ORDERS STOPPED for GROUP BUY: $14 per pound Phosban media

[Matt]

Random bump for happiness! My reef is now almost algae free! It has taken quite a lot of the GFO to do it, the algae tried to return twice, but is now on the run!

All praise to GFO and Two Little Fishies!!!

[Myka]

I shoulda hopped on this wagon...anyone order more than they really wanted?? I'll buy a pound or two off someone.

[Myka]

No eh? Haha! I didn't think so...

[Chin_Lee]

I just wanted to post my own experience with this material.
EQUIPMENT:
I am using a modified phosban reactor
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=37940
which is using a Mag7 for flow through the chamber. The flow through the chamber is dependent on the amount of media I put into the chamber as the resistance increases therefore decreasing the flow.

REFUGIUM:
Around the same time, I also plumbed in a 40g refugium with a lot of chaeto, caleurpa taxiflora, and gracillaria. At the bottom of the refugium, I placed 1" of Mineral Mud and .5" of sand.

PREVIOUS MEDIA:
Before the group buy I had purchase a 1200g of TLF Phosban (for $90 which translate to 2.6 lbs at $34/lb.......... )
I put in about 1 lb of TLF Phosban into my reactor and I rinsed it out with fresh water. I then let it run for about 3-4 days, and the red dust did not stop. I was not able to get the red dust to stop and a good amount of this red dust began to show up on my rocks. I was lazy and didnt' do anything about it.
Hair algae growth slowed but still quite abundant.

GROUP BUY MEDIA:
Soon after the group buy, I changed out the media and placed a sponge filter on the output inside the chamber. Media was rinsed and put inline. The sponge trapped a lot of bigger particles but not the smaller particles. I have now placed a fliter sock on the output hose of the reactor and this sock needs to be rinsed out weekly. THE DUST DOES NOT STOP coming out.
Hair algae had died off drastically by this point.

A month later, I changed the media again and hair algae is GONE!

RESULTS:
The combination of this media and refugium has definitely snuffed out my hair algae problem. It also helped to have so much of this media and being able to use it liberally.
Since I started putting a filter sock on the output of the reactor, the red dust is no longer visible on my rocks - so no harm done.

WHY DUST:
I believe my reactor design is the cause of the red dust but I cannot confirm this until I modify it. Unlike the phosban reactors, my reactor design does not elevate the media off the bottom and disperse the flow through a diffuser plate. Currently my media sits at the bottom of the chamber and the velocity and pressure of the water flow to keep the media fluidized is very direct. I believe that this causes the media to collide with each other too much force causing the red dust to form.
I believe if I were to put a diffuser plate at the bottom and let the diffused flow through the plate (similar to the Phosban reactors), I will have less red dust.

I should note that the red dust started with the TLF Phosban and continued with the Group Buy Phosban.

Does anybody else run into any "red dust" problems?

[Skimmerking]

chin i had the same problem my aglae that i have been fighting since dec06 is finally going away . and i do get some red dust i dont rinse i fill and run about a gallon of water through thereactor and then it goes away.

[christyf5]

I run the output of my phosban reactor directly into a filter sock. Before running the output into the sump I run about a gallon or two into a bucket to get out the major particulates and then turn the reactor off to let everything settle, then carefully ramp up the flow to where I want it. Anything that makes it through the sock is likely to settle in the sump. I've never had issues with any red dust in the main tank. Theres so much algae and particulates that build up on the inside of the sock it makes it hard to determine just how much red dust is making it into the sock. I would say it settles down after the first couple of hours.

[wetcoast]

My skimmer and my sump has a nice layer of red scum on it, and my clear tubing has turned a strange shade of crimson. I attribute this to putting far too much flow into my reactor at first. I as well run the output into a sock - which catches the big stuff.

I haven't had success with my hair algae yet, am trying a few methods (livestock, GFO, refugium, plucking). I will be ramping up my GFO output and hopefully this will disappear soon - I want to stock with corals!