Something different for my CaRX

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Warr7207

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I have a mantis tank and the Peacock mantis Shrimp eats a clam a day. These clams are the type used for clam soup etc.

Now with this sort of consumption i have a load of empty shells. So I wanted to investigate if I could crush and put them into my CaRx and basically recycle.

The gurus made me awrae of two things, firstly these shells may give off Phosphate (PO4) and secondly these shells are not made of the same Calcium compound as Aragonite and breakdown slower in a reactor. Basically meaning I cannot run the reactor only on these shells, but a mixture may work.

So firstly I need to check if these shells contact PO4 as this could be a real disaster, having my CaRx continuiously pumping Po4 into my system.

And in saying that, I think I made a fatal flaw, by not making sure the shell had no "leftovers" and may have infleunce the readings.

Anyway here goes
 
Here are the shells

52849982f58aa16a.jpg
 
Then next i rinsed and dried them out and added to Ro water for testing

52849982ffb977fa.jpg
 
And to my shock the Po4 readings are off the charts.

This maybe the actual shells or the leftovers of the creature that lived inside.

So I going sun dry the shells and scrub them down to work out which is the source.

One thing that concerns me, is if it is the shell, I will have to find another food source for my mantis as the shells only get cleared out when the shells are discarded from her cave, and this can take 3-4 days.

Also the Mantis tank is connected to the main tank and could be increasing PO4 levels.

528499830fccd799.jpg
 
Very interesting. When are you going to test the cleaned shells?

Also how long did they sit in the RO before you tested?
 
I have "cooked" the shells and allowed them to soak in RO for the last 3 days.

I will do some test tonight and see what the Po4 levels are.
 
Warr7207 said:
And to my shock the Po4 readings are off the charts.

This maybe the actual shells or the leftovers of the creature that lived inside.

So I going sun dry the shells and scrub them down to work out which is the source.

One thing that concerns me, is if it is the shell, I will have to find another food source for my mantis as the shells only get cleared out when the shells are discarded from her cave, and this can take 3-4 days.

Also the Mantis tank is connected to the main tank and could be increasing PO4 levels.

528499830fccd799.jpg
Click to expand...

what test kit is that? make
 
I cooked and baked the shells, to make sure they were totally clean.

Ok, so the PO4 reading has come down, but I would say still to high. The next thing I am going do is test my Aragonite and see what sort of reading I get from that.

528499f39a4bb677.jpg
 
Do you have any nuisance algae in your tank warr? if it causes algae growth then it would be a problem, or if it mucks up your system, but if it increased softy growth wouldn't that be ok? you are on very late by the way:) i can't sleep, whats your excuse?lol
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I am going Euduro riding in a couple hours time, so no point in going to sleep :D

Ninja, I am testing to see if I can use the shells in my Calcium reactor. Not sure how it would cause softies to grow. :whistling:

I give you guys feedback once I have tested the Aragonite.
 
scubaninja said:
euduro? you are worried about leachin phosphates into the system right? higher nutrients makes softies grow faster:)
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Click to expand...

I agree with the nutrient statement, but Phosphate don't make Softies grow faster.
 
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