Use of Phosphate reactor for hair algea control

[mling]

I have a hair algae problem in my 16 G nano tank, home to a pair of Black Ocellaris Clown. My primany tank has no such problem since I have Tangs in it. Solved most of it with a Sea hare until it decided to try tasting the hair algae at the power head ! I am now using a Kent Phosphate reactor to control phosphate, one of the primary causes of algae. Reading the instructions, I should only be using no more than 1/3 cup of media (Kent Phosguard) in the reactor, which equates to about ½ an inch high of media in the reactor. It has helped since my phosphate reading was off the chart, greater than 2, it is now 0.8.

Can you put too much phosban in the reactor ? i.e. can you overdose a tank ?

Instructions also suggest that you can reuse the media, it that true ?

Do you continue to use the reactor after you have brought the phosphate down to an acceptable level?

 

[Anonymous]

I have a hair algae problem in my 16 G nano tank, home to a pair of Black Ocellaris Clown. My primany tank has no such problem since I have Tangs in it. Solved most of it with a Sea hare until it decided to try tasting the hair algae at the power head ! I am now using a Kent Phosphate reactor to control phosphate, one of the primary causes of algae. Reading the instructions, I should only be using no more than 1/3 cup of media (Kent Phosguard) in the reactor, which equates to about ½ an inch high of media in the reactor. It has helped since my phosphate reading was off the chart, greater than 2, it is now 0.8.

Can you put too much phosban in the reactor ? i.e. can you overdose a tank ?

Instructions also suggest that you can reuse the media, it that true ?

Do you continue to use the reactor after you have brought the phosphate down to an acceptable level?

You can remove P too quickly, yes. I would follow the suggested instructions as far as amount to use.

You can "reuse" it inasmuch as it is not exhausted. Once a GFO granule is "saturated" with P, it is worthless and cannot be recharged like some other media can.

I continue to use my reactor 24/7, which is what I think most people do.

Another way to limit P in your tank is to drip kalkwasser in, which seems to reduce P in the water for a lot of people.

A couple more things--one, a lot of hair algae is fertilized by nutrients that are very near the surface of live rock or on a substrate, rather than in the water column. Two, if your water is high in organics there will be a constant source of organic P > inorganic P to fuel algae growth. A GFO reactor alone will not correct either of these problems if it is the root cause of your algae issue. In addition to the reactor you may consider manually removing the algae on a regular basis, scrubbing the rock off, getting a more efficient skimmer, and running activated carbon. In short, you'll need to attack it from several different angles. HTH, Matt

 

[Anonymous]

H.A. can also grow under low PO4 conditions if it is the only limiting nutrient.