I have been using this stuff for the last 3 months at small doses w/ combination of chemipure elite. I received my phosban reactor a few days ago and decided to run some Seachem Phosban in it. Unfortunately, it did some bad things. I feel the chemipure elite has been balancing out the problems until now when I increased the phosban dose. I noticed that my star polyps and xenia react poorly too it. I feel it is due to the increase in Aluminum in the water chemistry since phosban is made from an aluminum based absorbant. Other reefers have also reported this as well, star polyps being sensitive to seachem's phosban. The phosban reactor was ran for only 3 days, the xenia and star polyp took a pretty bad beating during this time period. The star polyps closed completely and have not opened since and the xenia looks like its frills have been burnt on all its little polyps. I quickly removed the phosban and replaced it with some chemipure elite. I have a huge stash now. The neat thing from this experience is that my tank also has several sps corals. I have some acros, birdnests and a stylophora. They appear to be unaffected from phosban and same with my zoanthids. I guess if your one of those reefers who has a huge GSP take over, you could just run some phosban and kill it off without harming the other corals. I am currently running 3 packs of chemipure elite and did a 20% water change the previous day. Probably will do another 5% today. The xenia has recovered fairly well. Looks about 85% good again. The star polyps however, have not opened since. The only signs that they are doing okay is that they are starting to form bumps again on the creep they sprout from. I'd say a few more days and they should be back to normal. Seachem's phosban is bad for my star polyps and certain xenia. I don't have many types corals so I can't say much about any others but I can tell from what I have, I will no longer be using this product. I'll probably keep myself from buying star polyps this weekend or atleast anything of colony size.
The "Two Little Fishes" Phosban is a GFO. (Granular Ferric Oxide) GFO=safe. Never use a white Po4 binder. Have saw, will travel.
Yeah, I read a few posts of people running seachem's phosban as well. Some with positive and some with negative. I gave it a shot and it slapped me. lol.
I wonder if aluminum is the problem or if you dropped your phosphate levels too fast, and softies don't like water that's that's too clean.
Xenia and GSP like dirty conditions. If it was aluminum poisoning you would have lost all inverts. Same effect as copper. If not, I say congratulations on ridding you tank of pests. Time to go SPS!! lol Have saw, will travel.
