clm65
Well-Known Member
I am dealing with high nitrates and phosphates, which I am currently attempting to fix with nopox (I have another thread on this forum that covers that). I did a water change yesterday and saved some of the water to do a little extra testing.
So I put 1 quart of my old water in a container. According to a recent ATI ICP test, nitrates in my water are >400 mg/l, and phosphates are >2 mg/l. I didn't check the nitrates in the cup of water, but I did test it for phosphates using a Hanna tester and got 2.17 ppm, so I don't expect any significant difference in water parameters from the 3/31/19 sample date for the ICP test and what I have now.
I decided to see how effective Phosphate Rx really is on my water. The instructions say 6 drops of product in 10 gallons of water will reduce phosphates by 0.5 ppm. So in my 1 quart water sample, I would need a fraction (15%) of a drop to get a 0.5 ppm reduction. It would seem logical that 1 drop would have a significant impact. I added one drop, but didn't see any clouding. So I added another drop, and one more for good measure. I then transferred the quart of water back and forth between two cups a few times to make sure there was adequate mixing, and then poured it through a 10 micron sock to filter out any flocculent. I then tested the water again, and phosphates were 1.79 (0.38 ppm reduction). That is quite a bit less than expected. I know I am supposed to wait 24 hours before re-test, but I was a little impatient. I can retest tonight and see if it changes, but since it is just water with no phosphate-saturated rock or sand, I don't really expect much of a difference.
TBH, one of the reasons I wanted to do this test is that I didn't feel I was getting the expected results in the past when I tried Phosphate Rx and Phosphate-E to lower phosphates. I figured there was so much bound up phosphate in the rocks and sand that the phosphates quickly recovered. But in this test, there really shouldn't be a source of phosphates. My calcium and alk are both very high (641 mg/l and 12.51 dKH, respectively). Is there some sort of relationship there that would inhibit phosphate reduction? I have read that you need some phosphates to reduce nitrates, but not sure if anything is needed (or not allowed) for phosphate reduction.
I do plan to keep going with nopox on the tank for a while and see what kind of progress that makes. But just wanted to make sure there is not something else I should be looking at that I might be missing.
So I put 1 quart of my old water in a container. According to a recent ATI ICP test, nitrates in my water are >400 mg/l, and phosphates are >2 mg/l. I didn't check the nitrates in the cup of water, but I did test it for phosphates using a Hanna tester and got 2.17 ppm, so I don't expect any significant difference in water parameters from the 3/31/19 sample date for the ICP test and what I have now.
I decided to see how effective Phosphate Rx really is on my water. The instructions say 6 drops of product in 10 gallons of water will reduce phosphates by 0.5 ppm. So in my 1 quart water sample, I would need a fraction (15%) of a drop to get a 0.5 ppm reduction. It would seem logical that 1 drop would have a significant impact. I added one drop, but didn't see any clouding. So I added another drop, and one more for good measure. I then transferred the quart of water back and forth between two cups a few times to make sure there was adequate mixing, and then poured it through a 10 micron sock to filter out any flocculent. I then tested the water again, and phosphates were 1.79 (0.38 ppm reduction). That is quite a bit less than expected. I know I am supposed to wait 24 hours before re-test, but I was a little impatient. I can retest tonight and see if it changes, but since it is just water with no phosphate-saturated rock or sand, I don't really expect much of a difference.
TBH, one of the reasons I wanted to do this test is that I didn't feel I was getting the expected results in the past when I tried Phosphate Rx and Phosphate-E to lower phosphates. I figured there was so much bound up phosphate in the rocks and sand that the phosphates quickly recovered. But in this test, there really shouldn't be a source of phosphates. My calcium and alk are both very high (641 mg/l and 12.51 dKH, respectively). Is there some sort of relationship there that would inhibit phosphate reduction? I have read that you need some phosphates to reduce nitrates, but not sure if anything is needed (or not allowed) for phosphate reduction.
I do plan to keep going with nopox on the tank for a while and see what kind of progress that makes. But just wanted to make sure there is not something else I should be looking at that I might be missing.
