Did I unlock all the phosphate from 100#s of live rock?

[excell007]

So, I never graduated high school but, doesnt a ratio of 1:3 mean 1 part A and 3 parts B for total of 4 parts? And if you mix 100ml & 200ml the correct way to write that is 1:2 ?

you are correct. I think on one of the post he mentioned 1/3, not 1:3, which is 33.3%LC66.6% water or 1/3LC to 2/3water same as 1:2.

 

[piranhaman00]

So, I never graduated high school but, doesnt a ratio of 1:3 mean 1 part A and 3 parts B for total of 4 parts? And if you mix 100ml & 200ml the correct way to write that is 1:2 ?

Sorry yes there is 1/3 and 1:3 going around, it’s a 1/3 dilution or 1:2 ratio.

 

[piranhaman00]

Wow! I have had amazing results this weekend!

My 200 gallon ish system , fish only, was at about 6.0ppm PO4. I dosed 250 mls of the diluted 1/3 solution of Phosban L through Friday Saturday and today (Sunday) which should have done 5.0ppm.

Just tested the water and I’m at 0.202ppm! Can’t believe how well that worked! 1um sock is still not fully plugged and water never clouded. I lost about 1.0-1.5dkh through the three days ffrom the treatment. I dripped into a 1um sock that was propped up in my sump with zip ties and a dedicated pump, that pumped water from sump into sock and drained back into sump in a diff compartment.

Will test again for rocks leaking PO4 into water but very confident I have a control on PO4, so cheap and easy. Of course fish only helped take most of the stress away but still awesome!

 

[Daddy-o]

Wow! I have had amazing results this weekend!

My 200 gallon ish system , fish only, was at about 6.0ppm PO4. I dosed 250 mls of the diluted 1/3 solution of Phosban L through Friday Saturday and today (Sunday) which should have done 5.0ppm.

Just tested the water and I’m at 0.202ppm! Can’t believe how well that worked! 1um sock is still not fully plugged and water never clouded. I lost about 1.0-1.5dkh through the three days ffrom the treatment. I dripped into a 1um sock that was propped up in my sump with zip ties and a dedicated pump, that pumped water from sump into sock and drained back into sump in a diff compartment.

Will test again for rocks leaking PO4 into water but very confident I have a control on PO4, so cheap and easy. Of course fish only helped take most of the stress away but still awesome!

Nice!!!

 

[Daddy-o]

Wow! I have had amazing results this weekend!

My 200 gallon ish system , fish only, was at about 6.0ppm PO4. I dosed 250 mls of the diluted 1/3 solution of Phosban L through Friday Saturday and today (Sunday) which should have done 5.0ppm.

Just tested the water and I’m at 0.202ppm! Can’t believe how well that worked! 1um sock is still not fully plugged and water never clouded. I lost about 1.0-1.5dkh through the three days ffrom the treatment. I dripped into a 1um sock that was propped up in my sump with zip ties and a dedicated pump, that pumped water from sump into sock and drained back into sump in a diff compartment.

Will test again for rocks leaking PO4 into water but very confident I have a control on PO4, so cheap and easy. Of course fish only helped take most of the stress away but still awesome!

Do you have a lot of rocks?
I am hovering around .07-.1 and dosing around 15 drops daily. Slow and steady
Cheers! Mark

 

[piranhaman00]

Do you have a lot of rocks?
I am hovering around .07-.1 and dosing around 15 drops daily. Slow and steady
Cheers! Mark

Yes lots of rocks, I am suspecting it will creep back up this weekend and then I will dose again!

 

[Daddy-o]

Still dosing daily. Seems to be just hovering around .10 Gonna up my dosing. Today I measured .09 so instead of adding 9 drops, I am gonna up it to 22.
6 drops will lower 200 gallons by .025 (200g total system, I am not subtracting for rocks)
.09 phosphate divided by .025 = 3.6
3.6 x 6 drops = 21.6
Cheers! Mark

 

[excell007]

Me too, still a lot of phosphate on my rocks. I am dosing 15ml per day, which should remove .75ppm if there is no phosphate bound on the rocks, but actual reduction is only about .12ppm. I tried just dosing 10ml 3 days ago and phosphate actually increased by .05ppm from previous days number

 

[Daddy-o]

Me too, still a lot of phosphate on my rocks. I am dosing 15ml per day, which should remove .75ppm if there is no phosphate bound on the rocks, but actual reduction is only about .12ppm. I tried just dosing 10ml 3 days ago and phosphate actually increased by .05ppm from previous days number

I guess all this locked up phosphate is why Gfo and Phosguard didnt seem to help me. I want to go lower but it has been years since my phosphate was below .2 so I am feeling successful so far

 

[excell007]

I guess all this locked up phosphate is why Gfo and Phosguard didnt seem to help me. I want to go lower but it has been years since my phosphate was below .2 so I am feeling successful so far

Coming from >4ppm and with 15YO liverocks, GFO and phosguard didn't even make a dent on my numbers after 2 weeks of use, so I stopped and switch to LC. As of 2 hours ago the tank is at .4ppm, if I get to .1 I will stop and just do maintenance dose to keep it there.

