really being skimmed out, so I think as a hobbyist we just need to take all the precautions we can when dosing this stuff, since there are more than a few cases of dosing lanthanum causes fish deaths.

I would just say that the removal of particulates by skimmers is not inherently better than removal by socks (even assuming particulate removal is the important attribute rather than faster conversion of soluble lanthanum to particulate lanthanum before organisms see it). The preferred particulate removal scheme may be very dependent on the skimmer and the socks used.

 

[Phamousreef]

I would just say that the removal of particulates by skimmers is not inherently better than removal by socks (even assuming particulate removal is the important attribute rather than faster conversion of soluble lanthanum to particulate lanthanum before organisms see it). The preferred particulate removal scheme may be very dependent on the skimmer and the socks used.

Yeah I agree, I don’t think one is better than the other unless someone is willing to put it to the test, since we don’t know which one is better for sure. I think it’s best for us to take a few steps to make sure whenever we’re dosing lanthanum products, to either dose it in a socks and removing the sock before it overflow or dosing it into the skimmer body, to reduce the risk of hurting the livestocks in our tank.

 

[bubbgee]

I've dosed a capful whenever my PO4 hits above .2 into my roller mat without any problems. It halves my PO4 overnight. No issues with my fishes either.

 

[GARRIGA]

I've dosed a capful whenever my PO4 hits above .2 into my roller mat without any problems. It halves my PO4 overnight. No issues with my fishes either.

Perhaps roller mat extracts the particulate formed from binding LC with po4 although aren't these roller mats larger pore than the recommended 5 micron?

 

[bubbgee]

Perhaps roller mat extracts the particulate formed from binding LC with po4 although aren't these roller mats larger pore than the recommended 5 micron?

Reefmat is 200 micron, so yes larger pores. No observable issues though.