LaCl - Seaklear

Sawdonkey

Sawdonkey

Premium member
I've been having issues getting my phosphates below .10. I'm feeding mostly pellets and nori with very few frozen feelings. I've been running phosLoc in a reactor. I run biopellets and have a great skimmer. I have a large ball of chaeto in my sump. I'm not sure what do now.

I've been reading about lanthanum chloride that can be bought from pool supply places under the name Seaklear. You basically slowly drip it into a filter sock and it instantly binds the phosphate and gets caught in the sock. This sounds like an easy fix, at least temporarily, but I'm worried about the old "nothing good happens quickly" adage.

Does anyone here use LaCl for phosphate control? By the way, my corals all look fine, I'm just always looking to improve conditions.
 
kratos1028

kratos1028

Active member
I used it before when I had a reef. Only thing is you need a micro filter sock since that is the only thing that will remove it from your system aside from what changes. I can't remember the micron size of the sock. If you dose too much, it could stain your glass with A foggy look. Aside from this, it worked great for me. I still have the bottle that I bought from Amazon if you want it.

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Sawdonkey

Sawdonkey

Premium member
Thanks for the link. It's interesting that he drops it right in his skimmer. I think I'd probably try the filter sock method.

I just spent a lot of time reading about this on RC and I think everyone agrees that it works. However, someone said something like "I've done more damage to animals by lowering PO4 too much than I have by leaving it slightly high." I'm probably in the slightly high camp, so I'll let it ride for a while.
 
skunkmere

skunkmere

Member
i got some, Ill give you some to try out for a frag of whatever. probably enought to get you down to where you want to be once you get there then you wont need it, which is why i have some. its not something you use all the time.
 
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Sawdonkey

Sawdonkey

Premium member
skunkmere said:
i got some, Ill give you some to try out for a frag of whatever. probably enought to get you down to where you want to be once you get there then you wont need it, which is why i have some. its not something you use all the time.
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I might take you up on that some time. Did you use it? What were the results?
 
skunkmere

skunkmere

Member
i had high p04 used a few drops in a high flow area and my p04 dropped. the lacl precipitated with p04 on my glass. i scraped it off and used it to get to .03 and then gfo from there. i carbon dose and use gfo now. its great if you wan to get down to a manageable level then to gfo. just use a tiny tiny bit at a time. like a drop in your ato. you have to test your p04 while you dose so you know when to stop.
 
Sawdonkey

Sawdonkey

Premium member
I've read to drop it in front of a 5 micron filter sock and it will precipitate it into the sock. I definitely don't want it precipitating on my glass. Plus I'd like to know that I'm removing most of the precipitate from the system.
 
V

Volcano1

Member
I've been using it for the last 6 months or so. I drip it into a 5 micron sock at around 1 drip a second or slightly slower.I run the flow from my carbon reactor into the sock, catches any fines and feeds the LaCl. I dropped mine down from around.7, to the.1 or less range. Once you get below .1, it is a little less effective.Works better at higher rates to bring it down.I was dosing 10ml to 2liters of water, for 500 gallons daily..Now I use the 10ml/2l for about 3 days worth.Is the most cost effective method I've found for larger systems.6 cups of GFO would only last about a week.Haven't tried recharging any yet though.I also have large skimmer, cheato/xenia fuge, and started carbon dosing 5 weeks ago.HTH's.
Todd
 
Sawdonkey

Sawdonkey

Premium member
Volcano1 said:
I've been using it for the last 6 months or so. I drip it into a 5 micron sock at around 1 drip a second or slightly slower.I run the flow from my carbon reactor into the sock, catches any fines and feeds the LaCl. I dropped mine down from around.7, to the.1 or less range. Once you get below .1, it is a little less effective.Works better at higher rates to bring it down.I was dosing 10ml to 2liters of water, for 500 gallons daily..Now I use the 10ml/2l for about 3 days worth.Is the most cost effective method I've found for larger systems.6 cups of GFO would only last about a week.Haven't tried recharging any yet though.I also have large skimmer, cheato/xenia fuge, and started carbon dosing 5 weeks ago.HTH's.
Todd
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Thanks Todd. This is exactly how I plan to use it, if I do. Are you diluting it before you drip it? Are you saying that you dilute to 10ml to 2L of fresh water and then drip this solution and then drip it for three days until it's gone? Does the filter sock plug up?

My phosphate has been testing between .06 and .12, so I'm going to hold off on this for now. I'm going to stop running GFO (since it's expensive) and just do this as part of my regular maintenance.
 
V

Volcano1

Member
Yes, diluting before using.10ml to 2l ro/di water.The more phosphates you have ,the quicker the sock clogs.The more flow through the sock,the quicker it clogs. I started out using a mj1200, and I would clog the sock in an hour or 2. Went to the slower flow and dripping about the same and could get double the time before clogging.I run it until the sock starts to overflow.You can either put new sock in, rinse that one, or wait 8 hours or so and drip again.If you don't change out the sock, you get slighly less time before clogging. If you change it for a new one or rinse, you can drip longer .I've been dripping about 2-3 hrs a day.I change out the sock when it clogs fairly quick.
 
C

chiguy79

Member
bumping this old tread.. where did u guys source your sealer haven't found it at the few pool stores I went to in West suburbs.

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