My method for dosing Lanthanum

[Joe Rice]

I'm playing around with reducing my phosphates, which typically run around 0.8 ppm.

I don't want to use a doser out of concern that a dosing failure could wipe out my tank (I've heard too many horror stories). I'm happy to manual dose into a filter sock but I can't see how the filter sock is really going to catch much of the precipitate as the flow through the sock is pretty fast and the volume of water in the sock is tiny compared to the overall size of my tank.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of this but I'm pretty happy with the solution I came up with. I bought one of those IV drip bags used in hospitals. In the morning I fill it with around a liter of water and my daily dose of lanthanum chloride (around 10 drops of Phosphate Rx). It takes around 5 hours for the contents of the bag to drip into my filter sock.

I bought the bag (actually 2) off Amazon. Pretty much plug-and-play - comes with a drip rate controller, drip rate indicator and tube clamp all ready to go.

Amazon.com

 

[DanyL]

This is actually a common practice with LC.
In fact, I used the very same bag (only the 2L version), that said - I only ever used LC in certain situations, and not as an on going thing.

About the socks - there is actually logic behind it.

A 5 micron sock can catch the particulates, and the chemical reaction is immediate - so when you dose it slowly (as it is when using an IV bag with diluted LC) into a sock with running water, it will form Lanthanum Phosphate particulates instantaneously - pretty much as it hits the running water - even before the LC passed through the sock.

That said, you need to regulate the flow and potency of the LC accordingly, because too much LC vs amount of water in the sock will cause unreacted LC to pass through. So a slow drip of highly diluted LC is a requirement for this method to work.

 

[slingfox]

I use a similar setup in the instances where I have had to use LC. I bought the drip bags off Amazon and drip over the course of 12-24 hours into a 5 micron sock. Has worked well without any fish deaths. One time I dosed LC into my overflow chamber and the next morning my yellow tang was laying on the sand and it died later that day. That is why I am very careful in the rare circumstances I feel compelled to bring phosphates levels down. What has helped me keep phosphates in check is reducing how much I feed the fish. They are still fat and healthy looking.