What will chaeto added to my sump benefit

[harleymike]

I still have some corals that are not colouring up very nicely.
My convexa kinda did a little and now its red brown again.
Im thinking nutrient issue.
So will adding chaeto to my sump help. How do i get some, and how do i keep it healthy.
mike

 

[reeffreak]

Are you running pellets ? Cheato is a way of exporting nutrients. The cheato feeds off the nutrients and in return when you harvest it and toss out your exporting those nutrients. I don't think it's going to help color up your sps.

I would double check your po4 levels and post back what your at.

 

[harleymike]

My phosphates are zero. I test them at work in our lab. I run gfo reactor. I do have some hair algae. But not alot. Just a couple small spots.
I will test it again at work tonight.

 

[harleymike]

All my millie's and digi's are doing fine. My red convexa, deep water acro, and stag are not coloring up. They have a slight color, but mostly brown. They are growing though. Also my bonsai are a little on the dull side. Looking for some solutions i guese. I will start with the phosphate tests tonight. I run a skimmer, but it is way undersized. Which is probably why my softies do so well.

 

[Duke]

Are you running pellets ? Cheato is a way of exporting nutrients. The cheato feeds off the nutrients and in return when you harvest it and toss out your exporting those nutrients. I don't think it's going to help color up your sps.

I would double check your po4 levels and post back what your at.

I agree with what your saying except you don't need to toss it out to export the nutrients, the chaeto uses up the  nutrients to grow, you only need to toss it out when u have too much and no room.

 

[reeffreak]

Ya good call, I knew that not sure why I explained it like that.

 

[reeffreak]

0 ppm po4 or 0 ppb po4 ? I think it's almost impossible to have 0 ppb po4, plus you don't want a 0 ppb po4, natural sea water has a reading of 0.0003 ppb or something like that.

 

[Pistol]

My phosphates are zero. I test them at work in our lab. I run gfo reactor. I do have some hair algae. But not alot. Just a couple small spots.
I will test it again at work tonight.

technically you can't have 0, you can't export it the instant it is imported, ideally you want 0.02 ppm, C, N, and P are required for life to exist, it takes time for your system find its balance, if you maintain low nutrients and high water quality the colours will come, you can't make it happen fast in this hobby.

 

[DerekL]

I use chaeto and caularpa in my sump for nutrient export seeing as I don't run bio pellets. I do run gfo for phosphates but they do a get job at removing nitrates. I read that that they will work for exporting phosphates as well but nowhere as well as gfo does.

 

[harleymike]

I got 0.0 mg/l on my brute tank and my dt tank of phosphate.

 

[Pistol]

I don't know how many ppm a mg/l is but if there are living things in your tank then there is some po4, think about it, all your fish would have to be relieving themselves right into your gfo reactor, the food you put in your tank would have to vanish instantly, you would have to turn your water over 100% a second, there would have to be so much bacteria that it would look like soup, I'm not trying to be a jerk but you have some po4.

 

[Jewel]

So you're at 0 or close to it, that's great. I'm not sure what benefit Chaoto has on our tanks but I have it in my sump in a small Refugeum 2inch x 24 inch x 13 inch so maybe not so small but I do not have any Algea issues whats so ever. I'm thinking it helps so I'm gonna keep using it.

 

[Duke]

I got 0.0 mg/l on my brute tank and my dt tank of phosphate.

i believe that mg/l and ppm are basically the same. but you really should be testing something that is accurate to the next decimal place, ie 0.00 mg/l or .00 ppm

 

[harleymike]

The mg/l thing Im not sure about. This is a test done in my lab at work. So I don't disbelieve the results.
Might just not be reading the phosphates because there so low.
I figure adding cheato can't hurt thoauhg.

 

[harleymike]

Sorry it is 0.00 not 0.0.

 

[Jewel]

Pretty much same thing LOL.

 

[Pistol]

I have a 90 gal display, 140 gal sump, a cryptic brute container, 500 lbs live rock, a 20 gal gium, 0.5ppm no3, been carbon dosing @ 4 months, 2 gfo reactors with 500ml HCGFO in each, 10 stage RODI, 10 gal WC and vac sand 2 x week, Blow the detritus weekly, feed once a day, can't get below 0.05ppm po4, all my cheato has died(was the size of a basketball).
you got po4.

 

[harleymike]

I have a 90 gal display, 140 gal sump, a cryptic brute container, 500 lbs live rock, a 20 gal gium, 0.5ppm no3, been carbon dosing @ 4 months, 2 gfo reactors with 500ml HCGFO in each, 10 stage RODI, 10 gal WC and vac sand 2 x week, Blow the detritus weekly, feed once a day, can't get below 0.05ppm po4, all my cheato has died(was the size of a basketball).
you got po4.

I figure i do. But this very soffisticated tester at work says, NO....lol
So,back too the original question. Would i benefit from cheato....or should i even bother.

 

[Pistol]

there is organic and inorganic po4, it is all phosphorus. the hanna po4 tester only reads one of them, maybe your test is missing one of them.

 

[Pistol]

my cheato died at 0.08, I added the second GFO reactor @ a week ago trying to get to 0.03ppm, I have done @ 30 tests in the last 2 weeks with my phosphorus ulr and it has been dropping slowly since I added the 2nd gfo reactor so I would say no you do not have enough nutrients to grow cheato.