Rowaphos Reuse...

[Damon F]

Hi All

Simple Q really. Can I? At the mo I'm running Rowa in my media basket in my Prizm skimmer. Whenever I want to run carbon I take out the Rowaphos and chuck it! Its bloody expensive though - so can it be dried and used again and, if so, how?

Might be a stupid question (sue me!) - so sorry! :P

Cheers
D

[SCOOB]

hmmm i wonder if it would be possible to run a reactor of exhausted rowa inline with a reactor of new media to see if the phosphates were absorbed by the new media thus......... just read what i'm typing and its gonna end up b******* so i'll quit right now. thought i was on to something then :lol:

[uda]

Damon F,

Sort of yes.

If it's not full up with phosphate then there would be nothing stopping you from taking it out AND KEEPING IT WET and then putting it back later.

The trick here is never let Rowaphos dry out, if it dries out the phosphate binding capacity becomes very reduced.

"Its bloody expensive though" yes lots of people do seem to say so. I believe there are some lower cost alternatives out there :whistling:

HTH

Andrew

[Damon F]

Thanks for the Ultimate Sarcasm there SCOOB. Nice.

If you read again I wasnt asking about exhausted rowa.

Many thanks for the tip Andrew.

[SCOOB]

whoa easy tiger, wasn't taking the mick, just had a bit of a brain fart. guess i misunderstood your question, i thought you were asking if it was possible to replenish the absorption abilities of exhausted rowaphos. not heard that question before and it got me thinking. if there was a way to make it re-usable we'd save a fortune. afterall carbon can be re-baked to activate it again, why not something similar with rowaphos.

in my head i was thinking if you could run new to absorb from the old then what would be missing chemically from the first that would mean it couldn't be used. then i thought that the new rowa wouldn't so much move the absorbed phosphate more share/transfer it and still leave phosphate absorbed to the original rowa crystals. therefore not working. i was just typing as i was thinking without thinking it all through.

genuinely not taking the michael :)

[Damon F]

Fair nuff m8! :D

Looks like your train of thought could have an interesting angle. :idea:

Anybody got anything to add to this. Has anybody else thought of recycling rowa apart from SCOOBS and, if so, can we and how?

BTW SCOOBS - Do you recycle and use carbon just by sticking it in the oven? If so, whats your recipe?

[SCOOB]

I personally don't but there was talk on here a couple of years ago about reactivating carbon in a microwave. i imagine it has shocking consequences but it has been done. a search on here will drag more up. if i didn't keep buying carbon from my lfs i'd have no excuse to go in there at all :lol:

i'm no chemist but there must be a substance out there that can strip phosphate from water apart from rowaphos. i assume rowaphos and the like is only used as its reef safe.


here's a hypathetical scenario (Kim gis a hand mate)

it's just been discovered that the eco-aqualizer strips phosphate from the water. obviously nobody wants to put an aqualizer in their tanks and so we have to use rowa. if we ran exhausted rowa through a loop incorporating the aqualizer and it only stripped the rowa of bound phosphate, what would stop the now phosphate free crystals from absorbing further phosphate???????

no probs Damon, easy to misunderstand on here :D

[bony]

it works out cheaper if you test for po4 levels using a good kit. only change rowa when levels of phosphate increase. as long as you have low levels to start with you can leave rowa fluidising for some time before it needs changing. as for reusing it i am not sure.

[kim]

I don't believe that there is a simple way, if any way, to regenerate Rowaphos.

As UDA has hinted, the rational response is to buy a cheaper phosphate adsorber, and if you find that confusing, I'm sure that a call or EMail would clear things up.

B)

I wouldn't spend time trying to regenerate this stuff. It is a cheap bulk chemical.

In Bangladesh, a country not known for conspicuous consumption, they mainly throw it away, but some people do make housebricks out of it. So if funds are really tight maybe this would be a good hobby to pursue ? It might take a while to build a small kennel, but if we all clubbed together...

:lol:

kim

[julesandsand]

At the pre-stm pub meeting SCOOB will be the big guy at the bar with a pint of Guinness in one hand and trying to get his home-made rowa rollup to light in the other.

;) :lol:

He'll also have something tattooed on his forehead - can't think what it is offhand.

:lol:

[SCOOB]

Originally posted by julesandsand@Sep 28 2005, 07:58
He'll also have something tattooed on his forehead - can't think what it is offhand.

:lol:
" your mum woz ere '05 "

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[julesandsand]

" your mum woz ere '05 "

Well it had a W and an R in it right enough

:lol:

[LEEWINK]

Rowa is used in foreign "human" water systems, and "reefsafe" is a lovely word.

Really, its a bulk material as stated earlier, and probably easy to source, a companies name does not mean the contents's quality.

lee

:D :D :D :D

[Sean the Prawn]

Originally posted by SCOOB@Sep 27 2005, 18:33


it's just been discovered that the eco-aqualizer strips phosphate from the water. obviously nobody wants to put an aqualizer in their tanks and so we have to use rowa.

Please elaborate, I use rowa and an eco. Zero PO4.

Sean

[aquamedicalltheway]

the only thing about you taking out your rowa phos everytime, is that it hasn't had the time to even absorb enough phosphates anyway. it takes at least 3 months for it to kick in properly so if i were you, i would try putting your carbon in your prizm, and then get like a small internal filter for the rowaphos unless you have canisters, then just use them, would be easier and would be easier on your wallet if you throw the stuff away. and also rowaphos needs constant water flow through it for it to work so keeping it moist won't be good enough i would of thought, but don't quote me on that