BRS High Capacity or Regular GFO?

DmitryB

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
May 26, 2026
Messages
475
Reaction score
353
Location
Hunter, NY
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Gonna bring this thread back after 10 years because I'm now debating the same question. Nothing has changed as far as GFO? Or has it? High Capacity or Granular? Or do you use it at all??
 

Bear22

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 16, 2025
Messages
407
Reaction score
336
Location
USA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Why can't people just practice reading discipline and just answer the dang question(s) without going into some diatribe/polemic? Geeze...
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
89,888
Reaction score
93,574
Location
Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Gonna bring this thread back after 10 years because I'm now debating the same question. Nothing has changed as far as GFO? Or has it? High Capacity or Granular? Or do you use it at all??

GFO is fine to use, but recognize it binds many trace elements. The high capacity is fine.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
89,888
Reaction score
93,574
Location
Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Why can't people just practice reading discipline and just answer the dang question(s) without going into some diatribe/polemic? Geeze...

Did you mean that for this ten year old thread, where every post seems on point?
 

Reefering1

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
May 20, 2022
Messages
8,066
Reaction score
25,402
Location
Usa
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I prefer regular, if any at all, always felt like in stripping the water and corals react negatively. Maybe just use too much?

Why can't people just practice reading discipline and just answer the dang question(s) without going into some diatribe/polemic? Geeze...
Says the one person that didn't answer the question and had nothing useful to offer the conversation.
 

exnisstech

Grumpy old man
View Badges
Joined
Feb 11, 2019
Messages
19,435
Reaction score
31,413
Location
Ashland Ohio
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Gonna bring this thread back after 10 years because I'm now debating the same question. Nothing has changed as far as GFO? Or has it? High Capacity or Granular? Or do you use it at all??
When I run GFO i like rowaphos because it's much easier to rinse than regular ot HC GFO.
 

DmitryB

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
May 26, 2026
Messages
475
Reaction score
353
Location
Hunter, NY
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
When I run GFO i like rowaphos because it's much easier to rinse than regular ot HC GFO.
Is Rowaphos gentler than a regular GFO? The feeling I'm getting from this thread (and other places) is GFO should be used occasionally and in small amounts because it strips too much needed trace elements. (I only just turned on my IM 40 and the custom caddy comes with two baggies of carbon and two baggies of GFO. I put both baggies of each in... perhaps that's too much even though at the moment there's no livestock in it (but corals and a couple of fish will be arriving in a few of weeks.)
 

exnisstech

Grumpy old man
View Badges
Joined
Feb 11, 2019
Messages
19,435
Reaction score
31,413
Location
Ashland Ohio
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Is Rowaphos gentler than a regular GFO? The feeling I'm getting from this thread (and other places) is GFO should be used occasionally and in small amounts because it strips too much needed trace elements. (I only just turned on my IM 40 and the custom caddy comes with two baggies of carbon and two baggies of GFO. I put both baggies of each in... perhaps that's too much even though at the moment there's no livestock in it (but corals and a couple of fish will be arriving in a few of weeks.)
TBH I'm not sure if rowa is more or less effective than regular GFO. I only run it on one tank when my Hanna ULR PO4 tester flashes 0.9 . I'll bring it down to 0.4 and let it creep back up. I only run about 1/3 of what the directions calls for so it doesn't strip PO4 too quickly. My tank doesn't seem to mind higher PO4 so I only run it's when my tester is maxed. I just like to have a number for piece of mind so I only used it when PO4 exceeds 0.9
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
89,888
Reaction score
93,574
Location
Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Is Rowaphos gentler than a regular GFO? The feeling I'm getting from this thread (and other places) is GFO should be used occasionally and in small amounts because it strips too much needed trace elements. (I only just turned on my IM 40 and the custom caddy comes with two baggies of carbon and two baggies of GFO. I put both baggies of each in... perhaps that's too much even though at the moment there's no livestock in it (but corals and a couple of fish will be arriving in a few of weeks.)

What does gentler mean?

I don’t see any reason to think that any brand of GFO is different from another in terms of any effects that arise from binding ions, except that some brands has more surface area than others.
 

TOP 10 Trending Threads

DO YOU THINK TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS ARE MORE HELPFUL OR HURTFUL TO REEFING?

  • More helpful.

    Votes: 42 40.4%
  • More hurtful.

    Votes: 4 3.8%
  • I think it depends mostly on the technology.

    Votes: 41 39.4%
  • I think it dependsmostly on the reefer behind the technology.

    Votes: 33 31.7%
Back
Top
Home
Post thread…
Market
What's new