Phosguard safe for Reactor?

so i just got a phosphate reactor for a pretty good price ($45)....now im trying to decide which media to run in it...

i use to run phosguard in a bag that i had near my pump...after talking with LFS and others i have come to believe that fluidization is far more effective at helping the media work.

now, i have found that there are either two choices...GFO or AO based...
my concern is with the AO based products (this is what seachem is)...

after reading around i found some people saying AO based phosphate removers can release aluminum or some kind of metal...even on seachems website they acknowledge the 'rumor' and they did a study. the results found that at normal pH levels...the aluminum was undetectable i believe...the same wasnt said for lower pH, and this is where wording became gray and you had to download a big .pdf to read the study...

1. anyway, would i be ok using this AO based product in my reactor, should i be concerned about the flow through the chamber?

2. are the grains boucning off eachother going to be an issue w/ AO based phosphate removers?

3. is GFO just better? (seachem claims nothings better than AO based?!?)

help!

 

I have used RowaPHOS for about 1.5 yrs now and really like the product.

 

i use phosban by two little fishies and love it. it's pricey, but worth the money since it lasts me a few months.

 

ok... ....

are those two GFO or AO based? and if they are AO based are u afriad of the aluminum leaching aspect...

and what color are those two products?? im about to look right now...thanks in advance

 

the product by TLF is brown which means it is GFO based....i need some info on the white colored media...

 

rowaphos is also dark which makes me believe it is also GFO based

 

what's GFO stand for? i havent researched this stuff in a while. G ferric oxide?

 

yup....granular ferric oxide (GFO) or alumina oxide (AO)

 

I've read about it too and decided against the AO based stuff. GOF will in fact put iron in the water and help algae grow, but limiting phosphates will limit it's growth. And iron in the water is no big deal. So I choose to accept it, and don't have a algae problem anyway. There were plenty of folks that saw a noticable down turn running AO based sponges.

I don't in fact know if AO based is more effective than GFO in removal of PO4.

GFO needs to tumble to keep it from solidifying. But only enought o see it move. Go to BRS and watch their vidio on GFO in a reactor to get an idea of how much is enough. Not sure about AO based stuff.

 

Phosguard and other AO-based media are fine for use in a fluidized reactor. I don't care what the studies say. Thousands of people have watched their leather corals shut down while running them. That the main problem with them. It's also important to recognize that AO media are exhausted in just a few days. That's the main reason that most people have move to the GFO products. They have their own issues too (drop in pH). You can run GFO for a long time.