Tds/phosphates

Drs1685

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Is it possible to have 0 tds water coming from your rodi but still have phosphates in it? Just wondering if I can assume that because my water is 0 tds that it doesn't have any phosphates in it.
 
NO.
If the tds meter is good ;-)

I don't even think your Rodi water can have phosphate in it. I thought phosphate comes from bio degrade like food and fish waste but I could be wrong :-)
 
Silica and phosphate can come from the source water, but can also be added to the tap water to raise pH and thereby reduce corrosion.
 
Even if there's a tiny trace in your water, it is a trivial source relative to foods.

I show that here:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry

from it:
Comparison of Food Sources of Phosphate to Other Sources
What about other sources of phosphate, like the "crappy" RO/DI water containing 0.05 ppm phosphate? A similar analysis will show it equally unimportant relative to foods.

Let's assume that the aquarist in question adds 1% of the total tank volume each day with RO/DI to replace evaporation. Simple math shows that the 0.05 ppm in the RO/DI becomes 0.0005 ppm added each day to the phosphate concentration in the aquarium. That dilution step is critical, taking a scary number like 0.05 ppm down to an almost meaningless 0.0005 ppm daily addition. Since that 0.0005 ppm is 40-600 times lower than the amount added each day in foods (Table 4), it does not seem worthy of the angst many aquarists put on such measurements. That said, tap water could have as much as 5 ppm phosphate, and that value could then become a dominating source of phosphate and would be quite problematic. Purifying tap water is important for this and many other reasons.
 

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