Lower nitrates by raising phosphate??

[Erpiki]

I tried buying this items but they do not ship to europe, I could not find Brightwell Neophos eather in Europe, I will continue searching as in Spain is not available, I will see if I can get it in Germany or the Uk.

 

[speedstar]

Deleted Misread

 

[Erpiki]

Do you think that one will do?

https://www.acuarioplantado.com/liquidos-seachem/206-seachem-flourish-phosphorus-250ml.html

 

[OREGONIC]

Did that work? I also have that isue with low phosphates and high nitrates, I would like to buy trisodium phosphate to try it but I am not sure if the one they sell in shops for agriculture will be good, can you tell me where did you bought yours? Thank you.

I have been dosing neo phos since I started this post months ago. I started by having to dose 1-2ml a day to keep phosphates .02-.04. I now only have to dose 3-5ml a week to keep phosphates in this range. My nitrates have never really dropped a lot now between 5-8 but everything in my tank is doing so much better then it ever was before. Colors are much more vibrant, corals have grown more during this time then entire time prior, and coroline algae has started to grow very fast (to fast have had to double my 2 part dosing). I have also completely quit using nopox. My algae scrubber has taken off and pod population has increased. The only down side is I have to clean my glass several times a week and sand bed needs to be blown or mixed 1-2 times a week to keep nice and crisp white. I am so glad that I started dosing phosphates, it has really allowed my tank to thrive.

 

[Erpiki]

Thank you Oregonic, I am going to try that but I could not find this product in Spain so I will give the seachen one a try, I have 0 phosphates in the water colum but when I took water close to the rock and I tested it with my hanna test I had 0,37... I see some people use a water pump to clean the rocks and add phosphates to the water colum, but I am not sure if that will work in my case.

 

[OREGONIC]

Finally my nitrates and phosphates appear to have completely balanced. Nitrates have dropped to 2ppm and phosphates holding steady at .04ppm without dosing neo phos. I was starting to think I would never get tank to balance and hold a balance on its own. Thank you @Randy Holmes-Farley for your help.

 

[Diznaster]

I'm trying to raise my phosphate from zero, it has always been undetectable. It sounds like it is just binding to my reef saver rock. I mixed up a TSP solution and 4mL should have raised it to 0.01ppm. I added 4mL over an hour and then tested 30 minutes after. It was still zero. So I did it again (should now be at 0.02ppm) and still zero. Before I started I did a test with a gallon of tank water and few drops of my mixture and it went from zero to 0.04ppm, so my test seems fine. Is there any harm in continuing this until I reach a detectable level? Obviously not adding it really fast or a bunch at once, but faster than 4mL per day and then it might take a month to reach equilibrium. It seems that if I'm adding it and it almost immediately binds then there wouldn't be any harm in adding more. Maybe cap a daily dose at 20mL (should be 0.05ppm), but test after each 4mL dose.

 

[Land Shark]

Binding to rock only applies when your water is high in phosphate. When water is low in phosphate, any phosphate that may have been in the rock reaches out naturally.

There is no harm continuing to dose until you get a reading. s a test, take a gallon on water out of your display tank and add it to a jug. Put your 4ml dose of PO4 additive to the jug and shake the bottle. Next test your jug of water using a hannah ULR tester. You should Have a very strong PO4 result. Then add that gallon of water back to your display tank. If for some reason you still get a zero reading, you will know it’s the additive.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Binding to rock only applies when your water is high in phosphate. When water is low in phosphate, any phosphate that may have been in the rock reaches out naturally.

There is no harm continuing to dose until you get a reading. s a test, take a gallon on water out of your display tank and add it to a jug. Put your 4ml dose of PO4 additive to the jug and shake the bottle. Next test your jug of water using a hannah ULR tester. You should Have a very strong PO4 result. Then add that gallon of water back to your display tank. If for some reason you still get a zero reading, you will know it’s the additive.

Actually, phosphate will bind to calcium carbonate surfaces at nearly any phosphate concentration, it just binds more and more as the concentration rises.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm trying to raise my phosphate from zero, it has always been undetectable. It sounds like it is just binding to my reef saver rock. I mixed up a TSP solution and 4mL should have raised it to 0.01ppm. I added 4mL over an hour and then tested 30 minutes after. It was still zero. So I did it again (should now be at 0.02ppm) and still zero. Before I started I did a test with a gallon of tank water and few drops of my mixture and it went from zero to 0.04ppm, so my test seems fine. Is there any harm in continuing this until I reach a detectable level? Obviously not adding it really fast or a bunch at once, but faster than 4mL per day and then it might take a month to reach equilibrium. It seems that if I'm adding it and it almost immediately binds then there wouldn't be any harm in adding more. Maybe cap a daily dose at 20mL (should be 0.05ppm), but test after each 4mL dose.

Correct, if accurate, there's no harm in adding more. How are you measuring the 0.01 ppm? It may not be accurate.

It may be binding to the rock, which can suck up a lot until it reaches equilibrium, then, if the phosphate concentration is unchanged, the amount bound tot he rock will stop increases and it will just be a stable reservoir.

