Do these Phosphate numbers indicate leeching?

[BryanM]

Not disagreeing with people who exhausted their media in one day.....


Question is what is considered "substantially elevated" and even then it would depend how much media was used per volume of water filtered.

In other words if you use 2 table spoons of media in a 400 gallon system that is at .99+ then yeah I can see that.

In my case .9 blinking on Hanna. So yeah, poof.

Now I've gone from .46 down to .23, I use a large reactor from BRS though, I cannot imagine how many tablespoons that thing holds, its a LOT.

Need to test tonight, but a week or so ago I filled half the reactor, gotta see what its done. It was a lot easier to get the tumble "right" with half the volume of GFO tho.

 

[exnisstech]

Not disagreeing with people who exhausted their media in one day.....


Question is what is considered "substantially elevated" and even then it would depend how much media was used per volume of water filtered.

In other words if you use 2 table spoons of media in a 400 gallon system that is at .99+ then yeah I can see that.

Apologies. I didn't post because I felt anyone was doubting. It was more as a reference for folks that may find this thread in the future so they know it's possible for it to be exhausted that quickly.
I have a hunch its one of those things that may be different for each tank. Mine is typically 0.9 or above when I run it so I'm not surprised mine doesn't last long. I may be totally wrong but I thought I read that testing the effluent is the only way to know if its exhausted. I'm not sure how many people do that. Maybe it's exhausted sooner and people don't know if they don't test the effluent?

 

[Dan_P]

Good morning.

Yes, I've posted PO4 as high as .98 in threads. I installed a Santa Monica turf scrubber, which after 8 months, has begun to produce. The Phosguard was an added layer of PO4 control.

Yes, when I look at it, I realize that .06 isn't really that big of a change.

That the Phosguard may be exhausted has occurred to me. But I need more testing to make this determination.

I began running the Phosguard reactor for 6 hours daily and increased gradually. I'm trying to dial it in much in the same way I would dial in a dosing pump. I try not to run it more than necessary to minimize the aluminum. I manage the aluminum through water changes.

Will I see changes in PO4 that quickly from morning, to afternoon, to evening?

Feeding might be the biggest effect on phosphate concentration if you do absolutely nothing else to the system. Youcould see a slight increase sometime after feeding. If you feed little portion multiple times a day you might not see anything. Algae and coral growth after the lights come on might be a time of phosphate consumption if the system is not nitrogen starved.

 

[BZOFIQ]

In my case .9 blinking on Hanna. So yeah, poof.

Now I've gone from .46 down to .23, I use a large reactor from BRS though, I cannot imagine how many tablespoons that thing holds, its a LOT.

Need to test tonight, but a week or so ago I filled half the reactor, gotta see what its done. It was a lot easier to get the tumble "right" with half the volume of GFO tho.

wow .9 seems high; I only saw that once shortly after starting the tank.

I use the small reactors from BRS. One is "reserved" for carbon and the other for RowaPhos.

Since I just changed the media this weekend I remember vividly that it was 5 FULL tablespoons to fill it up. I was at .319 (114ppb) on my Hanna HI736 before media change. I'm curious now how much did it drop since Saturday. Will test tonight to see what's up. I run the water slowly through the reactor to avoid sudden changes and allow ample reaction time in the chamber.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Feeding might be the biggest effect on phosphate concentration if you do absolutely nothing else to the system. Youcould see a slight increase sometime after feeding. If you feed little portion multiple times a day you might not see anything. Algae and coral growth after the lights come on might be a time of phosphate consumption if the system is not nitrogen starved.

Yeah, I believe my heavy feeding with very concentrated mysis shrimp (Jehmco) on daily basis adds a lot of 'nutrients' to the tank and I dont rinse the food at all.

I do avoid testing water shortly after feeding as not to skew overall results.

 

[exnisstech]

wow .9 seems high; I only saw that once shortly after starting the tank.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Yeah, and your tank looks amazing. Where do you keep your nitrates at?

 

[exnisstech]

Yeah, and your tank looks amazing. Where do you keep your nitrates at?

