Getting rid of my phosphates...

[Airborneguy]

I am about to place my first order with my RO water supplier (can't wait to get my own unit...), and I was wondering what my first water change should be. I figure whatever is left in there will get used up by the algae, and then hopefully my snails and hermits will get rid of the algae. They are doing a decent job right now, but obviously it has "food" to keep growing back. After the initial water change, I will be only adding RO water either from this guy or from my LFS, until of course I finally get my own unit...

Would 20gal be enough of a change in my 72 to start the process?

(PS... got a frag of pokerstar monti today. I'll take a round of pics once I fix this problem and the tank looks better.)

 

[Joe Fish]

When I switched I just used RO/DI water with my normal bi-weekly water changes. It took a little longer, but still got it done.

 

[kay-bee19]

To "get rid of" (or at least significantly reduce) phosphates, I think phosphates have to be actively exported (e.g., removed from the system). Basically (in my opinion), a tank can continue to have phosphate issues even using only RO/DI water for the system.

Switching from a water source (such as tap water), which potentially contains phosphates, to a water source (RO/DI) which is void of phosphates is a big step in the right direction, but if/since phosphates are still entering the system (via food) or entering the water (having previously been bound up in the live rock and substrate), PO4 will still be present to fuel nuisance algae.

Even when utilizing 'biological' controls (snails, crabs, sea urchins, fish, etc) to consume algae, only a portion of the PO4 is converted into energy or biomass, the remainder is expelled from the algae eater in the form of waste and is returned to the system, readily available by algae.

Utilizing a phosphate reactor with granular ferric oxide (GFO) media in concert with RO/DI water will be your best bet to control phosphate.

If you feed your tank frozen foods (which are often loaded with phosphate) you can take additional steps by soaking and/or rinsing the food in RO/DI water prior to adding it to the tank. I've found that flake and pellet foods also contain phosphate but frozen foods are easier to rinse and soak.

 

[Joe Fish]

True, but if your water is the source of po4 then switching to RO/DI will help. using macro algae in a fuge would also help. The first step is still to identify where it's coming from.

 

[Lorna]

hmmmmm I do believe one of my initial suggestions was to use a phosphate scrubber like rowaphos, phosban or other ferric oxide type removers in an inexpensive reactor....heck you could build your own from pvc pipe easily enough.

 

[TRe]

when i switched over to r/o it took about a month for all the algae to clear up

 

[Airborneguy]

I have an extra cannister filter laying around, I can use that as my phos reactor instead of getting into anything complicated, no? Maybe I'll run that for a bit as the RO completely replaces the tap water in the tank.

 

[Lorna]

that would work fine......

 

[Airborneguy]

So I just finished a 30gal water change on my tank and it already looks much better. Cleaned some of the hair algae off and got it out of the tank except for a piece which floated off and was quickly grabbed by a hermit! So no more tap water! Ive seen the light and it's much brighter on the RO side! so as I'm relzing and looking at the tank, I glance at the extra bucket of water I bought for evaporation and realize I bought more salt water... damn... guess another 7 gal water change is in order for next week!