Phosphate dropping after basting sand bed?

[peterhos]

Hi All. Do not get over excited! Tank now 11 months old. A few days back I started gently basting the sand bed. Everything else the same. Po4 down from 0.18 to 0.16. Rocks seemed a little less green this a.m. It seems to get gunk into the water column for the skimmer/mat to work on. I may stick with a daily gentle basting. What do you guys think.

 

[exnisstech]

Not sure how blowing the sand would reduce phosphate but 0.18 to 0.16 really isn't much of a drop if any. I think the margin of error for most kits is more than that but I may be wrong. Nothing wrong with cleaning sand tho I suppose.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Error margin aside (which is cleary an issue), you may have just exposed some fresh CaCO3 sand surfaces that bound some of the phosphate. :)

 

[peterhos]

Error margin aside (which is cleary an issue), you may have just exposed some fresh CaCO3 sand surfaces that bound some of the phosphate. :)

Thank you both. You are right about error margin of course, yet the (originally dry rocks) have certainly lost some green. If I can lose 0.01 of Po4 every few days I will be happy. As the green disappears, only a little yet, better colours show though.