Trying to increase my phos with NeoPhos but it won’t go?!

[LesPoissons]

Hi guys,
Trying to get my phos up from 0 (Hanna) and nitrates up from 1. (Nyos)
After dosing 300 ml NeoNitro over 5 days my nitrates went up to 10. After dosing 88ml of NeoPhos (which should have put me at like .09 or .1 for phos) it’s still registering 0.
Would you continue adding NeoPhos until you get a reading?

 

[PatW]

I have used Neophos. And it worked as labeled. When I dose now, I use trisodium phosphate (analytical grade).

Sometimes, phosphate can be rather peculiar. If there is something in the system that really wants phosphate, the phosphate will get sucked up. If I think that is happening, I dilute my dosage in RODI (just to increase the volume) and add it. I wait about 15 minutes to allow mixing and take a reading.

 

[Nick Steele]

Phosphate will bind to rock and sand much more than nitrate so if your rocks and sand are “newer” they are likely sucking up your phosphate. I used neophos and neonitro as well and dosed for about a week before I noticed any increase.

 

[LesPoissons]

The tank is 5 years old. I’m just surprised. On the plus side my dinos are almost gone but I still have to dose like 100mls of phos a day and it’s back to 0 within 24 hours and I’ve been dosing like this for a month.

 

[Timfish]

Keep dosing. You can't test for available organic phosphorus or particulate phosphorus and you don't want to starve your corals. Just FYI Biofilms and sponges can sequester a lot of phosphorus. Some of the sponges will make and store phosphorus crystals in their tissues

 

[Crustaceon]

The tank is 5 years old. I’m just surprised. On the plus side my dinos are almost gone but I still have to dose like 100mls of phos a day and it’s back to 0 within 24 hours and I’ve been dosing like this for a month.

Just keep dosing it. It’s a sign that your rocks and sand are trying to become properly saturated and that your beneficial bacteria is rebounding and outcompeting the dinos.

 

[Super Fly]

When I had to inc PO4, I dosed Seachem Flourish while I increased feeding, fed nori often and reduced if not completely shut off the skimmer. Took a while but eventually PO4 went above 0.00

 

[LesPoissons]

Thank you all! I’ll just keep dosing and testing and dosing and testing. Ill get it there. 5 years in and still can’t get it right. Right now I’m a month in to this particular issue, dosing phos and nitrates daily, I dose dr Tim’s or vibrant weekly, and dose phyto daily. The dinos are definitely almost gone, now I have a lot of hair algae creeping in and cyano. Hopefully the phos and nitrates level out soon!