Easy Phosphate management Equipment

[Treefer32]

I have a great Turbo Aquatics Algae Scrubber. I get large softball sized balls of hair algae every 5-7 days. Water overflows the scrubber within 10-15 days due to too much algae growth.


I'm looking to travel more in the next year starting with a 15 day tour of Europe next year. Possibly a month or more at a time in the winters after that. I need a much simpler to manage phosphate solution for a large tank. (340 gallon display 75 gallon sump) .

Plus the algae turf scrubber doesn't keep up with phosphates. With routine logged testing with Hanna ULR tester, I'm raising an average of .001 ppm per day. Possibly more. I supplement that with 5-10 ml per day of Lanthinum chloride into my Reefmat 1200.

I have a denitrator, a converted Nu-Clear cannister filter to a pile of matrix rock. My nitrates are constant at 10-20 ppm. Hanna HR tester.

Is there an easier to maintain (than a traditional ATS) for guests to come in and within 2 minutes pull some algae and walk away. I'm also personally getting tired of cleaning the screen too. It's taking 10-15 minutes everytime to clean it.

I've looked at the Surf 4s, which seem enticing, but for my level of phosphate management I'd need like 8 of them. Which, then becomes a chore to keep clean as well, not to mention room in the sump for that many, then cost on top of that.

Looking at creative ideas for phosphate management that I could trust a non-reefer to manage. My corals are all looking amazing and fish doing amazingly well, and don't want to be gone for three weeks and see everything going downhill. Or spend 6 months recovering things.

 

[Formulator]

I usually don’t recommend lanthanum chloride because of its associated potential dangers to fish, but since you are already down that path, have you considered setting up an automated dosing pump? You could use it as your primary rather than a supplement with smaller doses spread out over the week.

Other than that, GFO on a timer is my method. For maintenance of my 0.1 ppm target, I have it on a timer to just run the reactor pump for 3 hours/day. Running it this way the media lasts 6-8 weeks, so should be maintenance free for the trip durations you described.