phosphate problem

[redvan]

Hi,
I'm having trouble keeping my phosphate level down in a community tank of neon tetras, tiger barbs and a few other tetras, as well as a guppy tank.

Both are live planted; one large Amazon sword in the community tank and a variety of plants in the other.

My test kit shows a level of over 10 (the highest it goes for that kit) in both so I bought a API Phos-zorb pillow and overnight the guppy tank went down to 0

The community tank however is another story. The pillow made no difference after a few days!

Any ideas?

 

[coralbandit]

Same pillow?
They wear out I believe...
Tank size difference(volume) will also effect the results.
Larger tank or higher levels may need more then one pillow??

First post.....Welcome to AA!

 

[Fresh2o]

I would test your tap water for phosphate. 10 ppm is high for a community tank. It may also indicate over feeding as fish food is a source of phosphate. If the tap water is fine, then try increasing the water changes. I have not used that phosphate reducer you mentioned.
I have the opposite problem. Even after doing daily fertilizers that supply phosphate, it would always hover around 1-2 ppm. I bumped up the phosphate to get it around 5ish. This is in a well light, heavily planted tank.


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[redvan]

...Even after doing daily fertilizers that supply phosphate, it would always hover around 1-2 ppm. I bumped up the phosphate to get it around 5ish. This is in a well light, heavily planted tank.

Ok, now I'm really confused....

I thought it should be zero at all times. You're trying to keep it at 5ish?

Should I try to keep it up at that level also since my tank is live planted?

Red.

 

[redvan]

Thanks coralbandit, nice to know there is somewhere to go for solid advice.


The personnel at the pet stores change so frequently that soon as I find one who knows something, they're never to be seen again. Like for this issue; I was told that phosphate should always be zero yet Fresh2o says he's trying to keep it at 5.


(I associate phosphate with soap and pollution and therefore soap + fish = death.)


Red.

 

[Mebbid]

Thanks coralbandit, nice to know there is somewhere to go for solid advice.


The personnel at the pet stores change so frequently that soon as I find one who knows something, they're never to be seen again. Like for this issue; I was told that phosphate should always be zero yet Fresh2o says he's trying to keep it at 5.


(I associate phosphate with soap and pollution and therefore soap + fish = death.)


Red.

Phosphate is a byproduct of all fish foods. Some fish foods such as flake have more than other foods such as frozen. Unless you have a pretty seriously planted tank than it will never be at 0 (and even then if it's 0 then you have a problem)

Phosphate isn't harmful as far as I've seen, although it can contribute to algae growth. What is the level of phosphate in your tap water?

 

[Fresh2o]

As mentioned above, you will always have some phosphate in most tanks, primarily from the fishes diet. The 10 ppm you reported is high, especially in a community tank.
Knowing what the phosphate level is in the source/tap water is important as it may be contributing to the values you are seeing.
For a heavily planted tank, phosphate levels will drop due to uptake by the plants. In my case, there would be outbreaks of GSA (green spot algae) if the phosphate was around 1-2 ppm. When raised to 3-5 ppm or higher, the GSA went away. Weird, huh? For context, this is what my tank looked like on 8/22 and about 4 weeks later:

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