Phosphate dropping after basting sand bed?

[peterhos]

Hi All. Do not get over excited! Tank now 11 months old. A few days back I started gently basting the sand bed. Everything else the same. Po4 down from 0.18 to 0.16. Rocks seemed a little less green this a.m. It seems to get gunk into the water column for the skimmer/mat to work on. I may stick with a daily gentle basting. What do you guys think.

 

[exnisstech]

Not sure how blowing the sand would reduce phosphate but 0.18 to 0.16 really isn't much of a drop if any. I think the margin of error for most kits is more than that but I may be wrong. Nothing wrong with cleaning sand tho I suppose.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Error margin aside (which is cleary an issue), you may have just exposed some fresh CaCO3 sand surfaces that bound some of the phosphate.

 

[peterhos]

Error margin aside (which is cleary an issue), you may have just exposed some fresh CaCO3 sand surfaces that bound some of the phosphate.

Thank you both. You are right about error margin of course, yet the (originally dry rocks) have certainly lost some green. If I can lose 0.01 of Po4 every few days I will be happy. As the green disappears, only a little yet, better colours show though.