Hanna phosphate check question

wrimda

New member
Just rec'd a new Hanna Phos checker today.
Could not wait to check for phos reading because we have been looking into running GFO to reduce phosphates. We do have some algee on the back glass and on the rock in which our Lawnmower blenny takes pretty good care of. Also we have to mag clean the glass about every three days.

Run the first check w/ phos checker and 0.00, watch the video on line and check again and 0.00

Is my checker bad? could this be a good reading? (I don't think so)

Mike
 
There is a +/- margin of .04 on those checkers. But on mine, I've been getting a reading of 0.00 as well but I still have algae on the glass.
 
The thing I don't understand is before we got our Lawnmower blen we had some algee on the back glass down low that was about 3/4 long in a spot about 2x5 in that I scraped off, is that not a sign of phosphates?

We do run Seachem PhosGuard in a mesh bag in the sump, but it has been in the tank for 5 months. Does phosguard work that well? Maybe we don't need GFO, just keep running phosguard?

Makes me want to take out the Phosguard from the sump and see if our phos level goes up?

Thanks Mike
 
How long has your tank been running?
GFO/ phosguard all work but the algae is not going to be gone overnight, it takes a while before it dies off.
 
If the Hanna checker is a correct read for phosphate @ 0.00, the phosguard has been in the tank for 5 months.
Does anyone else have a 0.00 read besides solitude127?
Does Phosguard really work this well, if so why would we run GFO?

Mike
 
I get 0.00 readings all the time, and I still have algae growth in spots. Besides the margin of error on those things, it's also possible that whatever phosphates are leeching into your water are getting consumed right away by your phosgard and your various algaes, hence the 0.00 reading.

When I get a 0.00 reading, I just assume it is 0.03, and that's low enough for me.
 
I tested a friends new Hanna Checker against the old Blue model I have and his read .17 and mine read .15 so it seemed to work ok.

On my larger meter it says to use the same covet and gives you more time from zero out to the second read.

So when you first turn it on it says CL1 and you put in a sample of water and push the button,now Cl2 then cut the top off a little pouch and try to get the stuff to mix before the thing turns off and then it gives a reading.

I have the Alk checker and wish they would get rid of the powder junk and give some liquid that mixes quicker to make the test easier.

I checked both my tanks with his and it was .02 and .03 while my checker showed .02 and .05

I think the bubbles and any imperfections or fingerprints on the cuvet can make them react.

I can say in my frag system in the garage with GFO and .02 I still have some Hair Algae coming in and on top of that I gave my Sea Hair away.
 
I'm a little slow. I got the alk checker not po4 but would like one of these as well so I'll be back. ;)
 
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Just got my Hanna Phosphate Checker today. Like the OP I was excite to try it out, but after trying twice, I'm getting a reading of 0.00 (read instructions, watch videos, etc). I'm surprised because this Hanna checker was bought to help regenerate the tank. I've never run GFO or havent done any water changes for quite a long time. I've only got a small clump of chito in my overflow and really bad dinoflagellates, so I was expecting the reading to be through the roof.

Can my tiny bit of chito and dinoflagellates farm really be stripping all the phosphate out of the water?

Does anyone know what kind of reading the checker would display if your actual PO4 numbers where way above 2.5ppm?

Thanks,

Kevin
 
OK, I don't know why I did not think to test our 28 Nano with the Phos checker to compare readings. So see if this makes sense?

Our 28 JBJ Nano has No skimmer, most every week we do a 5 gal water change, 5 smaller fish, tank is full of Zoas, palys, toadstools, mushrooms, and zenia's top to bottom, tank has been running for a 18 months. But we did put in Phosguard about 3 months ago because we were getting a lot of algee.

Hanna Phos checker comes in at 0.00
Again don't want to sound like a magizine add but does the Phosguard work that well??

Thanks
Mike
 
Are you dumping in the packet;) zero is not very easy to get if you feed your fish, the checker is suspect in my opinion.
 
The whole packet goes in!
That's why I started this thread, sounds as though we have a few at 0.00

Checker suspect? Seachem Phosguard works very well?

Mike
 
GFO really does work, and works very well, so it's possible your 0.00 is accurate. Are you running the GFO from a reactor? If so, you could try turning it off for a few days and feed normally to see if your phosphates go up.

You could also test your tap water to see if you get any there, unless your tap water is low in phosphates (my tap water has 0.03 phosphates according to the City's monthly water analysis).
 
If you have zero, what is your nitrate? In my opinion that is too sterile and corals cant thrive with parameters that low??? The whole point of ULNS is to make it so you can feed more and what you want to feed, and I still suspect the test being off at 0.00. Test some tap water and see what the test shows, or turn your skimmer off for a day and check.

I like to see Nitrates between 2 and 5 and are ok up too 20, in fact LPS corals look better with nitrates of 20 as they do well in high nutrient water.

Also P04 in the .03 or below will keep most algae down or you can get a low reading if your tank has a bunch of algae that is consuming the P04 from the water column.

If you want to give a good test too see if your tests are working give the tank a large dose of phyto, as this is all phosphate and retest.

I agree that Seachem makes some great products I had a problem I could not figure out and put a bag of Purigen and Cupisorb and they made my tank better as there was something in the system that the SPS did not like.
 
Thanks for your help pciscott, You are asking the questions that can narrow things down and get to an answer I think.

We keep a pretty good tank log on our 150 gal. Going back in the log we read Nitrate, Amon, and phos once a month w/ salifert kits. The reads stay pretty steady @ Amon <25
Nitrate .15 -.20, Phos <.03
We test these parameters once a week:
SG 10.26, PH 8.0, Alk 9.9, Cal 440, mag 1420 things stay pretty steady!

My thoughts are that the PhosGuard is keeping the phos down possibly down at 0.00 but is that a good thing?

I will give the tank a good dose of DT"s tonight and get another reading for phos.
Also we will take out the PhosGuard out of our 28 nano and check the P04 in a week, should start to get us some answers.

Thanks again
Mike
 
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