Phosphate removal when cycling

Frenchreef · Mar 2, 2019

Hi guys,

I am cycling my new tank (Red Sea e max 260)
I filled it up on February 21st and my cycling is definitely not done ((I still have 0.5ppm ammonia), 0 nitrites, 0 nitrate.
I only have sand, dry rocks, RODI water at 1.026 salinity and added some ammonia in there.
I tested with the Hannah phosphate test kit and I have 0.16 phosphate.
I do have in hand some Xport Po4 from Brightwell and I was wondering if I should add it now in order to remove all the phosphate or do you think it is unnecessary?

Thank you for your help!

Big G · Mar 2, 2019

Welcome to R2R! Congrats on the the new tank :)

I wouldn't worry about testing for phosphates until the ammonia + nitrite + nitrate cycle is finished in about a total of 30 days or so from the start.

Frenchreef · Mar 2, 2019

Thank you!

jda · Mar 2, 2019

I would not worry about phosphate until the ugly algae phases are over at 6-9 months. Have somebody hide the hannah from you.

Just do your routine water changes and just know that anything that you do to interfere with nature usually needs repaid 2x on the backend.

SPR1968 · Mar 3, 2019

I wouldn’t worry about the phosphate until the tank as cycled and you start creating the reef, but once your fully up and runnning I would keep phosphate locked down to around 0.03ppm and you should avoid many of the algae and other unwanted issues.

The are many different products, I use rhowaphos in a reactor, but whichever you prefer for your system.

You might find this useful on parameters
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

I had the Max E260 for a few months before I got hooked and upgraded so if you need any help just ask

And welcome to R2R as well!