Cheato

[pandagold]

was informed Cheato will leach NO3 back into the water ? Is this correct ?

My cheato has been growing since day 1 from a small bunch (palm size) to now a forest of cheato . and so far non had died and still growing ?

Reason for checking is that my NO3 after trying all sorts of way to reduce , still remains high !!

Currently changed water with RO/DI water , 1 pile every 2-3 days , and no feeding of coral or fish food and used AZNO3 too ( stopped using as my leather corals cannot tahan )

[onizukaa]

bro,if it's growing, it's feeding on nitrate and light to grow.

since it's growing, you can reduce it by pruning it into a small bunch and let it grow again..

reducing nitrate consist of alot of factors (chaeto is one that aids)

[TFMANIAC]

I've just begun using cheato for about a 3 weeks now and it has already doubled in quantity.

I guess it's consuming the nitrates. Star Polyps started looking much better after that.

Perhaps there's something dead or slowly dying in your tank that is contributing to the high NO3. It had happened to me before with a missing starfish that happened to be rotting under a large piece of liverock.

[pandagold]

I have been getting consistant reading for the months with high NO3 reading.

Could my dying leather add to my NO3 ?

since using AZNO3, my leather started rot from the base .

My water does not smell foul and SPS , LPS and monti is growing well .

[demonsori]

u mean do water change with salt mix n ro/di water not just using ro/di water without salt right ?

or u mean top-up evaporated water using ro/di ? cos if no salt means diluting the salt content, and results in die-off of beneficial bacteria, raising NO3.. dying leather coral does add to NO3... be careful of the mucus expelled by dying leather to harm ur sps...better remove the leather if doesn;t look gd..

chaeto not leach back no3, just seems like their absorption capacity and speed drops when in a big dense bunch.. with cheato doing well, it seems to do better to tear away n get rid of half the "big bunch" and using fingers stretch/ spread out the remaining chaeto so water flows more freely, individual filaments/ strands getting better excess to light may be a factor too... my nitrates are lower the week after i prune my chaeto...

my own observation/ experience...

regular water change is the best method...

[Harlequinmania]

How big is your tank ? You need to harvest plenty of chaeto in order to remove your N03 and P04 effectively. if you have the space in your tank, try the algae scubber instead which work the same way as well.

[pandagold]

I've changed water + salt with RO/DI and top up water with RO/DI units .

u mean do water change with salt mix n ro/di water not just using ro/di water without salt right ?

or u mean top-up evaporated water using ro/di ? cos if no salt means diluting the salt content, and results in die-off of beneficial bacteria, raising NO3.. dying leather coral does add to NO3... be careful of the mucus expelled by dying leather to harm ur sps...better remove the leather if doesn;t look gd..

chaeto not leach back no3, just seems like their absorption capacity and speed drops when in a big dense bunch.. with cheato doing well, it seems to do better to tear away n get rid of half the "big bunch" and using fingers stretch/ spread out the remaining chaeto so water flows more freely, individual filaments/ strands getting better excess to light may be a factor too... my nitrates are lower the week after i prune my chaeto...

my own observation/ experience...

regular water change is the best method...

[pandagold]

My tank is 3*2*2, with 2*1*1 slump .

Did have the idea of using scrubber, but may cause too much water splating .

How big is your tank ? You need to harvest plenty of chaeto in order to remove your N03 and P04 effectively. if you have the space in your tank, try the algae scubber instead which work the same way as well.