Used gfo for too long

davilahope · Feb 4, 2021

About a month or two ago I got my first micro gonipora and it was doing great for the first 4 days til my alkalinity dropped too much due to me using gfo and not monitoring my alkalinity.. my goni is only extending some of its tentacles and only partially!! I believe the flow and the lighting is ok because it's not bleaching and i did already get some polys extension before my alkalinity dropped.. can anyone explain to me maybe what all did the gfo strip out of my tank and what I can do to help my gonipora? The rest of my corals seem to be doing ok
My alkalinity is now 8.8dkh but it dropped to less than 6.0 before I noticed it was dropping so much.. my alkalinity has been back up and stable for about 2 weeks now

#alkalinity
#gfo
#gonipora
#lps
#coral

lapin · Feb 4, 2021

You should also check your Po4. GFO can strip that out of a system and corals need nutrients to grow.

Dkmoo · Feb 4, 2021

Lol didn't we already answer this in the posted you made earlier? @Hydrored i think linked to that thread a discussion that randy answered on the chemical reaction thats causing it. Basically gfo triggers more precipitation either from locally increased ph, or iron binding to caco3.

Take a read at that post, has all the details and a lot of good information.

To fix either take ur gfo offline or start dosing alk

I would recommend not using gfo until you are more comfortable with all the chemistry involved in your reef tank and how nutrient cycle runs thru your system. GFO is very effective at pulling out po4, but whether or not that's good for yiur tank depends on a lot of factors. Using it without keeping a full pulse on your tank can also masks underlying tank issues (nutrient input, uptake, export, as well as tank stability and maturation issues)