Phosphate Question.

[tdyrkacz]

I am on day 10 of my cycle. I started noticing brown algea today. My parameters are as follows.

Ammonia .5ppm
Nitrites 2+ppm
Nitrates 5 to 10 ppm hard to tell from the color chart
Phosphates .66ppm

The tank contains mostly dry rock from BRS. I cured it for about 4 to 6 weeks before starting the cycle. I use RODI water so the phosphates must be leaching from the rock. I plan on running GFO eventually. My question is whether I should worry about the phosphates during the cycle or if I should just let it go for now? At what point should I begin dealing with it and is GFO the best way for now?

Thanks

 

[Reefing Madness]

Welp if your still cycling, and there is nothing in the tank, you can run SeaKlear, dump in a few capfuls, and remove pretty much all the phosphates in a few days, unless its still leaching, then you'd have to watch the numbers, dose like a capful a day until they are down to 0 and not leaching. Then you could start GFO. If you used GFO right now, you'd go through a ton of it, as your rock is leaching it out.

 

[tdyrkacz]

Where can I buy this stuff? Amazon doesn't seem to have it in stock.

 

[Reefing Madness]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SeaKlear-Phosphate-Remover-1-Quart-Bottle-/221212509964?hash=item33814b070c

 

[tdyrkacz]

Thanks. I did some reading on this. Seems like I need to dose it into a sock to trap the precipitate. I will probably try this. I have seen some use IV bags to dose it.

Do you know if there is an easier way to use it? Seems that if I just poor it into the tank the precipitate will just turn back into phosphates if I understand this correctly. Do you think just poring it into the filter sock would work?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks. I did some reading on this. Seems like I need to dose it into a sock to trap the precipitate. I will probably try this. I have seen some use IV bags to dose it.

Do you know if there is an easier way to use it? Seems that if I just poor it into the tank the precipitate will just turn back into phosphates if I understand this correctly. Do you think just poring it into the filter sock would work?

You have to add it slowly or else the lanthanum metal will exit the sock before precipitating phosphate that is in the water that is not inside the sock at the time. Basically, you need to combine the added material with all of the water in the tank over time.

Personally, I prefer using other methods (such as GFO), but those can be more expensive.

 

[tdyrkacz]

So last night I filled both sides of my BRS reactor half way with BRS GFO and ran it. Within less than 24 house my phosphates are at 0.12 ppm I have to say that I did not expect them to drop so much so quickly.