has anyone used chemi-mat?

[lilismom1]

it is made by boyd and used for phosphate removal. it was suggested to me by a salesperson as being a very good product. has anyone used it? if so, when do you have to retreat the water? it doesn't say on the package.

 

[fishtender]

I had a problem with cyano and had to resort tousing it( i was hesitant to use additives. I put it in on thursday and now, 2 days later, almost all the cyano is gone and all my inverts are doing great. As a matter of fact, my purple gorg is finally looking frilly again. It has been hibernating for over a week now. I thought it was dead.

On my bottle it says to treat and remove the carbon filters for 24 hrs if running them. Do a 20% water change after 48 hrs. Repeat monthly. ????

Did you use the product??? If so, what was your outcome?

Howard

 

[lilismom1]

i'm not sure if it's the same product. mine is two sheets of thick "paper" that you put inbetween the filter pad and intake. i did use it but haven't seen much change. to be honest, i don't know what i'm supposed to be looking for. i just know that you are supposed to use some kind of phosphate removal technique. yes? anyway, the other lfs that i go to, the GOOD one, says it sucks. he suggested something called phosphate and silicate magnet by mark weiss. and yet another guy at the same store says none of it is necessary just do 10% water changes weekly. so here i am, more confused than ever!

 

[fishtender]

What are you using this treatment for?

I had a problem with cyanobacteria on my substraight and was a bit hesitant to but additives in my tank. I treated for ick once and had a very disasterous event and didn't want to experience another. If you are merely trying to buffer against phosphates than you can use a phosphate magnet for that.

The product I used was a powder form with a tiny spoon. I added 5 spoonfuls for my 55g.

 

[Guest]

the other lfs that i go to, the GOOD one, says it sucks. he suggested something called phosphate and silicate magnet by mark weiss. and yet another guy at the same store says none of it is necessary just do 10% water changes weekly. so here i am, more confused than ever!

lilismom1,

Not to worry, you will find a lot of conflicting advice in forums and in LFS's....Education is the key, and even in reading, you will find many times that authors do things differently, and conflict each others views...

The thing to remember here, or learn, is, pads and sheets, liquids and powders, do not cure the problem, they only mask it to be better, and the root cause of the nuisance algaes and films, is still there.

Phosphate magnets are used my many, with great success, and others have great success without them... I thnk what should be done, is a close examination as to why you are needing them in the first place, and what is causing the symptoms that warrant it....

My guess is, you have a reason for it, (I didn't see that in the first post) Nuisance algae, I.E., Red Slime, Hair Algae, Bryopsis, Diatoms? How old is your tank?What kind of food? How much do you feed? What kind of water are you using for fill/top off. RO or Tap? There are a lot of questions to ask when diagnosing where the problem is coming from.

If you are not having these problems, and are just looking into preventive methods to keep the PO4, Silicates and NO3 down, then:

The LFS that told you to do a 10% water change and that is all you need, is somewhat the best answer of all..

 

[fishtender]

Yes tim I agree that by treating the symptoms, you are masking the cause. I have been looking for the cause but can not locate it myself. I top off with my well water. This water test great. I have read that the two major reasons for cyano are over feeding and raised phosphates. The water I use has no phosphates and I only feed what My fish will consume so that there is little or no food falling to the bottom. I do end up with phosphates in my tank though the levels don't justify the cyano problem I have been fighting.

I am running 120w flour right now but will be changing it to 130 PC and 40 flour.

Do you think that the change in light may help the situation. I have found that the major concentration of cyano is in well lit areas of the sandbed....?????

Thanks
Howard

 

[Guest]

The lighting caused mine to go crazier before I found out that my tap water was the culprit for inducing not so much Phosphates and Nitrates, but Silicates into the tank. I had 160 watts of NO Flourescents and then went straight to 384 watts of PC. This brought the algae out of Eqypt into my tank...I could not believe how much. It was horrific. Hair and red stuff everywhere choking out the Zoos, and covering all of the beautiful coraline that I had.

I had my water tested, and it was full of silicates..one thing I noticed before that took place, and I don't see as much now, is, I had Sponge growing very well in the tank... It covered the underside of the rocks profusely.. I then did some research only to find out that sponge eats silicates for dinner and I guess my tank was a factory.. Anyways, I started going to the market and buying RO water, and did many water changes, and pulled as much of the crud out, and it has started to alleviate itself... I did cheat one time and used the Red Slime remover powder. It worked for about a week. Then I got afraid of that because I learned that it was an antibiotic, and that it could kill benificial bacteria..It is now collecting dust in a box somewhere.

There are people on this forum that use well water for their aquariums, but, IMO, even those should go through an RO unit also before being added to the tank. No telling what is in the water we can't test for with the Aquarium Test Kits. I hope you get it solved, I know it was a relief for me...

 

[lilismom1]

my tank is 2 weeks old.i bought it used, or in use really. we drained it when we moved it and i immediately filled it back up with salt water from lfs and ro water from my fountain. i used the existing filter media to cycle. the ammonia and nitrites are at 0, and the nitrates have been holding at just under 5 for about 5 days. the previous owner had a bag of phosguard in when i got it and he told me to replace it in 1 week then every 3 months after. i was just trying to follow instructions. to be honest i have no idea why he kept it in there. it probably would be smarter to test for things before i start treating them, huh? i do think that i have diatom algae. so i bought 3 sand sifting stars, 1 brittle star, & 1 sea cucumber to help the 60 or so crabs i inherited. i feed frozen brine to 4 chromis damsels. i try to do it carefully and slowly, but they always miss a few. i know this is bad. i'm still working on building a clean-up crew before i put anything else in. so if you have any suggestions, i'd love to hear them. as for the lights, i have 440 watts of vho running about 10 hours a day.