I am trying to get my water chemistry right. A month ago my nitrates were at 13 and my phosphates were 0.03. 2 weeks ago my nitrates were at 10 and my phosphates were at 0.17. At that point I had a lot of hair and turf algae on 3 of my smaller rocks. I manually got rid of 90% of the algae. I have been testing every other day while removing the algae. Currently my nitrates are at 3.9 and my phosphates are at 0.31.
1. I would have expected both NO3 and po4 to go up given the algae removal. However NO3 went down, while PO4 went up. Does any one have an explanation for this? I have a roller mat and a skimmer which is skimming dry but well. I feed pellets through an auto feeder twice a day and frozen food by hand once a day. Nothing changed in any of these aspects of the tank.
2. I am going to try to lower my PO4. I have both tropic Marin np eliminate (carbon dosing) and rowaphos. In this case I am leaning toward rowaphos since NO3 is not high. Any thoughts?
3. If I use rowaphos I’ll simply put it in a bag and put it in my sump - I do not have a reactor, and prefer not to incur any further expenses right now. Any issues with this - besides not being optimal?
4. Which chamber in the sump should I put it in. I do not have filter socks - use a roller mat - so that is not an option. I can put it in the return pump chamber or the chamber before that which is meant for a Refugio but is empty.
Thanks
1. I would have expected both NO3 and po4 to go up given the algae removal. However NO3 went down, while PO4 went up. Does any one have an explanation for this? I have a roller mat and a skimmer which is skimming dry but well. I feed pellets through an auto feeder twice a day and frozen food by hand once a day. Nothing changed in any of these aspects of the tank.
2. I am going to try to lower my PO4. I have both tropic Marin np eliminate (carbon dosing) and rowaphos. In this case I am leaning toward rowaphos since NO3 is not high. Any thoughts?
3. If I use rowaphos I’ll simply put it in a bag and put it in my sump - I do not have a reactor, and prefer not to incur any further expenses right now. Any issues with this - besides not being optimal?
4. Which chamber in the sump should I put it in. I do not have filter socks - use a roller mat - so that is not an option. I can put it in the return pump chamber or the chamber before that which is meant for a Refugio but is empty.
Thanks