GFO constantly?

Bulk Reefs caluculator is about twice too high. Check out EVERY other vendor and you will find they all say 10 grams or one tablespoon for every 10 gallons of water full dosage. I don't know whay theirs is so high since its the same media everyone else sells. I would cut their dose in half for a full dose and half again for just starting out or a maintenance dose.

 

The ideal "tumble" is to just have the surface of the GFO moving. It should resemble water thats lightly boiling. Too much tumble and the GFO will grind too much, too little and it clumps.

 

I 100% agree with this!!! There's less chance for alk swings. The extra amount is not needed. I think this all boils down to the fact that their reactors aren't as efficient as DIY reactors nor Phosban reactors.

 

Interesting conversation. I thought BRS calculator was the one to go with, but I do think it's quite a bit of GFO that fits into that big container. Maybe this was not the right choice of a reactor for me then. The "Dual" part is what sold me out. Not having to deal with media bags was a plus for me. I will start to cut my dose in half and then some more or will double check with a different calculator. Hopefully, whatever I need to really put in there will cover the surface of the canister sponge disk.

Thanks for mentioning this.

- Mag.

 

Yup!!! Fried a coupla monties like this. I cut back to half of recommended & still no high phos. I've since gone to pellets and am tweaking up the amount weekly while reducing the amount of GFO.

 

So when I switch out the GFO next time I should cut in half? From .63 cup to about a third? That's a nice money saver!

 

Why would their reactors be less efficient?

 

I have both TLF reactors and a BRS Dual reactor. In theory, there shouldn't be any difference. However, in practice, the BRS has much less even fluidization IME. Doesn't really bother me. I just use a TLF reactor for biopellets.

 

OK tank is still starting its cycle. When do you add gfo and maybe carbon.

 

I would personally wait for at least a few months for GFO. I've experimented with this quite a bit now and found that it may lead to certain issues such as cyano. My hypothesis is that in a new tank, there is certain instability, and nutrient fluctuations. Removing phosphate, does not remove the other nutrients. For these you need to wait for other process to happen such as colonization of denitrifying bacteria. So, important "algaes" (using term loosely), such as diatoms don't develop and other nuisance "algaes" such as cyano are then able to compete for the scarce nutrients. I think this is because the Redfield ratio is only approximate and certain algae are better suited to certain shifts from this. Ideally, I think this ratio should be maintained, but overall magnitude kept low. I think this is very tough to do in a new tank, especially when you start tinkering with specific nutrient levels.

I've been thinking about this for a number of years, as have other, but this certainly isn't accepted by everyone. It's only an hypothosis and an opinion others may disagree.