ROWA®phos imposter??

40B Knasty · May 22, 2018

I was looking at getting into ROWA phos, because of my issue with silicates. It is said to be made by a German company. Proceeded to look at Amazon prime and there was a 200ml bottle for a lot cheaper. Then I noticed the wording on it was definitely not German. Here is a picture of BRS (1st picture) & Amazon prime (2nd picture). What is your take on it? I am very hesitant about picture #2.

Tommy's Reef · May 22, 2018

Yeah I've always avoided the Chinese looking one

Cory · May 22, 2018

Probably the same stuff made for china. Just packed to read mandarin

40B Knasty · May 22, 2018

Just a heads up also if anyone wants to buy this stuff. The price in comparison for BRS and Amazon is ridiculous. For a 500ml from BRS is like $33. On Amazon it is $105!

scuzy · May 22, 2018

Btw that's not Chinese. It's Japanese.

40B Knasty · May 22, 2018

scuzy said:
Btw that's not Chinese. It's Japanese.

No, it is Germanese

Greenstreet.1 · May 22, 2018

If you look good it also has DD on it

homer1475 · May 22, 2018

You do realize RowaPhos is just a brand name?

Bulk BRS granulated ferric oxide or GFO, is loads cheaper and does the exact same thing.

alton · May 22, 2018

There are different grades of GFO, even BRS has a standard and High Capacity. There High capacity is only slightly cheaper than Rowa Phos. I have never used it, so I don't know if it is as good as Rowa Phos which I have found to be the best, and I use less of it than other products on the market.

Greenstreet.1 · May 22, 2018

I use to run brs gfo IMO rowa works better and faster.

40B Knasty · May 22, 2018

It is supposed to be the 100% pure version of GFO. It was recommended by the only LFS store guy I trust. He believes that my reason for my cyanobacteria that won't go away is, because it is feeding off of silicates. Since I am testing 0ppm Nitrates and 0ppm phosphates. Which I believe is true. He says it works for getting silicates out. Anything like Phosguard which is made of an aluminum doesn't work very well for that.
I do have .000TDS, but I get that without an RO/DI unit.
And yes it is a very aggressive absorber of Phosphates and silicates.

Philt56 · May 23, 2018

40B Knasty said:
It is supposed to be the 100% pure version of GFO. It was recommended by the only LFS store guy I trust. He believes that my reason for my cyanobacteria that won't go away is, because it is feeding off of silicates. Since I am testing 0ppm Nitrates and 0ppm phosphates. Which I believe is true. He says it works for getting silicates out. Anything like Phosguard which is made of an aluminum doesn't work very well for that.
I do have .000TDS, but I get that without an RO/DI unit.
And yes it is a very aggressive absorber of Phosphates and silicates.

Has it removed your cyano or is it too early to tell yet?

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 23, 2018

40B Knasty said:
It is supposed to be the 100% pure version of GFO. It was recommended by the only LFS store guy I trust. He believes that my reason for my cyanobacteria that won't go away is, because it is feeding off of silicates. Since I am testing 0ppm Nitrates and 0ppm phosphates. Which I believe is true. He says it works for getting silicates out. Anything like Phosguard which is made of an aluminum doesn't work very well for that.
I do have .000TDS, but I get that without an RO/DI unit.
And yes it is a very aggressive absorber of Phosphates and silicates.

Find a new LFS for advice. No cyanobacterium species has any use for silicate. [edited later to add the fact that the problematic species in reefs do not use silicate, some unusual cyano do. see below]

All types of GFO will bind silicate, as will aluminum oxide products such as Phosguard, although I’ve never seen useful comparative data.

Finally, you claim to have 0 ppm TDS water without an RO/DI. Does that mean your tap water has 0 ppm tds?

40B Knasty · May 24, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Find a new LFS for advice. No cyanobacterium species has any use for silicate.

All types of GFO will bind silicate, as will aluminum oxide products such as Phosguard, although I’ve never seen useful comparative data.

Finally, you claim to have 0 ppm TDS water without an RO/DI. Does that mean your tap water has 0 ppm tds?

Do you have any irrefutable proof for me that ALL cyanobacteria does not use silicates? - when someone says it has no use for it. That means it can use it. So I can't rule it out.

I drilled hole in the bottom of a 5g bucket. Sealed the guts of 6 cup Zerowater pitcher through the hole. With this I can replace the filter once it gives me anything but .000TDS. My tap water is .038-.048TDS.

Never said they didn't bind. Just not as well or as much.

40B Knasty · May 24, 2018

Philt56 said:
Has it removed your cyano or is it too early to tell yet?

I pick it up today. Working on the sand bed for now.

Sherman · May 24, 2018

Usually when cynao appear I dose bac and its gone

40B Knasty · May 24, 2018

angminsoon said:
Usually when cynao appear I dose bac and its gone

Bac?

Sherman · May 24, 2018

Bacteria. I use Brightwell Bac7

Hans-Werner · May 24, 2018

I am not sure whether cyanobacteria benefit from silicate or not but cyanobacteria are frequently found together with diatoms. It seems to be some kind of symbiosis, maybe mutualism. Maybe there is an indirect benefit.

In my eyes the background why bacteria may help against cyanos is that most bacteria additives add some nutrients, especially phosphate. I think it are not the bacteria themselves that help.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 24, 2018

40B Knasty said:
I drilled hole in the bottom of a 5g bucket. Sealed the guts of 6 cup Zerowater pitcher through the hole. With this I can replace the filter once it gives me anything but .000TDS. My tap water is .038-.048TDS.
.

So you are using a DI, just not the RO.

40B Knasty said:
Do you have any irrefutable proof for me that ALL cyanobacteria does not use silicates? - when someone says it has no use for it. That means it can use it. So I can't rule it out.
.

I changed my post above to reflect that problem cyano in reef tanks do not use silicate. By far most cyano species do not. Some unusual cyano species do have a use, such as some growing in geothermal hot springs where silica is supersaturated, some picocyanobacteria that live as free floating marineorganisms, etc.

Anyway, many of us dose silicate and we do not see any evidence of cyanobacteria caused by it. We do often see a sudden burst of diatoms each time we dose, and diatoms have a clear use for silicate to make their internal structures.

I also agree with Hans Werner that diatoms and cyano often grow together, and it can be hard for folks to identify what they have without using a microscope.