Phosphates Love Them Hate Them
by
, 10-15-2013 at 02:54 PM (2850 Views)
I recently purchased a Hanna phosphate meter to test my reef as I was having some algae issues that I haven't had. So after testing I found out I had a high phosphate issue readings of 3.4 or higher each time. So I thought I would address it first by liquid control using Phosphate RX which I purchased from marc which I've had good luck with in the past. So I dosed the RX as directed which is 38 drops after that I waited 24hrs to retest and not feeding tank to not alter the test readings. Well me test came out to 1.5 which it should have been near zero so I dosed RX again and in 24hrs again tested with the same reading as 1.5. So I went back to my daily feedings and does RX every other day and waiting to test to the end of the week. At the week of the week I tested and got 2.3 which got me thinking to see where this was coming from. I started other methods using Prodibio Bio Clean which was offered to me from Marc to give a try to help boost my bio pellet reactor. So after 2 doses of Bio Clean I tested and reading of 3.6 but my Nitrates went from 60 to 0 and stayed. So I looked harder in to my search for phosphate. Then I notice that I had switch frozen food about 9 months ago which was Pemysis Flat pack, so I did a test a dosed RX again got phos to 1.5 and then feed the Pemysis and tested again a few hours after feeding and tested 3.8. So now I finally found my phos issue so I started thawing it in RODI water and the straining it through a fish net then rinsing it off before feeding. Again I dosed RX and got them down to 1.2 and feed again after rinsing the food then I tested after several hours testing 2.8 which was better then before rinsing but still not good. I didn't have much of that food left so I finished using it the dosed RX one more time and starting using a different frozen food and tested a week later and my test was .08 and after one more dose of RX the phos is staying at .01 or nothing. so I thought I would give ya'll some of my finding and issues to maybe help you in the future if you're trying to nip your phosphates in the bud!! Keep on reefing and enjoy the hobby information is the key!!!