dried seaweed (nori) and water quality

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There does appear to be a big difference. Not sure if that is natural variability or something else.

 

[lamarine23]

I just tested some H2O life brown seaweed and the stuff was off the charts with PO4....I will never use this stuff again. I've been try to figure out what was going on with my phosphates all this time and it was the damn seaweed. Frustrating. I'm going to test some other brands.

 

[rayjay]

If that's the case, don't test other foods because you will most likely find phosphates in everything.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Like a potentially misleading GAC test, you need to keep in mind the amount of water involved. A spoon of fish food in 20 mL of water showing 2 ppm phosphate will dilute to 0.001 ppm in 100 gallons.

 

[lamarine23]

I used a gallon of RO/DI and used a very small amount roughly 1/10 the amount (seaweed)I normally use.....I'm simply comparing what it took for me to get the same reading using Spectrum Pellets.

Rayjay,
it's not likely that I will find phosphates in all other food; it's inherent that it will have some PO4.... my problem is with how much a particular food has in such small portions.

 

[rayjay]

Well I've never tested food in small volumes without any of them testing high in that small volume for having phosphates.
As Randy posted though, when that small amount of food goes into a large tank volume, the result may be slight or insignificant.

 

[bertoni]

That's interesting. I would have expected most dried algae to be fairly low in phosphate per unit volume. How much algae and how much saltwater was combined for the test?

 

[StrategicReef]

does nori release some iodine for the tank, I know if a human eating too much nori you get too much iodine it could be a problem.

 

[bertoni]

It might release some iodine, but I wouldn't worry about the amount. It'll be very small.