Phosphate Question?

First what raises phosphate?

Is there a none chemical way to lower it?

If a chemical way is needed what do yall recommend?

Is a phosphate level of .5 ppm bad or just not good?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

the phosphate should be zero or very very close to zero... sources are top off water and fish food

you can pull phosphate out with a media called phosban of GFO (granular ferric oxide) inside a media reactor.

Do you have an algae or cyano problem? phosphates lead directly to algae

 

K+ to Dingo -- Perfect response !

 

The non chemical way to lower phosphates would be with macroalgae, mangroves in a refugium.

There are numerous chemical products to lower phosphates, including as mentioned GFO, Phosgaurd, Phosphate Filter Pads and other media.

You want your phosphates at 0. Or indetectable. The qucik and easy way to lower Phosphates if you dont have a fuge or dont want to invest in a phosphate reactor right away is to Place some GFO into a high flow area such as mechanical filter.

 

If you do water changes and reduce feedings, including coral feedings, then that should help reduce the phosphates. Keep in mind though, that will only work if the water you are using for water changes is phosphate free. Also, .5 is high IMO, it should be 0.

 

i also used to run purigen in my system helped absorbs a bunch of crap check it out PURIGEN. in addition to GFO/macro algae

 

be sure to check the water source routinely. example, i have a RO/DI unit and it wasnt time yet to replace the cartridges based on the past-history or based on my TDS meter readings yet a PO4 test yielded 0.25 so i replaced the cartrdiges (received them yesterday from tbaquatics) and my PO4 is back to 0.00. for two weeks i had been topping off with water that had just a slight trace of PO4 and i already had minor algae blooms just from that. so its something i watch regularly now just as much as nitrates.

initially when i first started with salt i had tons of algae problems and it ALL came down to the phosphates/nitrates. at this point ive figured out my errors in my ways, the frozen food not being properly prepared, RO cartridge replacement for top-off water, light cycle and routine nitrate/PO4 testing are all key to keeping a clean viewable display tank for me at this point.

 

Thanks guys I have a canister filter so its easy to use a chemical media. As far as my RO top off comes from my lfs and I have checked it and it is zero. Saltwater comes from the same guy. I do not have any kinda algae problem. I might have been using a poor food a while back. I have since switched. That was the first phosphate check I have ever had done. My tank is only been up for 5-6months and everything else is fine. Thanks for the help guys.