Does chaeto consume phosphate as it grows?

[guitarfish]

I have a wad of chaeto in my sump which I harvest every month or so. I light it for 10hrs/day. I'm battling cyano/red slime in my tank, and I was wondering if keeping the chaeto lit 24/7 would be a good idea?

My nitrates measure <5, which is very good. I don't have a phosphate tester, but I assume phosphates are the problem. Does chaeto use up phosphate as it grows?

 

[kmk2307]

guitarfish,

Chaeto, like all algae, remove very little phosphate from the water as it grows. An iron hydroxide phospahte remover like Phosban would probably be your best bet. I run my 'fuge lights 24/7. FWIW, Chaeto. is a great 'fuge algae but it won't do a whole lot for your phosphate problem.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[guitarfish]

That's what I was wondering, Kevin. I have Phosban in a bag in my sump, in front of one of the water outlets. I've had it in there for 6 mos, but the cyano never went away. Lately it's gotten bad, so I replaced the old Phosban with new, thinking it may have been saturated. Chaeto's usefullness is to take up nitrate, then?

 

[kmk2307]

Chaeto is very useful at taking up nitrate, not so much phosphate. One complaint I've heard about phosban is that it isn't as effective if it's just sitting in a media bag. Do you have a canister filter you could put it in? I bought a HOT Magnum (~$40 from petwarehouse.com) solely for the purpose of running phosban.

Kevin

 

[guitarfish]

I've heard this about the bag too. I'll have to mess with my system and see what I can come up with.

 

[sjvl51]

The Phosban reactor is about $30 (if I remember correctly) and works 100% better than anything else that I tried. I had the bag in a high flow area in the sump with little results. I then put it in an internal Fluval filter with little results. I got the reactor and within 24 hours saw the phosphate reading drop.


FWIW Cyano may be caused by low nitrates and no phosphates. See this thread - http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=506712

Vickie

 

[RocketSeason]

I am interested in this Phosban. How well does it seem to work? Should I remove my carbon completely and replace it with the Phosban?

I have had a lot of algea problems in the past.

 

[guitarfish]

Phosban absorbs phosphate, but hanging it in a sump in front of water flow doesn't seem to work as well as we'd like. (Incidentally, it doesn't replace carbon, which removes lots of things simply by hanging it in front of flowing water). Many report good results using a "reactor" with Phosban. They are around $35 bucks, I'm sure you'll find a lot if you search RC. I don't have one, but may go that route if I can't solve my cyano problems.