Filter Pad/Floss for Lanthanum Chloride Dosing

[Biokabe]

My tanks have always had persistently high phosphate levels, and while they can clear out algae eventually with sufficient CUC and water changes... I'd like to get to the point where I'm not one snail death away from getting my tank overrun with algae. I exaggerate, but only just.

My tank is 90g, with an 18 gallon sump.

I have an ATS (harvested every 1-2 weeks with thick algae), a refugium (harvesting a softball-sized clump of densely packed chaeto every 1-2 weeks), and a skimmer. Even with running 100ml of Rowaphos per week, I've never been able to get my phosphates down below 1.0 PPM. Before I started using Rowaphos, my phosphates were up around 3 PPM.

I had a major tank crash when I upgraded to the 90g (thanks, Red Sea) and lost most of my CUC and my tang. I've added a foxface and have rebuilt a good chunk of the CUC, but algae is desperately trying to take back over my rockwork, and I'm sure the elevated phosphate levels aren't helping.

So I'd like to start dosing lanthanum, but in the past I haven't had a lot of success with it, I'm guessing because of my filtration situation. My sump is a Red Sea sump and the sock holders are sized with Red Sea's wonky sizing, and they don't make a low-micron filter sock that will fit in their holders. I've improvised solutions before, but I don't think I was able to pass a significant volume of water through said improvised solution and so I wasn't really treating much water. I know that with lanthanum, you really want to dose into a fine filter material to catch the particulate... so are there any good filter pads or filter flosses out there that would work to stuff into the filter cups in my sump? What do people use when their sump won't take a standard filter sock? Am I just overthinking it? (Not that I've ever done that, no....)

I no longer have a tang in the tank, so I'm not terribly worried about that right now... but I might have one again in the future and I'm sure my phosphate issues won't just vanish, so I'd like to have a solution I could use even if I do have a tang.

 

[TX_REEF]

I use this stuff, massive roll for cheap, cut to size and toss the used stuff out. https://amzn.to/3YHukmS

 

[Biokabe]

Exactly what I was looking for, I saw that on Chewy earlier and wondered if it would be fine for lanthanum dosing.

 

[TX_REEF]

Happy to help! it should be fine with anything, it's non-reactive to my knowledge and in my experience, simple water polishing mechanical media.

 

[UMALUM]

If you don't have any inhabitants that would be effected then it's really not that big a deal. Ultimately with lanthanum dosing your skimmer is gonna be your best friend as I've had it travel through 5 and 10. It's either gonna get skimmed out or settle. If you don't want it reaching the display just cut off your return and strip the sump.

 

[Ryan - Serious Reefs]

If you’re running a scrubber, refugium, skimmer, and ROWA, and phosphate is still sitting above 1 ppm, something isn’t adding up. Before piling on lanthanum, I’d focus on finding the source of the issue.

Do you use an auto feeder? If so, that’s often the culprit. Try scaling it back.

How much are you feeding? Next time you feed, count the pellets or cubes and ask yourself if you could cut that in half. Half the input means half export required.

What are you feeding? Some foods have very high phosphate levels compared to others. Check this link

Are you doing regular water changes? Ten percent weekly can help cap how high phosphate climbs.

Is there anything in the tank that could be leaching phosphate?

What test kit are you using? When results defy logic, it’s often the test method rather than the tank.