Phosphate wont go up!

[Liron Mishal]

Hi
My tank is 10 months old and I've been using gfo to get my phosphate under control.
It usually swings between 0.04 to 0.1.
For the last week or so, i cant seems to get it up from 0.
I tried feeding like crazy and i mean CRAZY (my fish loves me now and follows me like puppies), took the skimmer offline and dosing flourish phosphorus.
Calculator says 6ml to get it to 0.08, i dose that every day and still get nothing in my hanna phosphorus checker.

I have mainly lps, zoas and softies..
Parameters are:
Alk: 8
Nitrates: 6
Calc: 440
Mag: 1320

I have no idea what to do... tank looks ok, have small patches of GHA which started when the phosphate dropped.
Lps looks a little closed as well.
I have no idea what to do next, and advice will be appreciated

Liron

 

[Dan_P]

Hi
My tank is 10 months old and I've been using gfo to get my phosphate under control.
It usually swings between 0.04 to 0.1.
For the last week or so, i cant seems to get it up from 0.
I tried feeding like crazy and i mean CRAZY (my fish loves me now and follows me like puppies), took the skimmer offline and dosing flourish phosphorus.
Calculator says 6ml to get it to 0.08, i dose that every day and still get nothing in my hanna phosphorus checker.

I have mainly lps, zoas and softies..
Parameters are:
Alk: 8
Nitrates: 6
Calc: 440
Mag: 1320

I have no idea what to do... tank looks ok, have small patches of GHA which started when the phosphate dropped.
Lps looks a little closed as well.
I have no idea what to do next, and advice will be appreciated

Liron

For starters, confirm that you are dosing the correct amount. If you are adding 6 mL to 100 gallons and expect 0.08 ppm PO4, remove a gallon of tank water, add 0.06 mL to it, and measure the PO4 level. You can also add a larger amount if you would like to increase the accuracy of the addition. Of course, the PO4 reading will be proportionally higher. For example, add 0.6 mL for a 0.8 ppm reading.

 

[lapin]

Next step is confirm your test. Get the testing std for your device and be sure it is working. Next step is to get a batch of new reagent.
Test a few min after you dose you should see some rise even if something it using it up.

 

[Liron Mishal]

Ok. I followed @Dan_P advice and the tested showed the expected result.
That means that the tester and reagent are ok, and that the phosphorus solution is also good.
Most importantly it means that my tank eats up phosphate like crazy!
Whats next? Increase dosage?

 

[Dan_P]

Ok. I followed @Dan_P advice and the tested showed the expected result.
That means that the tester and reagent are ok, and that the phosphorus solution is also good.
Most importantly it means that my tank eats up phosphate like crazy!
Whats next? Increase dosage?

Great!

Increasing the PO4 dose seems reasonable.