Dosing Lanthanum Chloride to reduce PO4

[Myka]

Hey, so I've been looking into this a bit more myself, and found some people saying that the LC "cloud" will come out of a 10 micron sock, but will not come out of a 1 micron sock.

A tee on the return could supply flow for a sock like this. Maybe hang the sock off the ball valve (if it's in the right place). Then the sock has to be removed before it clogs and starts to overflow (a couple hours?). Another thought I had was to drip the LC into the emergency pipe of a Herbie drain, and as long as you have a bit of water going through there it should do the trick. You can water down the LC too so that it's not as concentrated for each drop. Lots of diferent ways to get it done, but it seems like 1 micron sock is what you need. I found a couple (expensive) options on Amazon.ca and a bunch of much cheaper options on Amazon.com. Maybe you could find something locally and start carrying them???

Oh, and watch your alkalinity because most of what precipitates is Lanthanum carbonate (as per Randy Holmes-Farley).

[MitchM]

I came across one study in the past that demonstrated free lanthanum chloride clogging the gills of daphinia and accumulating on the outer membrane of certain bacteria.
Also, once lanthanum chloride binds to phosphorous and settles on the substrate, if it is injested into a fish's gut, it can become free again in that low PH environment and be re-released into the water column as it passes through the fish.

With GFO, it can remove trace minerals, so it has it's drawbacks as well.

I found that you had to dose very little LC into a 10 micron sock to be effective. You don't have to run your whole sump return volume through the 10 micron sock. When the sock overflowed is when I changed out the sock.

I found no actual studies on larger fish being negatively affected by a cloud of LC, only anecdotal evidence.

.

[xenon]

Originally Posted by Myka

Hey, so I've been looking into this a bit more myself, and found some people saying that the LC "cloud" will come out of a 10 micron sock, but will not come out of a 1 micron sock.

A tee on the return could supply flow for a sock like this. Maybe hang the sock off the ball valve (if it's in the right place). Then the sock has to be removed before it clogs and starts to overflow (a couple hours?). Another thought I had was to drip the LC into the emergency pipe of a Herbie drain, and as long as you have a bit of water going through there it should do the trick. You can water down the LC too so that it's not as concentrated for each drop. Lots of diferent ways to get it done, but it seems like 1 micron sock is what you need. I found a couple (expensive) options on Amazon.ca and a bunch of much cheaper options on Amazon.com. Maybe you could find something locally and start carrying them???

Oh, and watch your alkalinity because most of what precipitates is Lanthanum carbonate (as per Randy Holmes-Farley).

Thanks Mindy,

I spent hours reading about LC and never once did I read anything about 1 micron socks. I would imagine it would clog up after 50 gallons of water would pass through it. lol

I ended up ordering 25 of the 10 micron socks online so that I can replace them often. I diluted 5ml of LC into 1L of RO/DI water. I am using a dosing pump to add 6ml every hour, 24hrs /day. 1L of solution should last me 5 days.

I have no idea if its enough (probably not) but I gotta start somewhere.

I was aware of the alkalinity dropping with the use of LC. This is used in a fish system its a non issue.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by xenon

Thanks Mindy,

I spent hours reading about LC and never once did I read anything about 1 micron socks. I would imagine it would clog up after 50 gallons of water would pass through it. lol

I ended up ordering 25 of the 10 micron socks online so that I can replace them often. I diluted 5ml of LC into 1L of RO/DI water. I am using a dosing pump to add 6ml every hour, 24hrs /day. 1L of solution should last me 5 days.

I have no idea if its enough (probably not) but I gotta start somewhere.

I was aware of the alkalinity dropping with the use of LC. This is used in a fish system its a non issue.

Watch pH.

Well, I was thinking it would clog up after 50 gallons too, but a couple of these guys said as long as you used a big sock like 4x18" that it can be used for several hours. I ordered some of the 1 micron socks and will give it a go too.