 

[Daddy-o]

I have been dosing daily for 3 weeks. My phosphate is still hovering at .1 For the last week I have been dosing enough LC that my phosphate should drop to 0, But it is not. Maybe my dose is too small, or a lot leaching from the rocks, or my test is reading the flocculate in the water? I am going to stop dosing for about 5 days to allow the system to reach equilibrium. I still have not seen cloudiness and all fish and corals look great. I have a new bottle of Phosphat-E that I will start using, so while I am waiting for the system to level out, I will figure out my dosing.
Cheers! Mark

 

[excell007]

I have been dosing daily for 3 weeks. My phosphate is still hovering at .1 For the last week I have been dosing enough LC that my phosphate should drop to 0, But it is not. Maybe my dose is too small, or a lot leaching from the rocks, or my test is reading the flocculate in the water? I am going to stop dosing for about 5 days to allow the system to reach equilibrium. I still have not seen cloudiness and all fish and corals look great. I have a new bottle of Phosphat-E that I will start using, so while I am waiting for the system to level out, I will figure out my dosing.
Cheers! Mark

Same here, rocks still leaching. I did not dose for 36 hours and it increased from .24 to .58. I started dosing again, and will measure in 24 hours, if it goes below the .24 I'll consider this excercise a success. But I will start skipping days now, so I will know how much the rocks are leaching. Still no issue with the fishes, and the frags that I bought on 10/01 still looks OK and are actually growing.

 

[Daddy-o]

Can someone double check my math - please?

Each ml eliminates 1 ppm phosphate in 4 US-gallons of water

so 1/2ml eliminates .01 in 200 gallons?

 

[jccaclimber]

Looks right to me.

 

[piranhaman00]

My phosphates rose back up to around 3 ppm after a week, dosed again this weekend and got them at around 1.0ppm. I am going to start dosing daily

 

[excell007]

My phosphates rose back up to around 3 ppm after a week, dosed again this weekend and got them at around 1.0ppm. I am going to start dosing daily

Yup, with the amount of rocks we have, we're in a roller coaster ride for a while.

 

[josephxsxn]

This thread is just so interesting to me, I never had heard of the rocks releasing phosphates like this before. Anyone have any ideas around how much phosphate a rock can absorb?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This thread is just so interesting to me, I never had heard of the rocks releasing phosphates like this before. Anyone have any ideas around how much phosphate a rock can absorb?

I depends entirely on the available surface area, but can be a lot!

JDA did an experiment where he put 57.4 total ppm of phosphate into 5 gallons of seawater with 1 pound of Florida aragonite.

The concentration dropped all the way to 0.16 ppm.

Phosphate Absorption Rates in Aragonite

The more you add, the more will bind!

www.reef2reef.com

 

[MERKEY]

I depends entirely on the available surface area, but can be a lot!

JDA did an experiment where he put 57.4 total ppm of phosphate into 5 gallons of seawater with 1 pound of Florida aragonite.

The concentration dropped all the way to 0.16 ppm.

Phosphate Absorption Rates in Aragonite

The more you add, the more will bind!

www.reef2reef.com

So are the rocks actually releasing or have they just stopped obsorbing phos? How do you track that in a tank with fish and feeding habits that don't change?

Aragonite in a bucket by its self it is easy to see when this happens and track it.

Sorry for my silly question but....

In a very recent thread I explained this happening in our 1 year old tank. We started noticing the raise in phos around the 1 year mark with no adjustment to feeding.

After reading this thread and getting help from members here. We came to the conclusion our rocks/or something was/were releasing bound up phos.

Then recently this past few days Randy suggested that I don't know when the rocks have stopped absorbing phosphate and it is actually not the rocks releasing phosphate but actually the free floating phos in the water.

So I'm just a bit confused on Randy's suggestion to me in my situation and this thread....

Were my rocks not releasing bound phos somewhere in my tank like this thread suggests?

He stats phos just doesn't release from the rocks unless you are actively trying to drive down the phos in the water. Which we did not do in our case and the phos was still coming from somewhere and again no feeding changes or husbandry differences.

But as you can see in the attachments randy does not agree that our rocks had any phos bound to them.

So I guess the better question is how can you track in a tank when the rocks stop absorbing and start releasing? Or do they even release? Randy says he doesn't believe the later happens unless you are pulling phos from the water itself.

Not trying to confuse or start a debate, I was confused on the information coming my way.

We have the phos stable now so this is not a HELP moment.... I'm just trying understand this phos thing a bit more.

 

[Daddy-o]

So are the rocks actually releasing or have they just stopped obsorbing phos? How do you track that in a tank with fish and feeding habits that don't change?

Aragonite in a bucket by its self it is easy to see when this happens and track it.

Sorry for my silly question but....

In a very recent thread I explained this happening in our 1 year old tank. We started noticing the raise in phos around the 1 year mark with no adjustment to feeding.

After reading this thread and getting help from members here. We came to the conclusion our rocks/or something was/were releasing bound up phos.

Then recently this past few days Randy suggested that I don't know when the rocks have stopped absorbing phosphate and it is actually not the rocks releasing phosphate but actually the free floating phos in the water.

So I'm just a bit confused on Randy's suggestion to me in my situation and this thread....

Were my rocks not releasing bound phos somewhere in my tank like this thread suggests?

He stats phos just doesn't release from the rocks unless you are actively trying to drive down the phos in the water. Which we did not do in our case and the phos was still coming from somewhere and again no feeding changes or husbandry differences.

But as you can see in the attachments randy does not agree that our rocks had any phos bound to them.

Not trying to confuse or start a debate, I was confused on the information coming my way.

We have the phos stable now so this is not a HELP moment.... I'm just trying understand this phos thing a bit more.

I think about it like this. If I add drops of blue dye to my reef everyday, at some point my water will be blue. When I try to remove the blue dye from the water, the rocks will have absorbed that blue dye and will continue to leach it back into the water. It may take a while til my reef is clear again.
Cheers! Mark