Chaeto, GFO, GAC question

[patsheridan]

I have been putting one smallish bag each of GFO and GAC in the return area of the refugium for my 75g mixed reef tank, in the first chamber just below the filter sock. The water flows thru rolled up filter cloth inbetween first and second chamber, and into the second chamber which holds a skimmer and heater.

I just added a couple balls of chaeto into this first chamber, and just today removed the bags of GFO/GAC. My question is: Do I need or benefit from the GFO/GAC, and do I need it with the addition of the chaeto?

Thanks in advance!

 

[hawkinsrgk]

For me I benefit from both. Chaeto is not enough to keep phosphate down by itself in my tank and I have a lot of chaeto in my 150 gallon stock tank

 

[p7willm]

Every tank is different. Testing your tank is the only way to know if the Phosphorus and Nitrogen are were you want. If the P and N stay where you want with just chaeto and water changes you do not need anything else. If they get too high then you need more.

 

[patsheridan]

Right now I only test for Ack, Calc and Mag - should I start testing for PH and Nitrogen regularly?

 

[p7willm]

Unless you test for Phosphates, not pH, and Nitrogen, you probably only need to test for Nitrates, you will have no idea of what your attempts to lower them are having. Every tank is different, animals, bacteria, plants, food, other stuff, and there is no way to say if you do X then Y will happen to your Nitrogen. You need to do X and then test, over time, to find out that Y happens.

When you test you might find that P and N are well controlled and you do not have to change anything or it could be getting high and you will have to do more, add macro algae, reactors, increase water change, etc.

After you get your tank steady the way you want it you still need to test, but less often, because over time your tank will change and it is far easier to find out your N is raising by testing rather than a huge outbreak of algae.

 

[hawkinsrgk]

I agree with what the other guys have said

For example I have to dose nitrate to keep levels where I want them but also need to run a little gfo for phosphate. You will have to test to determine what you need to do. If you don't it will cost you more by reacting

 

[patsheridan]

Thanks guys. So testing for Phosphates and Nitrates will help get me some useful info?

 

[Brett H whitt]

Nitrates and phosphates should be checked weekly.
Cheato algae will consume nitrates and some phosphate (you need a light for the algae to grow)
GFO will remove the phosphates that the cheato algae does not consume. Better to use a GFO reactor, they are cheap.

You want to maintain a nitrate level of around 0.25 to 1.0
You want to maintain a phosphate level of 0.01 to 0.05

Cheato algae is the easiest way to remove nitrates. It works well unless you over stock or over feed your tank.
I used to does nitrates in my tank but have stopped recently, my levels finally stabilized at 0.25. When dosing you will need to check the levels daily.

If you have a GFO reactor, you can turn it on or off as needed to achieve the correct level of phosphates.

 

[Brett H whitt]

There are some good threads on this forum that discuss how to balance the nitrate and phosphate levels and what happens when they are out of balance. Highly recommend you do a search and read a few of them. It might save you a lot of time and money

 

[patsheridan]

Thanks Brett. I have a RedSea test kit for algae that tests Nitrate and Phosphate, and it sounds like I need to start using it regularly. I just tested and the Nitrates came in at .5 ppm, and the Phosphates did not register any color at all - 0. I am going to take some water to my LFS and ask them to test both to verify my results. Does that sound reasonable, to have Phosphates come back 0? The only other things I test are Alk., Calc. and Mag., and am wondering if I should be testing at least for PH.

 

[patsheridan]

And maybe Ammonia . . .

 

[p7willm]

Ammonia should always read 0, unless something is seriously wrong in the tank, so as long as there are no problems ammonia can be tested for rarely.

GFO and macro algae both take phosphates out of the water so it is entirely possible to have a 0 reading.

On your question about what you need on your tank. If you had been running GFO and you had 0 phosphates then things were doing wonderfully. Now that you have replaced GFO with algae you need to continue to test to see if just the algae can do a good enough job on phosphates. If the phosphate level starts to rise and it looks like it will get higher than you want you will need to start thinking about what you want to do.

 

[Brett H whitt]

Your test results look good. I rarely test for ammonia unless I have made some changes to my tank and what to make sure I did not screw anything up.Sounds like you could reduce the Amount of GFO, or remove the GFO and ad more algae. My cheato algae is not enough to remove all the phosphates in my system so I run GFO continually. If you can get away without it, it will save you some money.

Keep in mind, if you add fish to your system, the cheato algae volume will also need to be increased.