phosphates

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xxchris060

Guest
Right now my phosphates are 1.5. I belive that is high. I also test my distilled water from walmart that reads .5. I don't really know what phosphates are. Is there anyone who can tell me about them or reffer a website that has info on phosphates. What can i do to lower it.
Thank you Chris
cal 425
alk 4meg
sal 1.024
ammonia 0
ph 8.2
nitrite 0
nitrate 1.5
phos 1.5
 
jagermeister

jagermeister

Member
1.5 what? mg/l?
Isn't that extremely high? I thought that you should aim for a phosphate concentration below 0.02 mg/l. Undetectable would be ideal?
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
First off - if the water you're getting from Walmart tests positive for "any" phosphate .... stop using it !
Imagine this ..... everytime you top off your tank due to evaporated water ... you're adding phosphate.
The water evaporates .. leaving the phosphate behind.
It would not take long to have a serious problem arise.
jagermeister is correct - less than 0.02 mg/L is very good.
Anything higher than that - can cause excessive nuisance algae growth.
Find out where they phosphates are coming from.
Overfeeding
Feeding foods high in phosphate
Accumulated detritus
Poor quality activated carbon
Introduced in freshwater source
Here's a pretty good article to read - if you're interested.
There are tons of threads covering this concern - just do a search here or on the net.
Good luck
Read me
 
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