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ivanfj
Guest
I need some help here on my high phosphate reading. It's @5mg/L which is quite high. Any suggestion what to do with it??? Is a water change necessary in this case???
timsedwards
Active Member
Hi there,
First question: what kind of water are you using? Apart from the wet type, is it RO? RO/DI? Tap Water? RO/DI is fantastic for reef aquariums and totally minimised all metallic substances in the water, allbeit PO4 might still be to worry.
In which case, not to worry, buy a PO4 sponge (Kent do a great one that also removes SiO2 (Silicates) and is re-usable) which you can put in your cannister filter and will soak up all PO4's.
Tim.
First question: what kind of water are you using? Apart from the wet type, is it RO? RO/DI? Tap Water? RO/DI is fantastic for reef aquariums and totally minimised all metallic substances in the water, allbeit PO4 might still be to worry.
In which case, not to worry, buy a PO4 sponge (Kent do a great one that also removes SiO2 (Silicates) and is re-usable) which you can put in your cannister filter and will soak up all PO4's.
Tim.
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ivanfj
Guest
bumo anyone???
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ivanfj
Guest
I also did a test on my water and the water that I prepared for water changes and both are @ 0 phosphate. Anyone has any idea why??? I have no fish in the tank and I dun give a feed at all in the past month or so. Need some :help: here please.
birdy
Active Member
There are a few things you can do to minimize phosphates, one is a phosphate sponge, follow the directions carefully one these and it will help. Also you should do water changes, if your makeup water has 0 phosphates then water changes will help. Then if you are able to set up a refugium, macro algaes will help by consuming the phosphates.
HTH
HTH
timsedwards
Active Member
buy a PO4 sponge (Kent do a great one that also removes SiO2 (Silicates) and is re-usable) which you can put in your cannister filter and will soak up all PO4's.
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ivanfj
Guest
Thanks for the replies. But I don't run any canister filter, can I still use the phosphate sponge???? I only have a carbon filter that I run once in a while.
michaeltx
Moderator
yeah you can still use a phosphate sponge just put it in a higher flow area of the tank or sump so as much water passes through the filter as possible.
one thing to check is what foods are you feeding if your source water is at 0 that means it coming from somewhere else. check the labels on the fod and see if their are phosphates added in. if so youll need to change foods to keep them from building up in the system.
MTX
one thing to check is what foods are you feeding if your source water is at 0 that means it coming from somewhere else. check the labels on the fod and see if their are phosphates added in. if so youll need to change foods to keep them from building up in the system.
MTX
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ivanfj
Guest
I really don't know where my phosphate came from. I haven't feed for 3+ weeks now and I don't have any fish, any inverts, nor any corals. Is it possible that something I fed a month or so ago produces this high of phosphate??? And is my skimmer suppose to keep everything down???
michaeltx
Moderator
phosphates are a chemical substance that can be bound in algaes and in the rocks and slowly relesed. a skimmer will pull out disolved organics and maybe a little bit of phosphates but not enough that it will lower the readings if any at all.
also so if the foods you were feeding were high in phosphate count theoritically it will slowly be leached into the water. now if you used frozen foods alot of them are packed in a clear gellitan that is high in phosphates. thats where my phosphate was coming in and took about 6 months to get the levels manageable again.
Mike
also so if the foods you were feeding were high in phosphate count theoritically it will slowly be leached into the water. now if you used frozen foods alot of them are packed in a clear gellitan that is high in phosphates. thats where my phosphate was coming in and took about 6 months to get the levels manageable again.
Mike
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ivanfj
Guest
So is it gonna create some problems for fish and inverts??? I am thinking to add a fish or two and some shrimps in a couple of weeks. Should I make sure the phosphate is lowered before I get any fish??? I am doing a 5% water change weekly and I hope that would help too.