Best way to reduce phosphate?

[Fishy]

I got a new test kit for phosphate today. My 12 gallon nano cube is a month old and had had 6 tiny hermit crabs (only animals so far) for almost two weeks. I've gotten pH, alkalinity, and salinity under control and come to find there's a phosphate problem. It's 2.5 ppm in the tank and 1 ppm in the make up water. We have a phoshpate filter attached to our well system but my father doesn't really refill it as often as he should. It may be one source of the phosphate. I assume I have three choices - do nothing and the algae will get worse (not too bad now, mostly diatoms, a few long green things, some red splotches starting to show, some green splotches, not much) and later corals may suffer (is that right?), add a phosphate removing resin to the back, buy an expensive RO machine, or buy the change water. I think I will opt for the resin. Which type and brand works best to remove phosphate? How often should I change it? There's a lot of room in the filter chamber for stuff.

Also, I got a new salt mix, Red Sea mix for RO water (or super soft water like mine). It's supposed to bring the calcium up to 450 ppm. I mixed 2/3 of that with 1/3 of Reef Crystals (by Instant Ocean; I need to use that up), and that make up water only had 360 ppm calcium (and that was with 3 mL of Microbe-Lift supplement which has calcium too). I did buy some Kent liquid calcium. Should I add that, or am I missing something? My tank had 285 ppm calcium before the water change.

Thanks!

 

[reefman23]

well, you are slowly adding phosphates to your tank. IMO one of the most important parts of a reef tank is using ro/di water... whether you are make it yourself with a home ro/di unit or you buy it from a reputable LFS, that is up to you. The problem with using a PO4 resin is that if there are measurable PO4's in the water, what else is in there? I would be concerned about heavy metals and other things that most people dont test for but could build up over time and eventually possibly lead to a crash. Also how many fish do you have and how much/often do you feed? Flakes? Frozen?

This would be my order of preference of your choices you listed:

1. Buy an ro/di unit. You can find a decent one online for around $125
2. Buy ro/di water from a LFS
3. Use a phosphate remover in your tank
4. Do nothing. This isnt really even a choice IMO but Ill put it here anyways!

Jesse

 

[reefman23]

I forgot... as far as PO4 resins go, ROWAphos is probably your best choice... ROWAphos

As you can see, the cost of a PO4 resin will add up over time and may make an ro/di unit seem a little more reasonable.

Jesse

 

[Fishy]

Yikes! I looked at a few RO systems. Sure, I could deal with the cost and the chemistry. But, it takes them an hour to make a gallon (the better ones), and I have to discard the first 10 hours! There's no way my parents would let me hook that up all day. Plus, you're supposed to wall mount it or put it in-line, again out. Now, as a chemist, I have deionized water up the wazoo at work. Should I lug 3 gallons of that home every Friday? It's free of phosphate and nitrate but I worry about residual chlorine. When I run anions, there's always a chlorine peak. I guess a dose of dechlorinator would fix that. I don't really relish having to lug all that water home or how to do it without splashing.

As for other things in my well water, I've tested it for tons of things, it's practically distilled. In fact, the phoshate isn't from the well water either but from the phosphate filter I think.

P.S. I don't have any fish yet. Just 6 minute hermit crabs.

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

Check this unit out. Doesn't look like much but gets wonderful reviews and all users I know report 0 TDS. It is a small unit that does not need to be mounted so you can pull it out, make your water, then put it away.

http://www.airwaterice.com/product/1MMD ... Added.html

 

[TimSchmidt]

I have one of the coral life RO/DI and it can be hooked up to a standard facet or an outside hose facet. In the long run the RO/DI unit is the most cost saving and it does have to break in, but I didn't see a HUGE jump in my water bill (actually no jump at all, but my city does this funny thing of selling water in large chunks). Since you are on a well I wonder if you could just rig it up where the excess water drains back into the well??? Just my two cents.

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

Many people will save the waste water to wash dishes with or water plants, water the animals, wash clothes, ect....it isn't dirty water, just has dissolved solids that are bad for your tank.

 

[Fishy]

Well, I liked that RO unit enough that I ordered one. I hope I don't regret the extra work! I got my first saltwater tank to replace a 5 gallon freshwater tank. That tank took 10 minutes of maintenance per week. This new tank is over an hour now! It takes an hour just to do the testing. I don't have that time (I work from 7 am to 10 pm all day Saturday on my animals and aquariums and most of the day Sunday on house and yard work and my ponds). I will have to stop testing some things and concentrate on the ones that are problematic or changing like the phosphate.

 

[Ritsuko N]

Since you are on a well I wonder if you could just rig it up where the excess water drains back into the well??? Just my two cents.

That was my question exactly when reading this thread and the replys.

RO/DO water is the recommended way to go hands down. It cost a little more up front but it is well worth the price in the long term. It will save you a lot of time and effort too.

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

Well, once your tank is mature you want really have to test that often. Just like my FW tank. I have not tested it literally in several years. It is mature and as long as the maintenance is done, everything is good. SW tanks take just a bit more work since you have to make water for water changes and you have to be a little more cautious to make sure that the new water is a close match to the tank water but otherwise the maintenance is about the same.

 

[Fishy]

Yeah, I have more than 15 years experience with freshwater. I have all the test kits but only test when there's a problem. I know when something's off, and it's almost never the water chemistry. I know my systems and my well water. I normally test once a year just to see if there are any changes but there aren't. I thought it would be perfect for my first marine tank if it weren't for the phosphate! I've also got high silica so the diatoms are in heaven in my new tank. I don't mind them since they wipe off so easily.

I can't put water back in to the well, doing so would require uncapping it and then having to bleach it due to contamination. The water goes out into the septic field which over time does drain back in to the aquifer from whence the well pump pumps. I will probably save some of the excess water to water the plants if you think it won't be too concentrated (heck, they'd love that phosphate I guess!). My well water is nearly distilled with no readable hardness (no cations).

How come my three freshwater aquariums and many ponds have almost no algae or other problems with such high phosphate? Not all of them are planted so plants aren't the sole reason.

 

[TimSchmidt]

The light would be my first thought. Most freshwater lights don't put out an ideal spectrum for plants. But most saltwater lights have a spectrum that algae loves.

 

[Fishy]

I have plant lights on my freshwater tanks. There's certainly algae in my saltwater tank now but I wouldn't say it's out of control (yet). I plan to go to Mr. Coral today and get my first fish, a few snails to try again, and maybe my first coral (the smallest, cheapest they have to see if I can keep one alive). I will hopefully get some advice from them too (never been there).