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

excell007

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
325
Reaction score
294
Location
Houston
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I just followed the calculator and tried to drip 1.8ml of phosphate e mixed with 100ml of rodi water into the 5 micron filter sock and by drip I mean I knocked the bottle over so it all got added at once.....so far no cloudiness and my tangs look ok. I’m a bit nervous....I’m such a delinquent but good thing it all went into the filter sock. Hopefully I can see something below .1. The calculator said I should get down to 0.03 with a 1.8ml dose. I’ll test in a few hours...

I dose 6 ml into a skimmer exits thru a 10 micron sock 3 times a day without any issue. been doing this for almost 2 months now.
 
OP
OP
Daddy-o

Daddy-o

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
2,685
Reaction score
3,900
Location
Redwood City, Ca. 94062 (San Francisco Bay Area)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I just followed the calculator and tried to drip 1.8ml of phosphate e mixed with 100ml of rodi water into the 5 micron filter sock and by drip I mean I knocked the bottle over so it all got added at once.....so far no cloudiness and my tangs look ok. I’m a bit nervous....I’m such a delinquent but good thing it all went into the filter sock. Hopefully I can see something below .1. The calculator said I should get down to 0.03 with a 1.8ml dose. I’ll test in a few hours...
Well off to a bit of a rough start. I wouldnt expect the phosphate level to drop too dramatically. I am currently dosing 2ml twice a day. The calculations say mine should drop .08 but it doesnt.
Cheers! Mark
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,553
Reaction score
62,861
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Well off to a bit of a rough start. I wouldnt expect the phosphate level to drop too dramatically. I am currently dosing 2ml twice a day. The calculations say mine should drop .08 but it doesnt.
Cheers! Mark

Calculators are of little use in this context. They have two fatal flaws. The smaller flaw is that they assume all the lanthanum binds to phosphate.

The bigger flaw relates to phosphate on rock and sand. Much, if not most, of the phosphate is bound to rock and sand, so there effectively is far more than the test indicates, and some of this comes back off when you try to lower the level in the water.

You are probably also feeding fish during this time, which may be adding something like 0.02 to 0.2 ppm phosphate per day.
 

piranhaman00

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Messages
4,846
Reaction score
4,802
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
My rocks are now free of phosphate! After my last dose it has been a week and little increase (probably only from feeding). Now just doing a weekly dose to keep below 0.1 or so. Awesome!
 

excell007

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
325
Reaction score
294
Location
Houston
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
My rocks are now free of phosphate! After my last dose it has been a week and little increase (probably only from feeding). Now just doing a weekly dose to keep below 0.1 or so. Awesome!
Cool... I am at .15 now and today is probably my last dose. Only maintenance to keep it at this level.
 
OP
OP
Daddy-o

Daddy-o

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
2,685
Reaction score
3,900
Location
Redwood City, Ca. 94062 (San Francisco Bay Area)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
My rocks are now free of phosphate! After my last dose it has been a week and little increase (probably only from feeding). Now just doing a weekly dose to keep below 0.1 or so. Awesome!
Cool... I am at .15 now and today is probably my last dose. Only maintenance to keep it at this level.
You guys are so lucky! I am still leaching. Every test I do is between .08 and .1 Every day I dose enough to eliminate .08 and the results are the same. Today I increased my dose to 6ml day-enough to get rid of .12
 

George81

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Messages
231
Reaction score
299
Location
Southern Ontario
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I did a triple dose of the calculator (1.8ml) yesterday and did 12ml today...still at .1.....I’m in for a long battle...I’m gonna up the dose to 15ml or 20 ml tomorrow.
 
OP
OP
Daddy-o

Daddy-o

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
2,685
Reaction score
3,900
Location
Redwood City, Ca. 94062 (San Francisco Bay Area)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I did a triple dose of the calculator (1.8ml) yesterday and did 12ml today...still at .1.....I’m in for a long battle...I’m gonna up the dose to 15ml or 20 ml tomorrow.
How big is your system? You are dosing Phosphat E?
 

George81

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Messages
231
Reaction score
299
Location
Southern Ontario
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I feed 2 cubes of frozen a day. 1 mysis 1 brine shrimp. thats for 2 tangs, 1 copperband, 1 6 line, 2 clowns, 2 cardinals. There is more times than not a full sheet of nori in the tank that lasts a few days
ive upped my dose to 25mls been dripping since 10am.....phosphates are still at .1
also dose amino 10ml every other day. Once weekly or bi weekly I do 1 teaspoon of reef roids
 

George81

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Messages
231
Reaction score
299
Location
Southern Ontario
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So after a 30ml dose dripped over 10-12 hours....my phosphates today are at .03 with salifert....I’m gonna test once more and put the gfo back online.
so it took 3 days 2 of aggressive dosing With phosphate e to drop from .1ppm-0.03ppm
first day I did 3x1.8ml
2nd day 12ml dose
3rd day 25 or 30ml dose (I don’t remember but I’m 90% sure I did 30ml) I added a few capfuls to the solution throughout the day.
i went aggressive and figured if I bottomed out phosphates I have flourish here to bring it back up....
 
OP
OP
Daddy-o

Daddy-o

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
2,685
Reaction score
3,900
Location
Redwood City, Ca. 94062 (San Francisco Bay Area)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So here I am just over a month in. Besides the initial drop in my phosphate from .22 to .10 my level is not changing. I keep increasing my daily dose. Currently I am dosing 6ml of Phosphat E a day. According to the dosing I figured out, this dose should remove .12ppm a day in my 200 gallon system (I didn't deduct for rocks) I realize that phosphate is going to leach out of my rocks ( I have a lot of rocks) but I would think that after a month I would be making better progress. I dont feel like I over-feed (nitrates are at 7) Daily the system gets 4 cubes of mysis, 4 square inches of seaweed, and 12ml of amino/coral food. I also dose a lot of vinegar.
Cheers! Mark
 

excell007

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
325
Reaction score
294
Location
Houston
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So here I am just over a month in. Besides the initial drop in my phosphate from .22 to .10 my level is not changing. I keep increasing my daily dose. Currently I am dosing 6ml of Phosphat E a day. According to the dosing I figured out, this dose should remove .12ppm a day in my 200 gallon system (I didn't deduct for rocks) I realize that phosphate is going to leach out of my rocks ( I have a lot of rocks) but I would think that after a month I would be making better progress. I dont feel like I over-feed (nitrates are at 7) Daily the system gets 4 cubes of mysis, 4 square inches of seaweed, and 12ml of amino/coral food. I also dose a lot of vinegar.
Cheers! Mark
I am also stuck between .14 and .2, I am not sure if we are now measuring bound phosphate. I will skip for several days and see if it go up higher than .2. I will also use 5 micron sock to see if it will work better.
 
OP
OP
Daddy-o

Daddy-o

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
2,685
Reaction score
3,900
Location
Redwood City, Ca. 94062 (San Francisco Bay Area)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I am also stuck between .14 and .2, I am not sure if we are now measuring bound phosphate. I will skip for several days and see if it go up higher than .2. I will also use 5 micron sock to see if it will work better.
Sounds good! I will sit here and do nothing while you do the heavy lifting for our conundrum - Thanks! :)
 

excell007

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
325
Reaction score
294
Location
Houston
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
phosphate-e. it was fast on the first couple of weeks, pulling about .3 per day, then it slowed down to about .15 on the same dosage. I started at > 4 and it became 2.25 in 2 weeks. I'll switch to a finer sock, I am thinking the 10 micron still lets some of the LC thru and that's what the Hanna is measuring. I'll stop dosing for a few days and see how high it would go.
 
Back
Top