phosphate remover?

[drea]

do i need to use this if i am running ro water? my tanl has barely any algae at all...
what brand should i buy?

 

[hurt]

Have you tested for phosphates?

 

[drea]

no, guess i should, but i heard to run it anyway?

 

[jjlittle]

With regular ro/di water changes your phosphates will remain 0. I dont recommend adding phos remover. I would not recommend adding anything your not testing for.Regular water change weekly or bi weekly will do it all for you.

 

[hurt]

With regular ro/di water changes your phosphates will remain 0
I'll have to disagree with that statement. Many of the foods we feed are fish have phosphates.

 

[jjlittle]

Originally Posted by Hurt
I'll have to disagree with that statement. Many of the foods we feed are fish have phosphates.
Yes we continue to put phosphate & nitrates through food etc but with regular water changes 10% or greater they will remain in check. Over feeding is primarily the reason they are at readable levels.Also a good protien skimmer will help in removal as well.

 

[jdragunas]

I think we shouldn't say at all whether or not to use a phosphate sponge at this point, because we don't know what the phosphate level is... You need to test that first. Can't say "there COULD be phosphates, so run a sponge, just incase", because running a phosphate sponge when there's not phoshpates is big waste-o-money, as the media is not cheap.
I run phosphate sponge when i see an algae outbreak, but never besides that. If you tank has barely any algae at all, i'd say your phosphates are fine right now, and you don't need it. However, before making any assumptions, you should test for it, as that's the only way to determine whether or not you need one. Just my $0.02.

Jenn

 

[drea]

so true, i'll be doing that this weekend!

 

[mitzel]

ok I'm curious as to the phosphate testing . I have looked at a few stores but didn't see a test kit. what exactly am I looking for. LFS are jerks and petsmart had no idea what I was talking about. :help:

 

[jdragunas]

should be with the rest of the test kits, and it should just say "phosphate" test kit. If you don't see it, they probably don't carry it. My LFS (*****) only carries a few test kits, and they didn't include phosphates. You could order one offline, or travel a bit farther to another LFS, or see if your LFS can order one for you. Best to go with Salifert brand. Don't get Red Sea brand, as their tests have been known to be off...