Phosphate-E vs. The Inexperienced Reefer

[ZzyzxRiver]

I have been dosing lanthanum chloride (Phosphate-E) for my phosphate problem, which was pretty persistently at .4ppm and leading to a nightmare GHA outbreak requiring hours of removal every week.

It was only after three 5ml doses over three days into my 50g (41g water volume) tank that I did additional research. Whooooooops. Please do not judge me: I did not dose into a 5ml filter. I do not have a protein skimmer. What I now have, apparently, is a bunch of lanthanum phosphate and lanthanum chloride precipitate floating around in my system.

I’m obviously not dosing any more (and will be dosing in vastly lower doses) until I get that filter. But what do I do for damage control? So far everyone in my tank from inverts to corals to fish all seem fine, but I would prefer not to face a disaster going forward!

 

[BryanM]

the precipitant from LC dosing largely affects tangs.

Do you have filter sock(s)? I would just replace with some new socks, 5 micron would be great, and replace them in a day or two... a 5 micron sock will likely clog pretty quickly, but should catch most of this quickly.

 

[Red_Beard]

Filter socks will be the best solution here. Then you can also dose into them in the future.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

I have a media rack instead of socks. I can only find one kind of floss at 5 microns, everything else is socks. Will that work?

 

[Red_Beard]

I think if you pack enough bulk floss in, it would work just fine. You wouldnt need to worry about micron ratings if you go thay route.
How possible would it be to make a sock holder to stick in the media tray slot?

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

I think if you pack enough bulk floss in, it would work just fine. You wouldnt need to worry about micron ratings if you go thay route.
How possible would it be to make a sock holder to stick in the media tray slot?

Well, I hated socks so I took the sock holder out to fit a media tray LOL.

Anything stopping me from just laying a sock down on the media tray and acting like it’s sheet floss?

 

[Red_Beard]

Well, I hated socks so I took the sock holder out to fit a media tray LOL.

Anything stopping me from just laying a sock down on the media tray and acting like it’s sheet floss?

Do you still have it?

Nope, nothing stopping you from doing that. You could even cut the plastic ring off too so it would sit flatter. As long as there wasn't a path for the water to flow around it vs through it, you would be good to go.

 

[exnisstech]

I would try to determine the cause of the GHA because IME regardless of what gets repeated over and over again high levels of PO4 alone have never caused nuisance algae in any tank I've kept.
This tank ran PO4 0.5+ for over 6 years.

I moved to this tank 1.5 years ago and PO4 levels run 0.5-0.9+ which is my testers max. I have zero nuisance algae.

EDIT: i currently have 1 tank out of 5 that has nuisance algae and it's just tufts here and there, nothing that I'm concerned with. Most of this is on the back wall which I assume is because there is nothing on the plastic to out compete it.
PO4 in this tank PO4 has been from 0.01 - 0.04. another reason I don't believe what are considered higher levels of PO4 is a driver of GHA

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

I would try to determine the cause of the GHA because IME regardless of what gets repeated over and over again high levels of PO4 alone have never caused nuisance algae in any tank I've kept.
This tank ran PO4 0.5+ for over 6 years.

Cause is easy: 7 month old tank with a dry start, CUC attrition, and I didn’t replace them before I went on a two week trip out of town, and my friend feeding the fish overfed. The phosphates I think just supercharged it. Aside from the algae, my LPS got in really bad shape, and I want more but need to fix the phosphate issue first.

I added a ton of CUC and they keep rock clean once I do manual removal, but I definitely want to get phosphate figured out because I have another couple weeks out of town coming up and I want to leave the tank in a good position!

My overdosing brought phosphates from .4 to .1, but I’m willing to bet there’ll be leaching bringing it back up. I’m gonna dose at a way slower rate following the filter directions properly and hope for the best!

 

[exnisstech]

Ya dry rock start up is tough. I did it once but have no plans on doing it again.
The second tank shown above was all dry rock in the DT but I packed the sump full of old live rock.
I started this tank the same way.

I love live rock.
I took a look at your tank thread and it doesn't look too bad. Love your scape. Building a nice scape is where I totally fail. I lack the creative gene I think.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Ya dry rock start up is tough. I did it once but have no plans on doing it again.
The second tank shown above was all dry rock in the DT but I packed the sump full of old live rock.
I started this tank the same way.

I love live rock.
I took a look at your tank thread and it doesn't look too bad. Love your scape. Building a nice scape is where I totally fail. I lack the creative gene I think.

Thanks! I used to be a florist and the skills are completely transferrable to aquascaping. Of course, the style of aquascaping I did necessitates a dry start! I didn’t give the tank a proper cycle in the beginning (just brought over a few rocks that were 6 months old from another dry start in my previous tank), and candidly I got away with murder considering I had all the livestock transferred within days. Paying for it now I suppose!

I wonder how you could go about doing ‘designer’ aquascapes with ocean live rock. You’d probably have to yank them from the tank, crack’em smaller, fiddle with the arrangement in the water, pull back out to glue, repeat? Sounds difficult, maybe dry display with live sump is the only way!

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

BTW your scape totally works aesthetically. Nicely proportioned features from what I can tell. And the goal is to get people looking at your corals, not the rocks, right?

 

[exnisstech]

BTW your scape totally works aesthetically. Nicely proportioned features from what I can tell. And the goal is to get people looking at your corals, not the rocks, right?

Thanks. That is the goal and with enough coral the rocks won't be visible.
I think to build a specific scape it almost has to be dry rock but yes live rock in the sump is a game changer at keeping the uglies at bay.
This is my sump on the large tank above. I run it as cryptic zone so I don't have to worry about algae growing.

I'm a live rock hoarder . I bought a bunch of real ocean live rock 9 years ago when I started. It was much more affordable then. I've used it to seed more rock and have never let a piece of live rock dry out. I keep a brute full in the basement.