Here we go another phosphate thread

[cylon032]

So I’ve always had my phosphates at .5 thinking that was a good level my smart self thinking it was .05 oops. I’ve lowered it down to .03 with phosphate rx, but how do you maintain it at that level it bounces around. Should I just keep dosing phosphate rx or would gfo be a better option?
Also didn’t mean to lower it down so fast guess I don’t know exactly what my water volume is.

1/29 phosphate .5 added as per instructions 6 drops per 10 gal phosphate rx thinking I have about 120 total water volume so I added 72 drops
1/30 went down to .07
1/31 back up to .12
2/1 .15 added 60 drops instead tested later the same day dropped to .05
2/2 .12
2/3 .10
2/4 .12 added 60 drops again
2/8 .22 added 60 drops
2/9 .03
Also during this period I stopped feeding food that contained any phosphate in the ingredients.

Oh yea and tested with the Hanna HI774 ulr colorimeter

 

[S.Pepper]

The best option for me is a natural option: ATS or chaeto in a refugium. I would only consider gfo or a chemical if all else failed.

 

[HuduVudu]

This is why salt water aquariums are hard. It is actually hard to leave the aquarium alone to do what it needs to do.

What you are doing is chasing numbers. Stop. You are wasting your time and making your hobby less fulfilling.

Set up a routine watch your creatures for response and then adjust accordingly. Organic systems are incredibly complex and thinking that you can reduce that complexity into a few numbers is ... well .... foolish.

Successful salt water aquariums can be anywhere from 0 to 60ppm of phosphates. If you are anywhere in those values you are good. A side note unsuccessful salt water aquariums can be anywhere between 0 and 60ppm of phosphates.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

IMO, every phosphate level you posted is fine.

Don't agonize over trying to drive it below 0.05 ppm.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Successful salt water aquariums can be anywhere from 0 to 60ppm of phosphates. If you are anywhere in those values you are good. A side note unsuccessful salt water aquariums can be anywhere between 0 and 60ppm of phosphates.

60 ppm phosphate?

0 with a good kit is not, IMO, "good".

 

[cylon032]

I have some cheato I don’t think it’s enough though I have a 10x8 refugium. So should I let it go back up to .5 that’s where it was this whole time

 

[cylon032]

Forgot to mention on the Hanna it was above .90, so I tested with the salifert test kit and that was the .5 results I was talking about

 

[Daddy-o]

Knowing that my rocks are going to leach phosphates, I set up an easy dosing schedule with PhosphatE. Since October I drip a small amount of of LC in the morning and night. My phosphates were .22 and now are steady at .07