phosphate good or bad?

[kaz]

I have no idea if this is good or bad in a fresh water tank?

 

[czcz]

Necessary for a planted tank; reported to lead to algae in non-planted tanks. Excess PO4 can apparently cause buffering issues as well.

 

[Jchillin]

Keep in mind that you will always have phosphates in your water since you endeavour to keep your fish fed. The levels of phosphate are of a concern for what czcz mentions.

 

[kaz]

I plan to have a lawn thru out the tank and medium bulk of plants in one corner so how much of phosphate is good and how much is bad?

 

[JDogg]

i ppm Phosphate for every 10-20 ppm nitrate

 

[kaz]

what is a i ppm?

 

[JDogg]

what is a i ppm?

sorry 1 ppm

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Necessary for a planted tank; reported to lead to algae in non-planted tanks. Excess PO4 can apparently cause buffering issues as well.

that explains the recent drop in my KH by 1 degree... thanks czcz

not to hijack the thread, but just a quick question... will that KH come back up to 5 from 4 when the phosphates are depleted?

 

[tropicfishman]

PPM is parts per million which transaltes into mg per liter, so if you had 10 ppm of phosphates, that would be the same as having 10 mg of phospahtes per liter of water in your tank

 

[czcz]

jcarlilesiu, its over my head. There are great posts from jsoong and Steve Hampton and others here, here and here that go into great detail on the effects of secondary buffers. I am still learning how to understand their discussion.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Thanks czcz for the reply, ill do some reading and if i learn anything ill bring it to the table.

 

[malkore]

Its my understanding that phosphate in excess doesn't remove Kh buffering, but rather adds more buffering, and that throws off the Kh/pH chart for determining CO2 levels.