GFO reactor and chaeto

jpontier212 · Jul 12, 2016

I have a 55 gallon aquarium with a 20 gallon sump. In my diy sump i have a 2 filter socks, phosphate reducing media sponge in a baffle for both bubblestop and obvious phosphate control. A SAC 301 protein skimmer. I have a section that is my fuge with a 5lb piece of live rock and a baseball size ball of chaeto. I'm also running a large diy phosphate reactor with carbon and gfo (roughly about 1 1/2 liters in size). should i take the chaeto out if i'm running a gfo reactor? or should i take the reactor out? or should i keep both? the only reason i ask is because i was told that the chaeto won't receive enough nutrients to grow due to the gfo reactor. Right now my parameters are
ammonia -0
nitrite -0
nitrate - 5 ppm
salinity -1.026
ph 7.9
cal 300
alk 14 dkh
mg 1250
temp 80.2 F
Livestock
1 Maroon clown
1 Coral beauty
2 yellow damsels
1 striped goby
1 kole tang
1 coral banded shrimp
9 mexican turbo snails
5 blue legged hermit crabs

Corals
1 zoantid
1 candy cane
1 red mushroom
2 acan coral green&blue
1 i think acropora

esolo16 · Jul 12, 2016

I would still keep the fuge to balance out pH at night.

Side note: it looks like you calc is very low with very high alk

jpontier212 · Jul 12, 2016

esolo16 said:
I would still keep the fuge to balance out pH at night.

Side note: it looks like you calc is very low with very high alk

I have been fighting this problem for a month now. I'm dosing 5ml of calcium daily and the only thing going up is Cal

esolo16 · Jul 12, 2016

What are you dosing for calcium?

Also, about your fuge. You could potentially remove the phosphate sponge if the chaeto starts dying since you are already running gfo. I tried a phosphate sponge once and had a weird bacteria bloom afterwards, so I am not a fan to begin with.

jpontier212 · Jul 12, 2016

esolo16 said:
What are you dosing for calcium?

Also, about your fuge. You could potentially remove the phosphate sponge if the chaeto starts dying since you are already running gfo. I tried a phosphate sponge once and had a weird bacteria bloom afterwards, so I am not a fan to begin with.

This is the calcium I'm dosing.

esolo16 · Jul 12, 2016

I have never heard of that and their website wasn't much help. But from what I can tell, alk should definitely not be going up. I would try a large water change and see if that helps.

jpontier212 · Jul 12, 2016

esolo16 said:
I have never heard of that and their website wasn't much help. But from what I can tell, alk should definitely not be going up. I would try a large water change and see if that helps.

I think I'm going to go with that. Thanks. I really appreciate it

nemo1017 · Jul 13, 2016

jpontier212 said:
I think I'm going to go with that. Thanks. I really appreciate it

After you do this: try brs 2 part. That will get you stable levels a lot quicker; there are videos to help you through it all. Also they have a reef calculator on the bulk reef supply website to tell you how much you need to add to your system.

nemo1017 · Jul 13, 2016

Also for the gfo reactor vs chaeto. I think that the chemical media just binds the nutrients; Whereas the chaeto actually utilizes it and exports it for you as it grows. Using both will give you more options to work with as far as nutrient control. As the media is gradually exhausted the chaeto will grow.