Cheato = Phosphates????? *EXPERIMENT*

cashman95

cashman95

New member
I have recently ( two months ago) bought a Salifert PO4 test kit as well as a phosban reactor. I use Phosban media at half the recomended dosage. I have a 30 gallon refugium with Cheato! In the past I had a small problem with some hair algea, until I got the reactor...now I get very small readings form my salifert test kit.

It seems like I have gotten a bit obsessed with trying to get a 0 reading from my test kit. Instead I get .03!!!! Again Salifert test kit!

Well in my quest to find out where I am getting phophate from I have tested 1. my source water, and I got a 0 reading! (Di/Di filter BTW) 2. my make up water (instant ocean) and also get a 0 reading. 3. I even caught a few fish and gave them to a friend to see if my Bio-load was a bit high. 4. fed less!!!!

SO...with these things under my belt, and still getting the same readings on my Phosphate test kit .03 I decided to take all my cheato out and give it a few days to see if that made any changes.....

YES it did.....my phosphate did drop, to what extent, I will never know without taking reading on a colormeter, BUT the salifert test kit IS even less tinted blue than before!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THIS IS THE SHOCKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I put the cheato in a bucket of freshly made up salt water. Today when I was filling up my top off container, I had a thought.....what if I tested the less than 2 day old water that the cheato is in? Again, the water in the bucket full of cheato is less than 48 hours old. I TESTED IT, and the reading was off the chart!
Way past what my salifert test kit could read!

Now I ask you guys, why was my cheato leaching phospahtes at such a considerable rate? And was this the real source of my PO4 problem?

JUST THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE MY THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES WITH YOU GUYS. Tell me what you think?
 
Do you ever clean out the chaeto? On occassion, I take mine out and swish it around in salt water to knock out the detritus.
 
yeah, if you dont trim or shake it around every now and then, and let a lot of detritus and crap build up.................then the cheato WILL be a phosphate machine
 
I do not use tap water, I specified that I use filtered DI/DI water, with a TDS reading of 0


Yes I do trim the cheato back to about a baseball size ball probably ever 3 months, and I dont seem to ever get any detritus buildup...even when I swish it around, I dont see very much clouding of the water?

The main reason I want to get 0 phosphates is for coloration in my SPS. I know that its very hard to acheive 0 PO4, but on a salifert test kit, 0 doesnt always mean 0. So thats a goal I was trying to achieve. Extremely low!!!
 
You may have killed some of the chaeto putting it in water not established - whether it shows signs of die-off or not.

Besides that every type of food you feed contains phosphates - it's unavoidable.
 
Healthy, growing cheato will consume phosphate.

THe first two words are not really covered when sitting in a bucket for 48-hours.
 
That is why you are to harvest the cheato regularly. The cheato will consume phosphates, then you need to trim back the cheato.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11003869#post11003869 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cashman95
I do not use tap water, I specified that I use filtered DI/DI water, with a TDS reading of 0
Click to expand...

Where did you get di/di tapwater for this experiment?
 
My house, why?

I tested my water coming out of the filter before the DI/DI and it has a reading of 17ppm and 20ppm before the filter. I think that is pretty low for tap water!

I guess I could understand that the cheato has some die off and leach's it back into the bucket water, but >48 hours and off the chart is a shocker to me!
 
Sorry didint see the ro/di. I think whene you added to the new batch of water you could have shocked it. The salt should be well mixed and circulated. This is same with fish . This could injure and even kill stock if added to soon.
Also Mb your light bulb needs changing.
 
No, I dont use RO water, because of A. I dont have very bad tap water to begin with ( 20ppm with TDS meter), and B. the waste assoc. with RO. I do however use a carbon/floss pre-filter and TWO DI stages. A lot of people call it cold sterile, I like to call it DI/DI. With my 3 stages, Pre-filter/DI/DI I get a tds reading of 0, without all the waste water that is assoc. with RO! In fact I get a TDS reading of 0 with just one DI stage hooked up, I just use two so that when the first gets exhausted, I am still getting all the bad out with the second in line.

It cost me about 8 dollars every three months for a new DI pack! Cheap if you ask me!

I do mix my saltwater in a 35 gallon holding tank, way before using it. I always have 35 gallons mixed on hand! Hobby Experience.....8 Years..........LOL
 
well thats what my meter says?????
I am not trying to argue with anyone about this!

Thanks for all your replies!
 
Hey, not trying to argue. I am trying to get a handle on this myself. I have just started using a phos reactor and testing for phosphates. I was not suggesting that your reading was wrong just that it was my understanding ( I could be wrong) that a zero reading was not necessary.
 
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