Phosphates crazy high help

bradlgt21

bradlgt21

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May 9, 2009
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Chicagoland, Illinois
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Brad
I checked my levels yesterday to see if I needed to dose any nitrates or phosphates. My Nitrates were at 10ppm which is only the 3rd of ten on my meter and with in the range of 10-20ppm that is suggested for a planted tank. My Phosphates were at 10ppm though. I think the suggested is like .5-2ppm. I am almost off the chart, I am the last color on my test kit. So why are my phosphates so high. I dosed my Nitrates up to 20ppm to help give the plants more food hoping they would start taking a chunk out of the phosphates. What else can I do? I just did a 50% water change Saturday. What causes this? Am I overfeeding, I thought that was what caused high nitrates but I don't know about phosphates.

The tank is a 29 gallon and I am using DIY CO2, I also have BBA growing on some of the plants.
 
Welcome to the world of BBA and strange phosphate issues!!! lol.

firstly, i would test your water source to see if there were phosphates in the water.

Second, what were you phosphate levels after you did your water change?

Third, i couldnt tell if you dose phosphates or not.

D, Your fish food contains phosphates (well, at least most of them do, check the bottle). Are you over feeding?you can feed 5-6 days a week with a 1 or 2 day fast.

5, what kind of lighting do you ahve on that sucker, that might be a good reason for your bba, followed with comment 6 below

6, how many bottles of diy co2 are you running, fluctuation of co2 levels can lead to bba, along with phosphates, and too much light!

7, what kind of dosing routine are you using?

8, i am done asking questions! lol
 
coach_z said:
8, i am done asking questions! lol
Click to expand...

Are you sure? :laugh:

My two thoughts on the phosphates would mirror what coach said about the levels out of your tap and your feeding regiment.

Can't help you on the BBA as I haven't encountered that thankfully. <knocks on simulated wood>
 
I tested the water and no phosphates came from it

I didn't check after water change but I will be sure to check this saturday

I have yet to dose phosphates, I do dose NO3 for nitrates every once in a while, like once a week I add 10ppm.

I feed ken's combination sticks, and some cichlid pellets. So mostly veggie, algae matter. This might be the problem as I should cut back on my feedings.

I have a coralife T5 18Wx2 fixture. 18 watt colormax bulb, 18 watt plant bulb. With a 12 hour light cycle.

I am using 2 bottles of CO2, with .5 tsp of yeast in each. I know way high but that is the amount that gets my PH low enough to be in the ideal range. I think it's my HOB filter that breaks up most of the CO2.

My routine is like this

Saturday 50% water change
Dose 10 ppm K2S04 (potassium)
Dose .2ppm CSM+B (Iron and traces)

Sunday Test Nitrate and Phosphates and dose to 10-20ppm Nitrates, .5-2ppm phosphates. For Nitrates I use NO3 and for Phosphates I use KH2P04.

Monday
Dose 3 ppm K2SO4 (potassium)
Dose .1ppm CSM+B (Iron and Traces)

Then it's a every other day type thing. So Tuesday, and Thursday are identicle to sunday and Wednesday and Friday are identicle to Monday.

I typically don't have to dose anything on the nitrate phosphate day so I am just dosing the Iron and potassium.
 
That was a nice piece of info, thanks for the reminder. I am having similar issues with BBA. All the numbers look good, don't have a phosphate test, one is on the way. Thanks.
 
Brad - i am a little confused, it sounds like you first said that you dont dose phosphate, and then it sounded like you said that you do dose phosphate. do you or dont you? i am sorry if i misread something.

If you are dosing phosphate at all i would go a week or two without dosing any phosphate at all. also monitor your feeding schedule and how much food y our fish are eating and how much sinks to the bottom uneaten.

it sounds like you have a good regiment there with your dosing and testing.

your lighting seems good for that tank and i think i would point to co2 fluctuations for your bba issues.

sminnc - that sounds like a great temporary solution but i do think that it is best to find out where all of this phosphate is coming from in this tank. In my opinion, it is better to find the source and eliminate it, rather than put a bandaid on it right away. After all possibilities have been worked through than i think that stuff might be a good idea to resort to.
 
Sorry coach. I realized that my regemine looked confusing because I said I don't dose but then I showed what my schedule is like. I have certain days when I check phosphates but I have not once been so low that I have needed to dose. So no I do not dose phosphates at all, I wish I had the problem of low phosphates =). Sometimes I dose Nitrates as they are typically <5ppm when I test. The only thing I dose often is the Potassium and the Iron/trace.

I will cut back on my feeding schedule. I also think going from 12 hour light cycle to 11 hour or even 10 hour might help. I think the CO2 and BBA theory is correct. I forgot to mention I had Ich and I had to treat the tank for a good 10 or so days. So I had the water temp up to 85 and didn't want to risk suffocating the fish so I killed the CO2. I just returned the temp to 80 and turned the CO2 back on like last Wednesday. So I am sure it had something to do with killing the CO2 for over a week. Hopefully the lower light cycle and the CO2 being back to normal should start killing it off.
 
8 to 10 hours is recommended for the planted aquarium. i run aprox 7 hours/day

is there a reason for the high temp? you might be able to lower it a bit furtehr into the 76 degree range.

it looks like your bba will start to clear itself up. i would remove the plants and see ifyou can pull off any of the bba.
 
I don't use any aquarium salt because I have a Pleco. So it is just at the highest range to help prevent Ich. I guess I can always lower it though. Now that I know what it looks like I can be more prepared to treat it at first sign.

I might just trim because most of my plants are stem type or small leaves so it can handle a little snipping. Will probably be easier to snip and regrow then pull and replant.
 
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