I haven’t done it yet my self, but there’s a video on reefgeek’s website that I saw and I believe it’s Chris that was doing the video on how the regenerate GFO by using muriatic acid. I have stock pile of used GFO and DI that I keep and hopfully someday have time to regenerate them instead of keeping on buying them.
Well, the other day, i ran that article across an old friend who is a PHD Chemist for his comments on how it would work. He seemed to agree you can do it. the first weak acid wash removes any precipitated carbonates that formed on the GFO surface. and then the caustic bath would remove the phosphates bound to the GFO. so maybe its a practical idea as long as we maintain the acid and caustic concentration within the articles defined ranges. We can get all the muratic acid we want at Lowes, Paint department. But im not sure where to get a good, clean supply of caustic soda, Sodium Hydroxide. any sugguestions?
Also , Reefman, the procedure for regenerating DI resin is fairly straight forward. it is easiest when you keep the Anion and Cation resins separate in different filter chambers. they require different treatment, with acid or base. just a little messy. There are some articles on how to do it at home, out there, somewhere on the net. I’ll see if i can find one. there was even one on how to separate, and regenerate MIX bed resins. a bunch trickier and more work.
Thanks Ken. There’s an article and pics from advance aquarist that I bookmarked on my webpage. I just need to find time to give it a try (regenerating DI resin).
We have never done this due to cost/time/risk, but if someone did begin to start doing this we may examine the possibility of holding onto old GFO, and DI resin if someone could put it to good use. We use a good bit of both. Hate throwing things into the trash knowing someone else could use them. Reduce, reuse, recycle.