Phosphate spike

[hllb]

My tank normally runs at nitrates of around 5 and po4 around .05. For the last week I’ve been trying to catch a rouge Sally Lightfoot so I’ve had shrimp in a trap. My po4 has spiked to .15 and nitrates around 20. I already have a GHA issue so this is a bummer.

I’m going to do a 15% wc today and I ordered some phosguard. I normally wouldn’t worry too much but I planned on treating with reef flux tomorrow which says no water changes and no skimmer for up to 3 weeks (though it says I can use the phosguard). I plan to tear the tank apart today to catch the crab since it’s not interested in my trap.

suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

My thought is to ignore it or use a little of the binder. Water changes do not work well for phosphate due the the preponderance of it being bound to rock and sand that will come back off even after a 100% water change.

why is the Sally Lightfoot a problem?

 

[hllb]

My thought is to ignore it ir use a little of the binder. Water changes do not work well for phosphate due the the preponderance of it being bound to rock and sand that will come back off even after a 100% water change.

why is the Sally Lightfoot a problem?

Pretty sure it murdered my cherub angel. Caught it trying to murder a hermit last night. It’s super aggressive. And fast and smart lol. I’ve cause almost every other crab/shrimp in the tank with my trap but not it!

 

[NanoDJS]

Have you ever tried a poly filter to slowly reduce phosphates , they have worked good for me. They will also strip out any other crud you had in there you didnt know and dont want.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Have you ever tried a poly filter to slowly reduce phosphates , they have worked good for me. They will also strip out any other crud you had in there you didnt know and dont want.

I don’t think it binds phosphate, but it may bind some organic matter that would otherwise degrade and release phosphate.

 

[NanoDJS]

Poly-Filter® actually sorbs both PO 4 (ortho phosphate) + Hydrolyzable phosphates without removing Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, Barium, Alkalinity or trace elements. The other Phosphate removers either alter seawater chemistry or produce leachable i.e. (Red) Iron Filter leaches ammonia and heavy metals.
www.poly-bio-marine.com › faq
FAQ - POLY-BIO-MARINE, Inc.

 

[NanoDJS]

Yeah I have been using them for years because of that , I guess reading the fine print payed off for me . I like how they change color due the contaminant and you can kinda figure out what was a problem , especially copper , and medicine residue . And dont jack up my chemistry.

 

[NanoDJS]

In my growout system , super high nutes , I had 3.0 + and 40 + last week. did a 20% water change and threw in a poly . started no pox and 1 week later Im at 1.0 and 20 ...... gonna check again today but these have always took down the phosphates without stripping them to 0.0

 

[hllb]

I’m using the InTank bonded poly floss which doesn’t mention po4. I just ordered the seachem phosguard. Why would that change the water chemistry other than removing po4?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Poly-Filter® actually sorbs both PO 4 (ortho phosphate) + Hydrolyzable phosphates without removing Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, Barium, Alkalinity or trace elements. The other Phosphate removers either alter seawater chemistry or produce leachable i.e. (Red) Iron Filter leaches ammonia and heavy metals.
www.poly-bio-marine.com › faq
FAQ - POLY-BIO-MARINE, Inc.

Don’t believe everything you read. That’s one of the reasons for this forum.

That direct orthophosphate binding is potentially true for freshwater, but not in seawater. The very high sulfate In seawater will outcompete phosphate for any commercial polymer binder. If there is anything I can claim to be an expert in it is phosphate binding to polymers . My previous company made billions of dollars selling a phosphate binding polymer I co-invented, and I know that commercial polymers cannot bind significant amounts of phosphate from seawater.

Note the claim about hydrolyzable phosphate. That would include organic phosphate and is likely how you saw your effect.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’m using the InTank bonded poly floss which doesn’t mention po4. I just ordered the seachem phosguard. Why would that change the water chemistry other than removing po4?

It may release some aluminum.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yeah I have been using them for years because of that , I guess reading the fine print payed off for me . I like how they change color due the contaminant and you can kinda figure out what was a problem , especially copper , and medicine residue . And dont jack up my chemistry.

Lol

just to point out how incredibly uninformed your posted quote from poly Bio marine is, it says it doesn’t bind trace elements. Somehow it binds all the bad things though, like heavy metals. Omg what crap. All heavy metals are trace elements in seawater.

Again, that is why we have this forum.

 

[NanoDJS]

Absolutely Randy I agree 100% , I appreciate your expertise and would not believe a marketing claim vs your real world hands on experience and education, like you mentioned , billions of dollars are behind making this kind of tech , I have just been using these since the 80s , with no ill effects , and it always bonds and removes the phosphates nice and slow also other contaminants. I am curious now. I also have only ran them for short spurts to remove a certain thing then I stop .Edit *** Just ran some tests , po4 0.25 no3 12 , thats from a week with the sponge, from po4 3.0 and no3 45 ish with 20 ml no pox/nightly on 170gal system . Now I pull it.

 

[Quietman]

Added phosguard to my tank (45 gallon). 2 tablespoons to start, then an additional a week later after monitoring carefully. I carbon dose but phosphates stayed higher (.15) than I wanted with low nitrate which led to some GHA. Found it to work gradual and it didn't over strip phosphates (but that's probably because I added gradual and ignored the recommended amounts which were roughly 2x than anything inherent in the product). The GHA went from green to brown in a week and an am now removing manually fairly easy. I'm not against chemical treatments at all obviously...just don't like to use too many of them if I don't have to. Good luck!