Second Cheato Reactor or GFO?

[RMS18]

Hey everyone,

I hit a cross road in po4 regulating. Reason I want to lower, is because the level the system will hit of .25ppm I get negative results. My acros look the best at .06-.08 in my system. I know higher levels work for some but my system doesn't like it, colors darken, I lose some colors in general in the acros.


Tank is 120 gallons. I currently have a tunze algae reactor packed with cheato, I trim it every other week. The light runs for 21 hours each day. The tank gets 6-8 cubes a day, I have a good amount of fish. Tank uses filter pads changed daily, nyos 160 skimmer, 30lb of real live rock in sump and uv. Po4 will raise to .25 without the use of waste away every 3-4 days. The tunze algae reactor is great but the amount of cheato is small for a heavy bio load. I used the fuge part of my sump for real live rock.

So question is do I plumb in another tunze algae reactor or try GFO/phosban/rowaphos?

I haven't used a GFO product before and I'm worried of stripping the water, killing cheato and inviting dinos back.

I'd like to hear your opinions.

 

[Pistondog]

Hey everyone,

I hit a cross road in po4 regulating. Reason I want to lower, is because the level the system will hit of .25ppm I get negative results. My acros look the best at .06-.08 in my system. I know higher levels work for some but my system doesn't like it, colors darken, I lose some colors in general in the acros.


Tank is 120 gallons. I currently have a tunze algae reactor packed with cheato, I trim it every other week. The light runs for 21 hours each day. The tank gets 6-8 cubes a day, I have a good amount of fish. Tank uses filter pads changed daily, nyos 160 skimmer, 30lb of real live rock in sump and uv. Po4 will raise to .25 without the use of waste away every 3-4 days. The tunze algae reactor is great but the amount of cheato is small for a heavy bio load. I used the fuge part of my sump for real live rock.

So question is do I plumb in another tunze algae reactor or try GFO/phosban/rowaphos?

I haven't used a GFO product before and I'm worried of stripping the water, killing cheato and inviting dinos back.

I'd like to hear your opinions.

Can you put a blanket of chaeto on top of live rock in fuge, maybe add a good horticulture led light?
The rock elevates the chaeto to the surface for best par.
Only need an inch or 2

 

[RMS18]

Can you put a blanket of chaeto on top of live rock in fuge, maybe add a good horticulture led light?
The rock elevates the chaeto to the surface for best par.
Only need an inch or 2

My rock is anywhere from 1-2 inch's from surface of water.i definitely loaded it up. Such awesome creatures that live on that rock.

 

[joseserrano]

Gfo. Cheato removes less than you think. Don’t used a lot. Test after a few days and change if it hasn’t come down to where you want it.

 

[Kris 2020]

I run gfo and my phosphates stay around .03. I feed heavily and have a fair bio load. My reactor has a valve so I can adjust how much water goes thru it if I do get too low on phosphates.