How do you lower Phosphate?

chana

chana

Member
Get a phosphate sponge by kent marine to lower them.
but do you have any leathers?
if so you may not want to use the sponge
What type water are you using?
Maybe we can figure out why they are getting hi
 
chana

chana

Member
I am sorry, Yes - Leather corals
I bought an established reef about 6 years ago and the phosphates were high.
It took me few months to get them down.
I asked the same question you did on this site and somebody told me that if I had leather corals not to use the phosphate sponge.
I used the sponge and then added a deep sand bed and a fuge to take care of it.
 
chana

chana

Member
You should test the water after your ro unit and before you put it in your tank
That will tell you if you are putting it in with water changes.
 
bigmac

bigmac

Member
TDS meters are a good tool but their not going to tell you much about po4's...I use a Hannah po4 meter to test my water off the DI. I do use the TDS meter at the lab to tell me if and when my RO membrane is spent. The Sediment, Carbon block and RO membrane are different then DI resin.
The DI resin is the one you want to look at more often if your having po4 issues. I have seen zero and or close to zero TDS off the DI but the water still test 0.09 using a good meter..
IMHO, a good po4 meter is the best investment for a reef. I have yet to find a test kit that works good at testing po4's.....
BTW, I use two DI carts after my RO....it works for me
 
r3dc4t

r3dc4t

New Member
Originally Posted by bigmac
http:///forum/post/2511855
TDS meters are a good tool but their not going to tell you much about po4's...I use a Hannah po4 meter to test my water off the DI. I do use the TDS meter at the lab to tell me if and when my RO membrane is spent. The Sediment, Carbon block and RO membrane are different then DI resin.
The DI resin is the one you want to look at more often if your having po4 issues. I have seen zero and or close to zero TDS off the DI but the water still test 0.09 using a good meter..
IMHO, a good po4 meter is the best investment for a reef. I have yet to find a test kit that works good at testing po4's.....
BTW, I use two DI carts after my RO....it works for me
Is it bad that i have no idea what you just said? lol, anyway I wanted to mention that i have the same problem (high phosphate.) I have tested my water out of the tap...little to no phos....after adding salt...still little to none...but in the tank it is at 10.0 ppm or higher, my calcium is 260 ppm, Carbonate test turns yellow at the 17th drop and at 17.9 ppm per drop that would be 304.3 ppm, now I don't know what exactly is considered too high but its not in my test chart at that level so ideas on that if you have any, and nitrate is about 15 ppm. I am going to be buy phos-zorb in the next few days to control the phosphate but i'd also like to know common causes of it could it be substrate? could it be the water even though it has little to none on my test? any ideas would help thanks guys.
 
r3dc4t

r3dc4t

New Member
Ratrod, I think finding the source is what is giving us trouble...so ideas on how to figure that out would be cool. like i said i detect no phosphate in my tap water just the water in the tank.
Espkh9, thanks for the suggestion, I havn't heard of a phosphate reactor yet but i'll look into it.
 
nietzsche

nietzsche

Active Member
feed less, strain out the water from the frozen foods if you feed any, water changes, phosphate reactor like espk said, maybe a skimmer..
 
bb1clownfish

bb1clownfish

New Member
I checked my phosphate and it was 0. My nitrate is 10. Ammonia is 0. Nitrite 0, Calcium >400. I do have a protien skimmer and a UV sterilizer. My lights are on for 10 hours at 400 watts. The dusting of green algae grows back onto the glass after cleaning in 2-3 hours. Can you guys think of anything else that could be causing the algae overgrowth? I feed twice a day and it's just a tiny amount to feed a baby clownfish and a royal gramma. I have two other tanks that are doing fine, so I don't think it's my water or supplies.
 
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