phosphate

[matt880305]

i know this is not the place to be asking this but i wasent getting any good answers in the chem forum....But my phos is at 50 right now and i was wandering a good way to bring it down.. AND help keep it down.
Thanks
Matt

 

[demonsp]

Tanks age and size?
All equipment used?
Amount of LS and LR?
Water source?

 

[an411]

Chaeto is sump or fuge is one of the methods that can be used be keep phosphates down. Also rinsing your frozen food is another way to not let phosphates into the tank if that is what you are feeding

 

[matt880305]

ok a 75 gal tank that is 2 months old. and i have an octo110 skimmer with a 20 gal sump with fuge in the middle and chaeto in it and i only have about 40 pounds of lr right now and i have 20k with actinic light

 

[demonsp]

Water source?
Any powerheads?

 

[matt880305]

ro water and i have one that blow 320gp and my return from my sump is 400 gph

 

[tmz]

A few things that might help after you assure yourself that you a managing water quality are:

Phosban reactor with gfo or another form of phosphate remover such as poly pad
Rinsing all frozen food and getting rid of the packing water
chaetomorpha in a refugium

ro/di water tested with a tds meter to be sure your unit is filtering properly

Cleaning the substrate and rock periodically( at least once a week) by gently puffing up detrius

A good skimmer

 

[bmk]

Hi
What test kit are you using, that figure seems very high.

Barry

 

[IslandCrow]

I second bmk. That sounds like an erroneous result to me. See if you can get your hands on another test kit, or at the very least test some RO or RO/DI water with it. I thought I had high phosphates for months until I finally realized the color chart was horrible.
Otherwise, I'd say all the other suggestions are really good. High Phosphates are usually linked to overfeeding, so make sure you're not feeding any more than your fish can eat in a minute or two. If food is settling on the bottom of the tank, uneaten, you'll have issues.

 

[matt880305]

i just bought a nutrafin

 

[matt880305]

oh and i had a typo it is at .50 sorry...

 

[Percula9]

Even at .5 it still very high. Buy a phosban reactor as suggested above. That will bring down the PO4 level quickly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

i know this is not the place to be asking this but i wasent getting any good answers in the chem forum

:lol:

You got perfect answers in the chemsitry forum. Did you not bother to read the phosphate article that was provided before reposting here?

 

[matt880305]

didnt really understand the artical sry(i also not the best of readers so yea)

 

[tmz]

Not that Randy needs any support,but the articles he has contributed to this community are absolutely outstanding.Some are difficult,particularly if your not a chemist like me but they are worth the effort of several readings if that's what it takes to develop an understanding of essential reef chemistry.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks, Tom.

didnt really understand the artical sry(i also not the best of readers so yea)

OK, that's no problem. If we post a link you do not understand, we are happy to explain it further.

 

[lloydkeller]

phosban reactor will help you can get one cheap on ebay or throw some in a filter sock and put it in the sump prevention is easyer than the cure sometimes