 

[Land Shark]

Actually, phosphate will bind to calcium carbonate surfaces at nearly any phosphate concentration, it just binds more and more as the concentration rises.

That is in agreement with what I said.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That is in agreement with what I said.

It's this line I was focusing on:

"Binding to rock only applies when your water is high in phosphate. "

 

[Diznaster]

How are you measuring the 0.01 ppm? It may not be accurate.

Currently a Red Sea Pro kit. Not the most accurate, but I haven't seen anything terrible about it. It has never had a hint of color, but my test with a few drops of TSP (1.88g/L) solution in a gallon registered about what I would expect at 0.04ppm. I do have a Hannah ULR on order, so I'm going to wait until I get that before going further. Hopefully it reads zero and this could be why corals are not doing well for me, because everything else tests normal and is stable.

Thanks, I'll update progress and record the data.

 

[OREGONIC]

Well my nutrient balance got out of whack again a few months ago, phosphates dropped to zero and nitrates began to rise again. I dosed phosphates up to .1ppm and have devised a way to keep them stable. I now add one and a half caps of NeoPhos to every 5 gallons of ATO water. Only took a few days for everything to balance back out and has been holding steady at 2-5ppm nitrate and about .06 phosphates. ATS grows nice lush hair algae like a champ, and pod population has grown exponentially.

 

[OREGONIC]

Just to keep my thread updated I now have phosphates at a steady .08 - .10 but nitrates have dropped to being undetectable with Salifert test kit. I have started feeding twice as much and dosing amino acids daily as opposed to every other day. Everything looks happy and colorful and I paln on cutting my phosphate dosing in half to get nitrates up a little. I have never been so happy with the way my tank has looked. Have only been doing 1 10% water change a month. Also did a Triton test and only things out of whack was that I feel I need to adjust is to raise iodine and potassium. I seem to test slightly higher phosphates then the Triton test shows so I have no desire to drop phosphates to much.

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/51990/

 

[becon776]

this was an excellent read! i am currentlh in same situation. all sps rtn, even zoas. i have been trying ti run triton method but cant get off runway.
i recently added an auto feeder and feeding small amt 4x's per day. also 1-2 cubes of mysid. historically i couldnt get nutrients no matter what. i ran tank with no skimmer and no fuge for 3-4 mos. turned all back on then back chaeto took off. (i had a big prib getting it to grow). before auto feed instill couldnt get no3/po4. i checked this am. po4-0, no3 ->25ppm!!!!!!! chaeto is going crazy with h380. doing a 30% water change today. going to clean out sump was letting all build up inhopes of nutrients. let simmer for 24hrs and see where i end up at. I have neophos on hand if i add at evening then it will be gone by noon bc of big fuge hopefully lowering no3 in the process. wish there was a food to feed tyat was more balanced po4 and no3

 

[OREGONIC]

this was an excellent read! i am currentlh in same situation. all sps rtn, even zoas. i have been trying ti run triton method but cant get off runway.
i recently added an auto feeder and feeding small amt 4x's per day. also 1-2 cubes of mysid. historically i couldnt get nutrients no matter what. i ran tank with no skimmer and no fuge for 3-4 mos. turned all back on then back chaeto took off. (i had a big prib getting it to grow). before auto feed instill couldnt get no3/po4. i checked this am. po4-0, no3 ->25ppm!!!!!!! chaeto is going crazy with h380. doing a 30% water change today. going to clean out sump was letting all build up inhopes of nutrients. let simmer for 24hrs and see where i end up at. I have neophos on hand if i add at evening then it will be gone by noon bc of big fuge hopefully lowering no3 in the process. wish there was a food to feed tyat was more balanced po4 and no3

Well just to give you an update. Everything has more or less stabled out. My po4 seems to finally be in balance w/o needing to dose very often. My po4 seems to stay .05-.08 nowadays. My no3 is currently a little high at about 25, so I am probably due for a water change. I started feeding more pellets and less frozen food, I also have started dosing amino acid daily and aquaforest power food everyday or 2. My tank is much happier now. Really the only time I dose po4 now is when I do an occasional water change just so it doesn’t drop and it seems to stay steady doing this. Now if I do go away for a few days I will dose a little po4 as well simply because I dont use an auto feeder. The fish get a big feeding before I leave and when I get back, there are plenty of pods for snacks for them to happily surrive for 2-3 days w/o feeding. Getting po4 levels up and staying there was a game changer and corals look so much better. I do have more aptasia and the occasional small patch of gha or cyano but I am fine with that, especially since Iam having good luck with acros and sps now.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Glad things are going well!

 

[MentalNote]

Wow, great thread!

Thanks OREGONIC for taking the effort to stick with the dosing and keep this thread updated. It’s not often that we get to follow two years of progress on a specific topic like this.

 

[clhardy5]

Agree with MentalNote! I'm having the same problem in my Red Sea 525xl, I started dosing Neophos yesterday, and will track my progress in my build thread.