Phosphates in a daily swing

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Marc2952

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I would say not. That is a really big fluctuation. Even in a full day I would call that a lot.
Thats what got me scratching my head, the dinos are long gone, i dont have a refugium, i dont even use socks. Havent done a water change in months to the point of having to clean my sump a day ago due to detritus accumulating in the return chamber. I cant explain it lol lets see how it goes when i feed actual fish food.
 

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Thats what got me scratching my head, the dinos are long gone, i dont have a refugium, i dont even use socks. Havent done a water change in months to the point of having to clean my sump a day ago due to detritus accumulating in the return chamber. I cant explain it lol lets see how it goes when i feed actual fish food.

I did not have a fluctuation as high as yours. But When I was battling dinos 6-8 months ago I would say, I was dosing Phosphate multiple times a week until about a month ago. But at the beginning I would use about .04ppm a day. How is your alk? is it stable? I know that affects PO4 as well.
 

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@Timfish , even @Humblefish recommends what I am saying, and I would argue that he knows more about the topic then most of us put together.

.

Quote from humblefish

" After the fallow period has ended, you can return your fish to the DT. I recommend doing it one fish at a time, spread out over a couple of weeks. This will give your bacterial levels time to adjust to the added fish bio-load, and avoid a potential mini-cycle/ammonia spike. I also prefer to add back smaller fish first, so they are established ahead of the larger, more aggressive ones. "
This is waaaaay overly cautious.

The population doubling time of the bacteria in our tank that process nitrogen products is about 15 hours. The only way you're going to have an ammonia spike is if the number of fish is totally unsuited for the tank in the first place.


That being said - his comment about adding less aggressive fish first has some merit.
 
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I did not have a fluctuation as high as yours. But When I was battling dinos 6-8 months ago I would say, I was dosing Phosphate multiple times a week until about a month ago. But at the beginning I would use about .04ppm a day. How is your alk? is it stable? I know that affects PO4 as well.
Has been pretty stable my tank is consuming 10ml of esv b ionic 2 part since all i have are frags. Acros are encrusting fine just got a tricolor valida that hasnt been too happy.

Screenshot_20200923-161743_AquaticLog.jpg
 

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This is waaaaay overly cautious.

The population doubling time of the bacteria in our tank that process nitrogen products is about 15 hours. The only way you're going to have an ammonia spike is if the number of fish is totally unsuited for the tank in the first place.


That being said - his comment about adding less aggressive fish first has some merit.

I wouldn't add as slowly as humblefish was saying, but I would still stagger it over days like I said in my previous statement.
 

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So its normal for phosphates to drop from 0.10 to 0.03 in a matter of hours?

You missed my point, who is to say the true readings were 0.10 and 0.03, the true readings could be 0.06 and 0.06 given the margin these tests work at. i.e +/- 0.03.
 
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You missed my point, who is to say the true readings were 0.10 and 0.03, the true readings could be 0.06 and 0.06 given the margin these tests work at. i.e +/- 0.03.
This is true, but how often will a margin of error happen? It cant be inaccurate every single day for months no?
 

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This is true, but how often will a margin of error happen? It cant be inaccurate every single day for months no?

Every time you use the test...they are basically saying that if the reading is 0.03 then take that as a range of 0-0.06, not a definite 0.03, maybe a good idea to record the range rather than the exact reading, might help you see it’s not such a big variation as you think.

Might also help not to do so many tests, weighting yourself everyday when trying to loose weight Is not a good idea either.
 

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Every time you use the test...they are basically saying that if the reading is 0.03 then take that as a range of 0-0.06, not a definite 0.03, maybe a good idea to record the range rather than the exact reading, might help you see it’s not such a big variation as you think.

Might also help not to do so many tests, weighting yourself everyday when trying to loose weight Is not a good idea either.

I dont necessarily agree with this. But it may be worth while to try another kit in case your hanna checker is defective. At this point you can't rule anything out
 
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I dont necessarily agree with this. But it may be worth while to try another kit in case your hanna checker is defective. At this point you can't rule anything out
Btw i also forgot to say that i am using ROX 0.8 carbon. Does carbon remove some phosphates aswell? Only reason i havent taken it out is because i recently treated my tank with interceptor and im removing it.
 

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I dont necessarily agree with this. But it may be worth while to try another kit in case your hanna checker is defective. At this point you can't rule anything out

you don’t have to agree, read your test kit and see what the variance is yourself..the op’s results are all near enough within the margin of error (I’m guessing test kit is 0.03)

If his results were 1.5 one day and the next 0.03 I would be concerned, I think it’s just a matter of testing too much, the tank will fluctuate add the test +/- factor and it will look unstable.
 

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you don’t have to agree, read your test kit and see what the variance is yourself..the op’s results are all near enough within the margin of error (I’m guessing test kit is 0.03)

If his results were 1.5 one day and the next 0.03 I would be concerned, I think it’s just a matter of testing too much, the tank will fluctuate add the test +/- factor and it will look unstable.

A margin of error should not have it all over the place. And after 6 months of dosing he should be able to day to day get a relatively stable PO4 reading. Especially with the hanna ulr. The only thing I agree with in your statement is that he is testing too much. This is not his first post about po4 and I told him in the last one to test no more then once per day and to try and always test at that time of the day. Multiple times a day will cause some swings in tests
 
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A margin of error should not have it all over the place. And after 6 months of dosing he should be able to day to day get a relatively stable PO4 reading. Especially with the hanna ulr. The only thing I agree with in your statement is that he is testing too much. This is not his first post about po4 and I told him in the last one to test no more then once per day and to try and always test at that time of the day. Multiple times a day will cause some swings in tests
Yea i agree maybe im just testing too much, i started testing once a day since yesterday, phosphates where at 0.12 at 6pm ( i always test at that time) hopefully it hasnt hit 0 when i check today
 
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And here you go, dropped from 0.12 to 0.03 in 24 hours.

20200924_181441.jpg
 

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I use the same Hanna. I doubt that is the margin of error.. I also doubt it’s anything to be extremely worried about. Small amount of GFO in a reactor would probably stabilize it..
 

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A margin of error should not have it all over the place. And after 6 months of dosing he should be able to day to day get a relatively stable PO4 reading. Especially with the hanna ulr. The only thing I agree with in your statement is that he is testing too much. This is not his first post about po4 and I told him in the last one to test no more then once per day and to try and always test at that time of the day. Multiple times a day will cause some swings in test

You maybe right, but if it’s the Hanna test kit he’s using you also have to factor in human error as well, I would think this is more likely the reason for the different lvls, more likely than the po4 fluctuating as his results seems to be suggesting.
 

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