Cheato = Phosphates????? *EXPERIMENT*

[cashman95]

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?

[demonsp]

You use tap water right ?

[RWillieK]

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.

[dodgersfan25]

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

[virginiadiver69]

Why are you trying to get zero Phosphates?

[cashman95]

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!!!

[davidryder]

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.

[LobsterOfJustice]

Of course every type of food contains phosphates. But he should still be shooting for 0 on a salifert kit.

[HBtank]

Healthy, growing cheato will consume phosphate.

THe first two words are not really covered when sitting in a bucket for 48-hours.

[uscharalph]

That is why you are to harvest the cheato regularly. The cheato will consume phosphates, then you need to trim back the cheato.

[Pmolan]

Originally posted by cashman95
I do not use tap water, I specified that I use filtered DI/DI water, with a TDS reading of 0

Where did you get di/di tapwater for this experiment?

[cashman95]

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!

[demonsp]

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.

[Pmolan]

Do you mean RO/DI?

[demonsp]

Originally posted by Pmolan
Do you mean RO/DI?

Oh im dumb what is DI/DI water?

[cashman95]

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

[virginiadiver69]

I may be wrong but I've been told natural sea water is about .03 ppm. Zero may be an unrealistic goal.

[cashman95]

well thats what my meter says?????
I am not trying to argue with anyone about this!

Thanks for all your replies!

[virginiadiver69]

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.

[Pmolan]

Why do you want your water better than natural seawater anyway?

[cashman95]

Unfortunatly, some of you guys dont get it! So I am going to go off topic and explain it!

Its not that I want my water to be better than natural sea water, and as we all know, at least those of us that read ALL of "the post" ...Salifert test kits are not real accurate down low, so with that said for all "you guys" 0 is my goal on my salifert test kit!!!!!!

Now if I was to "say" test with a colormeter, I can almost guarantee that my water will always have phophate in it, EVEN though my salifert test kit says 0!!!!!

Now lets get back to the topic of this thread!!! I welcome any comments to my original post, but please no more replys about whether or not my tap water is phosphate free or whether or not I have better than NSW!!!!!


DOES THIS PUT ALL OF THE READERS THAT DONT START A BOOK FROM THE BEGININNG BACK ON TRACK???????

[HBtank]

You need to chill man. Lay off the caps and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Questioning the source water is perfectly valid and does not warrant the attitude.

You have barely addressed any of the posts that were "on topic" anyways.

You seem to think that all cheato needs to be healthy and growing is a bucket of salt water. I beg to differ. I am not surprised it may leech when in less than optimal conditions and not growing, regardless of the other factors that could have come into play, like detrius.

In the end, I can't see how you can think that a cheato ball that has doubled in mass over the course of a month has done anything but reduce phosphates, regardless of any short term leeching. It is pretty straight forward..

[AquaReeferMan]

Wow, angry man... No more help for you...

[davidryder]

Way to ruin the thread

Nobody was attacking you - just trying to figure out what you're doing

[Pmolan]

Originally posted by cashman95

I put the cheato in a bucket of freshly made up salt water.

Was this bucket clean when you started? Some times if you use a bucket that you mixed concrete in, you will get phosphates.