# [Wet Thumb Forum]-phosphates won't stay down!!



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

I had a phosphate level of 5, I thought from the use of a PH adjuster.
After 3 water changes in 5 days, I had the level to about 1. 
After 4 days I checked it again, and it was back up to 5.
I'm adding.

Flourish
trace
potassium
iron
alittle excel along with 2 DIY CO2 bottles.
Laterite in the gravel.

NO Phousphorus or PH adjuster.
I feed my fish onces a day and not alot.

Were is my Phosphate coming from and how do I fix it?


----------



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

I had a phosphate level of 5, I thought from the use of a PH adjuster.
After 3 water changes in 5 days, I had the level to about 1. 
After 4 days I checked it again, and it was back up to 5.
I'm adding.

Flourish
trace
potassium
iron
alittle excel along with 2 DIY CO2 bottles.
Laterite in the gravel.

NO Phousphorus or PH adjuster.
I feed my fish onces a day and not alot.

Were is my Phosphate coming from and how do I fix it?


----------



## captain (May 12, 2006)

Do you have anything like Jobe's sticks or any other fertilizer stick in the substrate? 

Phosphate is not the easiest thing to test for. What kind of kit do you have? Maybe the kit is screwy.

-Steve
See profile for tank info


----------



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

I have a box of Flourish tabs in the gravel.
My kit is made by Nutrafin.
If I test it more than once, it test consistant.


----------



## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

What size is your tank?
How many fish?
What is your nitrate level?
Are you adding any nitrate?
What is the PO4 level of your tap water?


----------



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

tank is a 55 gal
about 18 fish, mostly small. six algae eaters an for cories for tank maint.
nitrates about 10 maybe alittle highter
and I an dosing it to keep it up or it drops
tapwater has no phosphates 
Plants are growing and bubbling.
3 WPG, NO lights, 11 hours


----------



## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

If you used enough of a phosphate-based pH adjuster to actually change your pH then your phosphate levels would have been *very* high. It would surprise me if 3 water changes would lower it to 1 ppm. My guess is that either you had a bad result from the test kit indicating a level of 1 ppm and/or you still had some undissolved phosphate from the adjuster, some high phosphate water in the substrate, in a filter, or maybe just unmixed in the tank. That high-phosphate water raised the pH after it got mixed into the rest of the tank.

I expect that if you do a few more water changes that you will eventually get the phosphate levels down.


Roger Miller


----------



## Ptahkeem (Feb 16, 2004)

just out of curiosity but are there any other ways of removing phosphates from the tank?


----------



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

OK I'll do more water changes. I'm fighting an algae problem. Everything is growing good including the algae.Any sugestions on dosing potassium and iron.
I haven't gotten a test kit for that yet.


----------



## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

Roger is probably right, if you added a lot of the buffer your PO4 would probably be very high (20-40ppm)!

If we know what products you are using for potassium and Iron, we might be able to help you there?


----------



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

I'm using only flourish products. 
I did use alot of ph buffer and then order the full line of flourish products and added phosphorus which I assume is just more phosphate. Then ALGAE!! I think I've slowed it down alot. I HOPE!
I've read that phosphates are probably the first thing to address the algae. No more buffer for me.


----------



## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

If your tank has a good amount of plants in it, I would add 5-7ml of flourish iron 2-3 week,
and about 55ml of flourish potassium after water changes.


----------



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

Gee. I'm not adding nearly that.I've been adding about 1 ml of each Flourish product 1 time a day accept the phosphorus. About 2 or 3 times that at water change.


----------



## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

Seachems potassium is very diluted!
It says add 1ml per 10 gallons to get 1ppm right?
You want your tank to have a K level of 10-20ppm!


----------



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

1 ml per 10 gallon everyday?


----------



## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

After every 50% water change add about 55ml... this will be adding 10ppm to your tank.

What does the directions say on the bottle... I haven't looked at it in awhile
?


----------



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

5 ml per 50 gallon, 2-3 times per week or as needed.


----------



## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

does it say anything about ppm or mg/L?


----------



## Carson (Apr 16, 2003)

That's all I see on the bottle about dosing.I guess I need to get a few more test kits.


----------



## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

A couple quick suggestions.

First, you can hold off on adding any phosphate as fertilizer. Phosphate is provided by all fish foods, so well-stocked aquariums have a constant supply of phosphorus. A lot of aquarists have maintained beautiful tanks for years without ever fertilizing with phosphate. Try adding a little phosphate fertilizer after you have everything running for a while. Then, if it helps keep doing it. If it doesn't help, don't keep doing it.

Second, I like Seachem products, but I'll probably never use their Flourish Potassium. It isn't cost effective. You can use potassium nitrate (stump remover), potassium chloride (salt substitute) or potassium sulfate to add potassium. Potassium test kits are expensive, so most of us don't use them. Without a cheap and effective test kit it is probably advisable to dose potassium conservatively. 10-20 mg/l is a reasonable dosing target, but 5 mg/l works, too.


Roger Miller


----------



## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

ptahkeem,

You can get phosphate-removing resins to add to your filter. These work briefly, foul easily and can't be renewed. They get expensive.

Usually you don't need to worry much about removing phosphate unless you're continually adding a lot of it. Phosphate tends to drop out of solution.

Roger Miller

[This message was edited by Roger Miller on Thu June 12 2003 at 05:54 AM.]


----------



## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

I would advise against using potassium nitrate KNO3 to dose potassium. If you did and wanted to get your potassium levels up to recommend levels your nitrate levels would be sky high. The safest way, and the cheapest way is either potassium chloride or potassium sulfate.

Also let it be noted that "stump remover" is not and can not always be guaranteed to be pure potassium nitrate. This is a real burr under my saddle when people toss out the term stump remover. I have looked around and checked out three locally available "stump removers" and only one of them states the active ingredient is potassium nitrate. And upon opening this "stump remover" it was clear there were other ingredients besides potassium nitrate. Besides, pure KNO3 can be had much cheaper or at the same cost as "stump remover"

Moderator










American by birth, Marine by the grace of God! This post spell checked with IESpell available at http://www.iespell.com

See my Profile for tank details.


----------

