High PO4

[mucky1957]

I have some fish and a LOT of softies corals and have struggled with a high PO4 for a long time now. I don't have a sump or doser but I do use NOPOX on an almost daily basis. My nitrate is always low ( below 1.0) but my PO4 is always high ( around 1.0..should be 0.03 ) and for the life of me I couldn't get it lower. All this said the tank looks really good apart from algae on the front glass which needs cleaning every two days or so.
A friend who knows far more than I suggested using something called Lanthanum Chloride and gave me a bottle of ( diluted ) the stuff to try.
My tank hold aprox 200lt of water and he suggested using no more than 5ml at a time and testing daily ( I use Salifert test kits ). After 4 days the PO4 level has come down to between 0.1 and 0.25 which is still high but a lot better.
I just wonder if anyone else has used this phosphate remover and what results they had.
I've just tested the tank and as expected the mag/cal and KH are slightly down but I will increase those slowly to get them back up to the levels I want.

 

[member 99594]

I also had experienced high Po4 in the beginning. I have now been able to get it down by doing 5% wc every week. Now the system is a bit more mature it seems to be staying down.

From what I understand no pox will only bring the Po4 down if there is nitrates in the system. It is not as effective at bringing Po4 down.

I would direct you to Lou at Tropic Marin. He explains this stuff perfectly.



Also, I would recommend getting a Hanna checker for more accurate numbers. I used the RedSea kit for Po4 in the past and the range between colours is to wide when you are trying to get your number down.

keep us posted.

 

[Pistondog]

I have some fish and a LOT of softies corals and have struggled with a high PO4 for a long time now. I don't have a sump or doser but I do use NOPOX on an almost daily basis. My nitrate is always low ( below 1.0) but my PO4 is always high ( around 1.0..should be 0.03 ) and for the life of me I couldn't get it lower. All this said the tank looks really good apart from algae on the front glass which needs cleaning every two days or so.
A friend who knows far more than I suggested using something called Lanthanum Chloride and gave me a bottle of ( diluted ) the stuff to try.
My tank hold aprox 200lt of water and he suggested using no more than 5ml at a time and testing daily ( I use Salifert test kits ). After 4 days the PO4 level has come down to between 0.1 and 0.25 which is still high but a lot better.
I just wonder if anyone else has used this phosphate remover and what results they had.
I've just tested the tank and as expected the mag/cal and KH are slightly down but I will increase those slowly to get them back up to the levels I want.

Use the lanthanum cautiously. It binds immediately to phosphate (or phosphorus?) Creating an insoluble precipitate. This must be filtered before your fish. There is anecdotal evidence of tangs swimming thru a cloud of the stuff and not making it thru; clogs the gills. I would dilute that 5 ml in 500 ml rodi and drip into a 5micron filter sock over 5 hours. And run your skimmer too. After the drip stops, keep running thru the 5 mcrons for another 12 hours. Don't lower phosphate more than 0.3 to 0.5 per 24 hours. Don't use the lanthanum below 0.1 ppm phosphate so you are sure all the lanthanum is bound to phosphate and inert. Sorry to the chemists for my terms.
It is great at reducing phosphate though.