Interesting phosphate trend dosing NP-Bacto Balance

[rishma]

Just sharing because I thought this was neat. I am not l sure why it’s happening, but I am not concerned about it.

I had an issue a few weeks ago due to a dosing error and I had to reestablish my NP-Bacto Balance maintenance dose and stabilize my tank’s nutrients. I started testing phosphate 2x daily using a Hanna ULR.

You can see in the trend the phosphate is lower in the evening and higher in the morning. Not a big swing, but the pattern surprised me and I thought I’d share. I am sure people using automated testing see a trend too if their inputs are also consistent.

Anyhow, just thought someone might think this was interesting too.

 

[rishma]

@Randy Holmes-Farley , could this be pH related? It just occurred to me that I happen to test at about the same time the pH is at its min and max.

 

[rishma]

Or maybe my nightly Kalk dosing binds a tiny bit of phosphate…or maybe I should stop noodling in this and go look at my tank :)

 

[mcintosh]

Not a chemist. However I would guess that the nightly Kalk dosing is binding some of the Phosphate. Maybe rock is releasing phosphate throughout the day as pH lowers?

 

[Chrisv.]

Not a chemist. However I would guess that the nightly Kalk dosing is binding some of the Phosphate. Maybe rock is releasing phosphate throughout the day as pH lowers?

15 years ago people used to push the kalk will bind phosphate and this help us achieve 0 phosphate. Makes sense in the context of these results.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It might relate to the feeding schedule as well.