Phosphates VERY high

bloody hell... thank that size... get the fake stuff man... VERY little hassel... AquaCon sell premixxed salt water
 
Hi Sammy - one of three things:
1) either the 2 Oceans water had some high phosphates
2) or the Activated carbon contained phosphates that leached out
3) you have some hidden detritus somewhere in your tank - either inside live rock, or in the substrate, that's leaching phosphates.....

You can remove this with one of the well known phosphate removers....
Also - it could possibly be the testing kit? Just have the water also tested by your LFS, or at another LFS?

The removal of phosphates takes a while though...
 
Unusual for PO4 test kits to give a false positive reading, they often give false negative readings
 
I've been through the same. 2OC water contains about 0.25 ppm PO4, from my experience. You can remove this with PhosGuard or similar, but it's cheaper just to buy synthetic salt, particularly with such a small volume.

Also, certain carbons are known to leach PO4. I can't speak for the Kent carbon - I've never used it.

I would suggest a few 50%+ water changes. It'll take an awful lot of 10% changes to get your PO4 levels down to something healthy (<0.1 ppm). Do the maths. If you remove 10% of your PO4 with each 10% water change, it'll take about 10 water changes to get it down.
 
true Quinton but he also needs to get all the other levels in check that will best be done with the small water changes....
 
What water are you using for top up's ?

Hopefully you will reply RO water, and if so are you buying it or making your own ?

If you are buying it, you might want to test it..
 
use liquid po4 remover to help bring down the phosphate levels along with water changes,then continue using a po4 remover eg Rowaphos to keep the po4 down.
whats the TDS of your RO?
also remember,Tropic marines is an excellent salt,but is high in phosphates
 
gotta aggree its far better to mix your own as long as you get a good quality synthetic salt and good clean RO
 
Mekaeel said:
use liquid po4 remover to help bring down the phosphate levels along with water changes,then continue using a po4 remover eg Rowaphos to keep the po4 down.
whats the TDS of your RO?
also remember,Tropic marines is an excellent salt,but is high in phosphates
Click to expand...

Depends on the batch, my latest bucket has no PO4, the previous batch was picking up small amounts of PO4
 
Thanks for all the input guys.

I have a feeling its a mix of the activated carbon I added (although I thoroughly rinsed this AND let it stand for 24 hrs in RO) and also possibly the 20C NSW ????

I today got some water from the reseach institute and going to do a 10% change this evening.

Also bought some Phosgaurd and put this in my pump chamber this afternoon

I doubt the test kit as I tested for Po4 before and levels was very low.

Fingers x'sed ....
 
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