High phosphates

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Trey Turner

AC Members
Oct 18, 2018
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Dublin, Georgia
I am looking for a phosphate free water conditioner to remove chlorine/chloramine from tap water. I have been using Seachem Neutral regulator but this is adding to my existing phosphate problems.

Any suggestions on what product I need to buy?
 

ustabefast

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Jan 17, 2017
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Prime is a popular chlorine/chloramine remover and it contains no Phosphates.
I would ditch the Seachem product. You should not need to mess with the PH anyway.
 

authmal

Pseudonovice
Aug 4, 2011
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Phoenix, AZ
Prime is a popular chlorine/chloramine remover and it contains no Phosphates.
I would ditch the Seachem product. You should not need to mess with the PH anyway.
Which Seachem product are you recommending to stop using, the Prime or the Neutral?

Why are we using the Neutral? Typically, fish/inverts are going to adjust to your pH just fine. Is there something specific you're trying to achieve?
 

Trey Turner

AC Members
Oct 18, 2018
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Dublin, Georgia
I was mainly using the neutral to remove chlorine from my tap water. And the ph on my tap varies from 6.4 ish to 7.6 ish.

Really was just trying to make it aqua safe and steady the ph before I added water to my set up. I've started using aquasafe now to remove chlorine.

I did a 40 gal change today out of 75 and phosphates are still maxing my test kit.
 

authmal

Pseudonovice
Aug 4, 2011
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Phoenix, AZ
I"m a fan of Prime to remove the chlorine. Not familiar with Aquasafe.
 

DefJ123

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Jun 24, 2018
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I personally use prime to treat the water. I did use the tetra brand stuff for awhile, it worked good too.
 

Trey Turner

AC Members
Oct 18, 2018
28
5
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52
Dublin, Georgia
Just an update if anyone is interested. I have done many large water changes including the last one that was probably a 90% change and the phosphates are still well above 4ppm. I can only assume that the PO4 is coming from the substrate. I don't know how to get it any lower. Ive added three PO4 absorbing pads to my canister filter with little to no effect.

I'm at a lose at this point. I can only make sure I don't add any PO4.
 

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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Curious...what is your tap phosphate reading?
 
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dougall

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Mar 29, 2005
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How does the water out of your tap test? How about getting a second opinion of your test numbers?

and what substrate are you using that you think is leeching?
 
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Trey Turner

AC Members
Oct 18, 2018
28
5
3
52
Dublin, Georgia
tap is right at 1.0. I fluctuates slightly. I'm using the same test kit for tap as tank and i have no reason to believe it is faulty since I get two different readings.

I have a mixture of black sand black gravel and Eco-complete mineralized substrate. I know now that some of the PO4 is coming from the Eco-complete. I have used Flourish tabs in the past as well. I know between the two (substrate and Tabs) I increased the PO4 before I realized I had a problem. I just would have thought that it would have started to lower with as many water changes as I have done recently. Aprx 120% water change per week for several months. 3 - 30%+ per week every week religiously trying to lower PO4.

And maybe it has been effective and I'm just beginning to see some movement on the scale. My kit only measures to 5ppm, so if it was significantly above that I would not have noticed a drop for say 8 to 6
 
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