High Phosphate Levels and Soft Water

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GouramiFanatic

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Apr 2, 2005
Messages
598
I finally got the KH, DH, and Phosphate test kits this past weekend. I had to order them online, but I finally got them! So needless to say I was very anxious to get to work today to test my lovely 'pea soup' tank as well as the tap water. Here are the resuls of all of the tests...

Aquarium Results:
Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 10ppm
Ph = 6.6
Phosphate = 2.0ppm
KH = 2 (first drop was a yellow/green and the 2nd drop was bright yellow)
GH = 2 or 3 (first drop was yellow/green, 2nd drop was light green, 3rd was dark green, which do I go by?)

Tap Water Results:
Ph = 6.6
Phosphate = 2.0ppm
KH = 2 (same as above)
GH = 2 or 3 (same as above)

So, if I'm figuring this correctly, I have a Phosphate problem and the water is also soft. I'm happy in a way to see that the Phosphate tests came back high because this is a good explanation of what's going on with my tank. It makes sense to because when I was having a problem with my Ph I did several pwc close to each other which of course meant that I was adding a lot of tap water (with the Phosphate). So, the question now because how do I fix these problems - the Phosphate and the Hardness?
 
I would add some live plants to the tank to help combat the phosphate. Well, it won't really get rid of it, but the plants will feed off of it.

For the hardness, you could add a rock to the tank such as limestone (SMALL rock) or some crushed coral. I would go the cc route.
 
I'd actually keep the soft water.

My tap water has high phosphates (resulting in algae blooms) so I stuck in some live plants and phosphate filter media.
 
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