Tip: PO4-food

Bluejawtrigger · Oct 26, 2012

Just an FYI. Hope it might help at least one person.

Always test for po4 whenever switching food in your tank. You'd be amazed how much it can effect your tank. My suggestion is this, if trying a new food.

Test your tank before starting the new food. Feed the same as you were feeding before, ( unless direction state other wise). Try and keep your routine exactly the same as before. Test every two to three days for at least a week. You want to make sure the food you're using is not polluting your tank. This will help to let you know if your food of choice is helping or hurting your tank.

I know this sounds elementary, but its seriously over looked by a lot of people. You don't want to wait until you have a full blown algae out break to figure this out. I hope this helps or refreshes some ones memory and saves them a headache.

WillKatt · Oct 26, 2012

Perhaps a dumb question. Would it be possible to put a small amount of said food in a sample of tank water then measure for a change in PO4 from the sample to see what potential the food may have for adding phospate to the system or dores it not really work that way?

Bluejawtrigger · Oct 26, 2012

kalgra said:
Perhaps a dumb question. Would it be possible to put a small amount of said food in a sample of tank water then measure for a change in PO4 from the sample to see what potential the food may have for adding phospate to the system or dores it not really work that way?

I'm not an expert, first off. Lol. I don't think that would work. The ratio of food to water, filtration, fish poo after eating,etc, etc . All play a factor. That's why it's important to keep everything else the same. Lets say the food has a lot if fiber, fish poo more, look and act hungry more, do you feed more. Or even if you don't feed more, the excess waste will effect water quality. In my opinion. I really hope some one with more knowledge will chime in.