Rocks leaching phosphate

[Costareefer]

Tested again today. Zero phosphate!! I took the GFI out of the bucket to see what I get tomorrow.

What happened?????

 

[TmzNow]

The phosphate on the rock is in equilibrium with phosphate in the water. So having the rock in water with a low to very low phosphate concentration will slowly remove it from the rock. You can do that before setup, or you can keep it low during the cycle (or both). There are a variety of ways to accomplish this, including GFO, lanthanum (especially in pre-treatments) and acid washing. :)

will Sodium Bisulfate do the same as the Muriatic Acid bath? thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

will Sodium Bisulfate do the same as the muriatic Acid? thanks

Yes, both are acids that can be used to lower alk or to etch rock.

 

[TmzNow]

Yes, both are acids that can be used to lower alk or to etch rock.

Thanks for the reply Randy, I am not sure what "etch rock" means but I meant could I use Sodium Bisulfate to strip the Po4 out of po4 saturated rock instead of the Muriatic acid.

 

[TD1260]

Hey, so I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this, but hopefully they have, I was having really high phosphates recently as well and I actually tested my salt water and it was reading at about .08 on a fresh mix while the rodi was 0. This was with Redsea pro from lfs.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the reply Randy, I am not sure what "etch rock" means but I meant could I use Sodium Bisulfate to strip the Po4 out of po4 saturated rock instead of the Muriatic acid.

Yes. It does so by dissolving some of the surface. That’s what I mean by etch.

 

[TD1260]

Hey, so I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this, but hopefully they have, I was having really high phosphates recently as well and I actually tested my salt water and it was reading at about .08 on a fresh mix while the rodi was 0. This was with Redsea pro from lfs.

I also personally feel like I’m getting slightly better results since I added the seachem phosguard in addition to a lower concentration of gfo in order to prevent bottoming out my nitrates

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I also personally feel like I’m getting slightly better results since I added the seachem phosguard in addition to a lower concentration of gfo in order to prevent bottoming out my nitrates

Not sure what you mean, but neither GFO nor Phosguard will noticeably impact nitrate.

 

[TD1260]

Not sure what you mean, but neither GFO nor Phosguard will noticeably impact nitrate.

Fairpoint, I was not trying to attribute the nitrate to either one of those two things, but I was trying to limit my food while using GFO, then found better luck trying to limit my food and using seachem. Just found the seachem to be better at removing the phosphate then GFOin my personal opinion.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Fairpoint, I was not trying to attribute the nitrate to either one of those two things, but I was trying to limit my food while using GFO, then found better luck trying to limit my food and using seachem. Just found the seachem to be better at removing the phosphate then GFOin my personal opinion.

Ok.