Just to clarify I suffer from MTS so I should mention the tank I've been discussing here is not the acro tank I posted a video of in another thread earlier today. I saw that you liked that one so I wanted to make sure to mention the one with high PO4 is the 330 in my tank thread. The acro tank runs very differently.

Nitrates in the 330 have been coming down.

FTS of the 330.

 

[Miami Reef]

I reached an all-record high a few days ago:

 

[BZOFIQ]

Just to clarify I suffer from MTS so I should mention the tank I've been discussing here is not the acro tank I posted a video of in another thread earlier today. I saw that you liked that one so I wanted to make sure to mention the one with high PO4 is the 330 in my tank thread. The acro tank runs very differently.

That makes more sense now.

ROFL at MTS

Either way, both tanks you've shown today look really nice.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I reached an all-record high a few days ago:

Your nitrates are between half or third+ of mine while your phosphates are more than double.

I've been pretty good at controlling phosphates but I hate water changes and so my nitrates are usually between 30+ & 60 which is much higher then I'd like.

I made some bio media changes recently and so I am watching if anything was affected and am either about to start light vodka dosing or restart the sulfur reactor.

 

[Miami Reef]

Your nitrates are between half or third+ of mine while your phosphates are more than double.

I've been pretty good at controlling phosphates but I hate water changes and so my nitrates are usually between 30+ & 60 which is much higher then I'd like.

I made some bio media changes recently and so I am watching if anything was affected and am either about to start light vodka dosing or restart the sulfur reactor.

I brought down the phosphate with GFO and lanthanum. Easy.

Nitrate is more of a hassle for me. What pump do you use with your sulfur reactor? I was eventually thinking of starting one.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I brought down the phosphate with GFO and lanthanum. Easy.

Nitrate is more of a hassle for me. What pump do you use with your sulfur reactor? I was eventually thinking of starting one.

I don't have the Kamoer anymore so I'm thinking to use a small Tunze pump (because its DC, so I can have it run in an outage) and just regulate the input via small valve. In the past I just ran two tall NexReef reactors with bit of Sulfur & the rest filled with ReBorn.

 

[BryanM]

In reality it was likely a major overdose of NeoPhos, as I had zero (or it was a very unfortunately testing error, but dinos had started at the same time, so likely 0).

That .9, I never diluted to find out the real value. But dosing LC for 2 months didn't change it, and I do not run a skimmer to dose it in to, so I dosed in to filter socks, which seems problematic for actually getting it to full mix with salt water.

I switched to the large GFO reactor and the first dose brought it down to .71, 2nd .48, 3rd .23, stopped adding it for a while, bounced up to .65, then another dose down to .23.

Fun times, phosphate management.....NOT!

 

[allenk4]

The margin of error for the Hanna Phosphate checker (HI713) is ±0.04 ppm plus ±4% of the reading. This means the total margin of error is a combination of a fixed value and a value that depends on the reading itself, which can result in a significant range, especially at higher levels.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Since I just changed the media this weekend I remember vividly that it was 5 FULL tablespoons to fill it up. I was at .319 (114ppb) on my Hanna HI736 before media change. I'm curious now how much did it drop since Saturday. Will test tonight to see what's up. I run the water slowly through the reactor to avoid sudden changes and allow ample reaction time in the chamber.

So, I retested yesterday and here are the changes from Saturday with the addition of Rowa. Will retest on Sunday to see if rate of drop is maintained.

Saturday - 10/11	Wednesday - 10/15	Sunday - 10/19
Nitrates - 32	Nitrates - 29
Phosphates - .319	Phosphates - .273

 

[BZOFIQ]

So, I retested yesterday and here are the changes from Saturday with the addition of Rowa. Will retest on Sunday to see if rate of drop is maintained.

Saturday - 10/11	Wednesday - 10/15	Sunday - 10/19
Nitrates - 32	Nitrates - 29
Phosphates - .319	Phosphates - .273

Updated values....RowaPhos media still working well. Will keep track and post my finding in few weeks to see at what point it would be considered exhausted.

Saturday - 10/11	Wednesday - 10/15	Sunday - 10/19
Nitrates - 32	Nitrates - 29	Nitrates 31
Phosphates - .319	Phosphates - .273	Phosphates - .236

My fish had seafood for lunch - no, seriously.