My chase to reduce phosphates

[kzoo]

I have had a battle with phosphates since I have set up my tank , I have check all the usual suspects - RO filters, Feeding, water changes. I came to the conclusion that my rocks have it bound up in them and keeping my reading at 1.5 to 1.0. I have a bio pellet reactor, run filter socks, algae reactor (have to prune about once every week) GFO (getting expensive) very oversized skimmer and I have been doing weekly water changes.
I have decided to try a produce called phosphate RX- i.e. Latium chloride after watching a blog from Melvin's reef. I started with a half dose of recommended last night and this morning tested my water and it dropped my readings down to .8 so it worked and all fish and coral look good. I will see if this will help long term or if it just a short term result.

 

[brandonmason]

I'd be interested in seeing the results. I was chasing phosphates since I moved. Even with brand new filters in my Rodi, I was registering .25 still out of the Rodi. All the rock I removed from the 300 I was thinking about soaking it in that stuff and then drying it out til I get the bigger tank built.

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[kzoo]

Well so far so good numbers have been cut in half, .5 I am going to do a few big water changes to try to get down more.

I have seen lots of people cycle there rock this way with good results, bigger tank ? Nice!

 

[xilez]

How is this going?

 

[kzoo]

So far so good no problems with fish or coral, i didn't do full dosage split it up over 3 days also ran through a filter sock to catch the bound up phosphates. Less algae on the glass and water is crystal clear ,reading is staying around .3 and i feel it could be lower but im not going for ultra low system.

 

[rodasphoto]

kzoo;1111329 wrote: So far so good no problems with fish or coral, i didn't do full dosage split it up over 3 days also ran through a filter sock to catch the bound up phosphates. Less algae on the glass and water is crystal clear ,reading is staying around .3 and i feel it could be lower but im not going for ultra low system.

What size sock did you use? I read you have to use a pretty small pore size sock.

 

[snowmansnow]

So is the PO4 rising if you do nothing, or is that a pretty stable number in the tank?
I mean.. if you do nothing and the PO4 = x... if you test a month later will it still be X?, or will it be X+?

 

[kzoo]

Yes smaller micron sock is better and i removed it 24 hours later.

Yes my phosphates dropped and are staying stable, it just knocked the amount in half and stayed the same for over a week now. My rocks have cleaned up well and now seeing more coraline, hope it stays that way! I will update my results.

 

[kzoo]

Yes I know .3 is not low but coming from 1.0 it is a bad result , my last tank ran .3 to .5 and had great growth and color. I am sure my rock is the problem and once the leaching stops it will drop more.

 

[sn4k33y3z]

I've been using it for years! Great stuff

 

[camellia]

Interesting information and sounds so easy!
Glad you've been successful in the PO4 reduction, that can be so frustrating.

Please give us an update in a few days/weeks.

Thanks