Lets talk phosphates
 

Ok so my tank has been running at my house for around 2 months and I am very happy with the progress. I have been able to fix a bad flatworm issue and just now the tank is starting to look really nice. What lives in my tank now are good clean up crew, cleaner shrimp, blood shrimp,serpent stars and yellow watchman goby The tank was filthy when I first got it.


Problem.


I have very high phosphate levels so for that reason I haven't purchased any fish. Again my tank was very dirty when first purchased but since then my levels are getting much better. I have removed the filthy dsb from the fuge and been using phosgaurd. The rest of my levels are fine and I don't have an algae problem or anything? I'm assuming the last owner used tap water so I do expect phosphate to leach from the lr but that will end with water changes right?


Question.


What harm can phosphate do for my tank and could I safely add fish soon?
I don't have the test in front of me but 2 weeks ago the phosphate test turned the water blue instantly without shaking it and as of yesterday its just a light teal almost yellow, Hopefully that makes sence lol.

Anyways any advice would be great Thanks

You could run gfo and a reactor to get rid of phosphates, it's very efficient and can drop phosphates quickly, IMO fish can handle phosphates and nitrates to a certain degree so if you can get it to a manageable level and keep it there you're ok!

+1

I like rowaphos. But if you can use mechanical filtration phosdown is a great product

phosguard is junk toss it and go with rowaphos or another type of gfo or phosphate remover....phosguard is aluminum based and it works really slow, its ok to keep levels low but not to reduce them...not imo anyways hence the super cheap pricetag...big waste of money:)

Since you have high readings rowa would be my choice as once saturated it does not leach back into water. But there's a price tag with it

absolutely..... not cheap so buy the big bottle for savings, like nick said the problem i have with phosguard is it doesnt work as fast and once full it leaches it back into your system so has to be changed alot faster.



edit*** thanks buddy lol :P

Edit: Rowa = good
Phosgaurd = bad

Do you have skimmer. And or refugium

I've been using Foz Down that I got from TimT. It sure worked in my tank! My phosphates are down to almost zero now. I put 4 drops in each of my drains once week, or whenever i remember, the stuff goes directly into my filter socks... I only wish he had something similiar for nitrates!

Thanks for all the good info, My lfo swore by phosgaurd...but it looks like its time for rowaphos :mrgreen: So it is safe to assume that phosphate will leach from my lf right? I'm just hoping this isnt a long battle.

I found that if I had po4 in rocks than you probably have hair algea issue

Just keep up water changes it'll go away

My phosphates are through the roof, so high the Hana checker couldn't even read how high they were :neutral: Plan on running Rowa this weekend.

Bought a big bottle of Foz Down and my friend calculated that I need to put 720 drops in my tank (600g total volume) a day for a week :eek: Haven't tried it yet, and I also need to get filter socks for when I use it......sigh

You can run filter floss when using foz down. I do and it works great plus it's cheap to do with floss

Anyone else use PO4x4? I've had great results with the stuff

2 weeks ago I had very high phosphates, I listened what everyone said and got a reactor with gfo and now a week later my phosphates are great! Thanks everyone :)

Gfo works immediately, once your notice algae getting more frequent on your glass change the media out...I change mine about once every month and a half :)

Since your system is so large I would recommend the high efficiency gfo, others can use the normal efficiency.

I use the Foz Down myself in my acro system. I used to use HC GFO but it got expensive quick. Foz Down is a very cost effective alternative to GFO. Some people choose to remove it with mechanical filtration but I personally don't worry about it. Into the overflow it goes and bye bye Phosphate.

Shelley I wish there was something like Foz Down for Nitrate but I haven't found it yet. ;-)

Cheers,
Tim

I would hope you do... :)

Yep, bye bye PITA GFO reactor.

One other "best thing I did for the system" was get rid of the Ca Reactor. Too finicky and too much maintenance.