Ah, mostly I was confused on the difference of using reduced amounts of GFO or not. Been using much less than the recommended amount at first but since the reactor outputs 0 anyhow. So I'm unclear of what's the point of adding more gfo at a time down the road, since the capacity to reduce PO4 can't really be any better than it is - except that "more gfo" should also mean "replace less often" .. but I'm kind of thinking it works out the same either way? Is the difference of 1 cup in the reactor, and 2 cups in the reactor .. the same as the difference of "replace every week" or "replace every 2 weeks"? Sorry I'm not a very good communicator so I have no idea if this makes sense or not.

I just used to test my PO4 every couple of weeks, if it stayed low all was good, if it went up a little, I'd change out the PO4. Currently I change it out about every 6 weeks or so whether it needs it or not (stopped testing). Most of my PO4 is tied up in caulerpa anyways :rolleyes:

I just removed my phosphate media reactor completely. It had been months since I changed the media, so it clearly wasn't doing anything and the tank is doing great.

But you have a fairly large macro algae refugium though, still, right? My guess is that is where PO4 is being absorbed if you are not finding PO4 to be an issue.

tony you want some macro??

I've done both caulerpa and chaeto in the past with reasonable results. Chaeto I didn't mind but it died out after I switched to NP pellets and I never started it up after stopping pellets just on account that I was convinced zeovit would take care of the PO4. Caulerpa OTOH was a freakin' disaster, it spread all over the display tank and I was never able to fully rid myself of it. It would literally hide in spots where I (and my tang) couldn't see it and that stuff is nasty, it'll totally kill off coral if it wants to. Doug claims anemones are evil, I say anemones are more on the dumb side and it is caulerpa that is evil - I swear it has a sentient malevolent intelligence to it, which is rather impressive for an algae.

For the moment I think I'm OK - thanks for the offer though! I haven't ruled out going back to a non-caulerpa-type-macro down the road, if I decide that GFO isn't for me or something like that..

Wordy update with tons of pics please.

Bonus points if you use 'pheasant balls'.

What Tony lacks in balls he makes up for with eloquent prose. Now where is he?

Driving the long trek between the north stores and his homebase in the Deep South? <-- My phone demanded deep south be capitalized to emphasize its very south-ness.