Great job Boomer and Randy!!!
Aquarists who choose to use such materials should be aware of the possible biological problems that other aquarists have encountered. Starting slowly and allowing the phosphate to decline over a period of a week or two may be less stressful than dropping it in a period of hours, regardless of the mechanism of the problems encountered. Using a smaller amount of material, and changing it more frequently, may also be less stressful. Salifert recommends using 250 mL (8.5 ounces) of its product (Phosphate Killer) to treat a 125-250 gallon tank for up to three months. There is, however, nothing wrong with starting with 1/10 that amount to see what happens. While it may be more work, using one ounce and changing it after two weeks may reduce some of the issues that aquarists have observed when changing the media.
This DEFINATELY seems the wisest course to me and I have read from others that they believed it helped their systems.
Aquarists should also be aware that dropping phosphate to extremely low (i.e., growth limiting) levels may cause undesirable effects that reef aquarists do not typically encounter without using such materials.
Boomer, this seems near impossible to me to get a closed system that low unless the aquarist had a MASSIVE skimmer, AND a refugium, AND replaced their DI resins every month, AND used a phosphate-free salt mix, AND they turkey basted their rocks each and every day, AND barely fed any food at all, AND the food they had was simply blender mush that was stripped of all polyphosphates, then blended, soaked in RO/DI water again, and then strained through some sort of mesh.
Boomer, I'm trying to picture in my mind just how few tanks in the world have so few phosphates that they are limiting based on my example above. It seems to me that any problems are based on the statement, "no good thing ever happens quickly in a reef tank" as opposed to a P limitation. I'm curious on your thoughts.
